A new way to screw up...

[Josh Z.]

I've been pretty lucky in that I haven't had too many screw ups using LF... But this past holiday while photographing a small rapids along Oak Creek in Sedona I came across a new one (at least to me).

It's not unusual for me to setup the shutter, test fire it, then pull the dark slide and forget to re-cock the shutter. No big deal usually... I always can tell immediately when I do this because I can hear it not fire. Not this time. I setup on land close to this small rapids, composed, focused, stopped the shutter down, test fired, pulled the dark slide and tripped the shutter. Uh oh. Nothing. All I heard was the constant rush of water. Not knowing if I had actually exposed or not, I decided it was best to have a double exposure then none at all.

I shall see later today if I have a double exposure or not, anyone else find a new way to screw up over the holiday?

[Jeffrey Sipress]

Happens to me all the time. All you have to do is put another sheet of film in the camera and make an exposure that you know is good. You may get one, or two, but you're covered. It's not a screwup.

[Alan Rabe]

Josh, did you manage to go up the west for of Oak Creek. It's about 2 thirds of the way up but isn't well marked but if you managed to find it the creek winds back and forth and under cuts the canyon walls. Some of my favorite memories and shots are from walking up that creek.

[Josh Z.]

I'm pretty familiar with the West Fork. I am lucky in that I live just north in Flagstaff. However I only visited the lower end of the west fork one morning this time. One of the biggest reasons I came this way was to get out of the cold, and being in that part of the canyon is significantly colder due to the tight canyon than it is lower down where it opens up at Sedona. I'm afraid living in AZ is making me into a warm-weather wimp.

I did get back my trannies and it looks like I hadn't tripped the shutter after-all, so I have 2 that have the exact same exposure. Ah well, better safe then sorry.

[Andrew O'Neill]

I've done that in noisey environments...I was shooting the front of an old brick coal mining building in Japan in summer at the height of the semi season (insect that makes a very loud noise)...tripped the shutter, well at least I thought I did. Couldn't tell, so I just flipped the holder around and made another exposure. Back at my darkroom, I developed the suspect sheet to find that I actually did make the exposure. It's a good think I had that other sheet, 'cause if I didn't I really would have sweated bricks.

[Sheldon N]

I've done something similar before when shooting fireworks with Fuji quickloads. I was doing one bulb exposure after another (cock shutter, load film, pull slide, trip shutter, release shutter, push slide, remove film, repeat). In the din of the fireworks (very loud, up close and personal) I skipped the cock shutter portion of the process and ended up with 2 blank sheets out of a dozen. Didn't know I had done it until I got the film back from the lab. Normally I always listen for the click of the shutter, but this time I couldn't hear a thing.

Here's a keeper from that shoot just for fun.

Nikkor 90mm SW f/8, Fuji Tungsten 64T, f/11 and about 5 seconds.