How do you avoid forgetting things?

[Alan Davenport]

Hmmm...... I used to know the answer to..... what was the question?

[Capocheny]

Leonard,

They say that drinking lots and lots of high-quality green tea is good for the memory!

A glass of good red wine also helps!

And, they say that taking a course or doing something new each day stimulates the development of new neuronal pathways.

[Personally speaking... I like the second option most! ]

Cheers

[Leonard Metcalf]

I leave the center filter on my lens in my bag so I can't forget it. (not that I have one anymore as I recently sold it with my ultra wide angle lens)

If the shot is important enough for me, I re check everything, everything perhaps twice even... eg...
1. tighten ball head ( and push tripod around to see if firm)
2. tighten focusing locks
3. cock and fire shutter (this also confirms my shutter speed - bulb or time too)
4. check aperture
5. check dark slide is in place
6. pull slide and fire....

and sometimes I even recheck the exposure...

After forgetting many things, usually when I am in a rush or distracted, I just tell myself to let the image go as it wasn't meant to be. With this zen approach I don't have to give my self a hard time with the missed shot... while I can love the ones I do get... funny thing that the shots I really want... aren't often the best... too much previsiualization just doesn't work for me. The ones I have forgotten about... they are often the best...

Regards, Len

[Ed Richards]

I have found that writing down what you are using for each shoot is a good way to remember what you are doing, and lets you evaluate the effects as well. I have binary coded the holders and numbered them so I can track sheet by sheet. You do what you need to do as you write it, esp. putting on the filter - which I also forget to do.

I will confess that I often document the shot right after taking it, but that at least tells me I screwed up so I can reshoot. The most important thing is to know when you screw up so you can reshoot. (At least for 4x5 b&w, which is cheap. For ULF, not screwing up at all is real important. For that, I would print checklists for every shot.) I now carry a pocket GPS and shoot a point for every set up and put that in the log. I can then locate every shoot down to a few feet to allow returing to the location, or to show others where I was. This has been very useful for my Katrina documentation.

[BrianShaw]

... and sometimes I even recheck the exposure...

Ha... I do this often, also. And all this time I thought it was just me being compulsive/insecure... thank goodness, I'm not alone!

[Leonard Evens]

Ed,

Your response finally gave me a new idea. I've been recording data for each shot for years. That includes film holder, date, time, location,lens, focus spread, lens settings, movements, and filters. I also record spot readings and where I set a specific zone (usually Zone III). It occurs to me that if I use a prepared form, it could include labeled spaces for specific items such as Center Filter. Or I could put my mnenomic down first thing and then check off the items.

I'm interested that you use a GPS locator. I got one, and if I'm in a strange location, I use it mainly to avoid getting lost, but I sometimes record the location of a shot. But I do a lot of urban photography, and it is often difficult to find enough satellites. Also, I don't believe the units available today are accurate to within feet in specifying a specific location. I know they are that accurate in specifying relative positions, so if you mark a position where you have started off, and wander around, you can find your original position, e.g., where you parked, pretty accurately. But I would be surpised if you could turn the thing off, go far away and then use the coordinates to locate the position again to within less than about 50 feet. But it would be interesting to try it.

[BrianShaw]

Leonard, is it possible that all of your note-taking is distracting you from the picture taking? I don't write/keep enough notes... which I often regret... but if I recorded all of the information that you do, I'd probably forget a whole lot of important things!

[Ed Richards]

You need a unit that uses extra satellites for error correction to get down to a 10-15 accuracy. You also need to be able to see those satellites, which is a problem in high density urban areas. I tend to work in lower density areas - there is very little really high density in Louisiana, except for a few streets in New Orleans, and no mountains to get in the way. Of course in a real urban area you can just write down the address.:-)

The nice thing about the GPS, even if you are "only" within about 50 feet, is that you can download the coordinates into mapping programs and tie them to road, topo, and satellite maps for reference. This lets me build a map of my work, which is valuable when I am trying to document a region.

[Ron Marshall]

The only thing I record for each exposure is how much plus or minus development to give.

[Mike H.]

I think it's fun to compare the relative amounts of note taking, checklists and obsessive behavior of the various large format photographers in our local group. Some only write down N+1 or N or N-1, etc. on the film holder or ready load when they take the shot. Some, with engineering degrees mostly, have whole sheets with graphs and charts that they annotate for each negative, and probably computer programs to compare for better results. But, they all take great images.

Myself, I designed a small, laminated flip book which fits in my photo vest pocket and has dozens of pages with all the steps for focusing, metering, exposing, filters, bellows compensation, close-ups, lists of f/stops, shutter speeds and ASAs, reusable exposure worksheets, illustrative drawings for clarification and, my favorite, a checklist for me to review before I leave on each photo excursion, be it 1/2 day, a full day, or multiple days. My forgetfulness has manifested itself mainly in forgetting things I should take along with me: film, tripod, shutter release, filters, etc. (I also forgot my photo vest one time - which has my checklist in it!)