Confess your Mistake Here!

[Jeff_3801]

For what seems like the umpteenth time, this weekend, I accidentally exposed a negative by forgetting to shut my lens before removing my dark slide. Argggh!

With so many variable involved in LF photography, I bet other people make, and repeat, many mistakes.

Please post and confess your most common mistakes. I am sure that you will be absolved by the rest of the group, and maybe we can learn something!

Jeff

[David A. Goldfarb]

I think I'm getting over this one finally, but when I haven't used my Tech V in handheld mode for a while, my most common mistake is forgetting to focus. The I process the negatives and think, "I've got to get this checked out," and I test the rangefinder against the groundglass at various distances, and of course it's dead on.

[David Karp]

My favorite goof is the flip side of your example -- I forget to pull the darkslide sometimes. Its especially frustrating when you have a long exposure and start searching for the darkslide only to find it is in the holder. Its really especially frustrating when the light you were so excited about disappears just before you are set to do it again without the darkslide.

[Andrew O'Neill]

Oh ya??? I've got all of you licked. After 12 years living in Japan and making the same mistakes you did a few times, I come back home to Canada, go out with my 8x10 after 4 months of no photography, expose 4 sheets, get home to my darkroom, turn the light out, pull the slide and feel for the edge of the film....Where's the edge? What?? No film? Checked other holders....SAME!! I could have sworn I loaded those holders before I left Japan. The white tabs were facing out. That's the biggest, dumbest mistake I ever made!

[Chad Jarvis]

I confess...I don't use a calculator!

[Christopher Condit]

Errors made so far::

1. Forgot to pull darkslide.

2. Pulled wrong darkdslide.

3. Removed holder from camera before re-inserting darkslide.

4. Failed to insert holder all the way.

5. Forgot to close lens before pulling darkslide.

6. Inserted readyload film backwards in holder.

7. Inserted readyload holder backwards in camera.

8. Separated film from readyload sleeve through various methodologies.

9. Removed lens before replacing darkslide.

10. Reinserted darkslide white side outwards, so then double-exposed film.

And those are only the filmholder-related errors!

[Bobby Black]

My personal favorite is when I get so wrapped up under the focussing cloth that I don't see what's happening around me. Case in point...shooting tide pool rocks at the ocean. I get into what I'm doing, don't see the waves or tide coming in and, well, you can imagine the rest. I go home wet and spend the rest of the night drying out my shoes and gear.

I've got to look up once in a while...

[Jorge Gasteazoro]

You are all wusses....I once tried to focus with the holder in place, and wondered for 5 minutes why I could not see a thing.....:-))

[Brian Kennedy]

I often carry two or three types of film with me -- with different ISOs and lots of opportunity to forget to adjust the ISO on my meter.

[Jim Rhoades]

In the late '60's I had a chance to go out West and study with St. Ansel. I spent the summer surfing up and down the east coast instead.

[Jay DeFehr]

Jim, do you really call that a mistake? Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

[jnantz]

i kind of like taking a portrait of a lawyer for a publication and not realizing my light meter was 5 stops off. so when i got home to process my 8 sheets of film ... i did my usual - first sheet and it came out virtually blank. i think my final time was something like 23 mins. then i printed the severly underexposed & overdeveloped film using some weird agfa paper that came in rc grade 5, made especially for underexposed film. i got a 1/2way decent print, lost about 5 lbs from nerves. it was published ( looked okay in print) and paid soon after. now, i always make sure my meter is set to the right asa :)

[neil poulsen]

Is that as bad as going to a site with your lights, camera and bag of film and finding out that you left your tripod at home? I did that this Saturday. I briefly thought about hand-holding the camera, but dismissed the idea completely.

[Graeme Hird]

Just this Saturday gone, I made a mistake that I haven't made before:

Arrived on the site with an hour to spare (read my chart wrong, thinking sunrise time was sunset time), took a shot about 30 minutes prior to the best time (hey - it looked OK) but left the holder in place. When the best light did come, I shot over the first exposure, ruining both. Timing was crucial, and a shadow had crept in before I could turn my holder around. I shot anyway, because it still looked pretty good. I found out later that night that I hadn't made any of those mistakes - I had actually forgotten to put film in the holder.

With a dress rehearsal under my belt, things went sooo much smoother on Sunday evening.

Graeme

(PS - my most common mistake is staying home when I should be out there making images.)

[Kevin M Bourque]

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<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>It's not a BIG mistake, but my most commonly repeated mistake is best
expressed in verse...</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;</DIV>
<DIV>Round and round and round we go</DIV>
<DIV>Kick the tripod with your toe</DIV>
<DIV>Readjust the camera then</DIV>
<DIV>&nbsp;
</DIV></BODY></HTML>

[Steve Baggett]

Left all my loaded film holders at home after a 30-mile drive to a spot. I went by myself and when I returned I lied and told my wife it was "too windy". She *might* have believed me.

[John Kasaian]

On a very rare New Year's Day, Tioga Pass was open due to a freakishly mild winter. I shook off my hang-over from festivities of the night before and piloted my 1979 Mercedes 240D with 350,000 miles over the icy road to one of my favorite overlooks where I set up the 'dorff and 14" lens and...and...and...I'd left my shutter release cable at home!

[tim o'brien]

Imagine opening your Speed Graphic after a 1 hour 45 minute hike up and down some pretty nice mountains, with full gear (heavy tripod, film, meter, cloth, etc.) and finding you had taken your lens board out to use the lens in another camera.

On the smaller mistake side, taking your Yashica 635 out with a full load of 120 film and realizing you don't have an empty 120 spool because the last thing you shot was 35mm.

tim in san jose

[Aaron_3437]

Taking the wrong pictures.

[Mike Lopez]

Cable releases are always easy to leave behind.

[James Driscoll]

Mistake number one: Removing the GG back from your Sinar so it doesn't get accidentally "smashed" while being joseled around in your 1968 Buick Sportwagon.

Driving five miles, getting out, unpacking, setting up. Find everything except your GG back. Scratch head in nervous fetal like motions (this is a paid gig). Search everywhere in car for five minutes. In desperation you lean on the roof of your car....and see the ground glass back sitting there in the same spot you "put it down for a minute" five miles ago. Amazingly in one piece.

Mistake number two: Repeating mistake number one two weeks later......

[jantman]

1) Exposing TMX at 50, because I forgot to change the meter from when I was shooting Pan F+ in 120.

2) Wondering why I get such strange meter readings, or nothing at all, when out in the field. (Hint: This usually happens after a day in the STUDIO.)

... lots more.

[Edward (Halifax,NS)]

Take a meter reading, stop down and take first picture, slightly adjust camera location and open up to focus and then take second picture with out stopping back down. You know, there is a BIG difference between f/32 and f/4.7.

[Bob Fowler]

I got married way too young, wound up divorced and ... Oh, sorry, wait a second, wrong forum...

Let's see, a lot can happen over 25+ years...

I've forgotten to stop the iris down on more occasions than I care to remember. Pulled a darkslide without making sure the holder was seated properly a few times. Pulled the darkslide without closing the shutter a few times more. Neglected to "dial out" the filter factor from the meter dial (Luna Pro-F) when changing filters. I shot a portrait job with empty film holders once. But my favorite was shooting color transparency material thinking I had B&W negative in the holders - Ever see Ektachrome shot through a 25A filter? How about through an X1? I have and I tell ya', it ain't pretty...

[otzi]

Wasn't LF but could have happened any where. Wedding, flash folk, over planned shot requests, show running late, get indoor stuff out of the way, drive to reception/ceremony location, and shoot on. Problem was I was using a Seconic spot zoom type meter. The spot device had not been put back to incident. I still don't know why they don't put caps on both lenses. Any way I couldn't figure why I was getting such crazy readings. (90* to the side instead of incident.) And unless you *look* you just don't see those little icons. Photos showed the disastrous results. Used a simpler meter after that.

[Jim Galli]

Buck Fever! Had a very nice group of elk cooperating perfectly the other day. 2 out of 6 exposures were stopped down properly. Other 4 were wide open and that included a lens change in the middle. Got one nice shot out of the 6 so I'm happy.

[Curtis Nelson]

I use my Nikon F100 as a (very expensive) spot meter, and I can't count the number of times I've mentally swapped the over- and under-exposure scales in my mind. So, instead of placing something on Zone III, I end up placing it on Zone VII.

[David du Busc]

I recently read Laura Wilson's book that cronicles Avedon's photographing In the American West. While many of the above seem very close to home, I'll only admit to the mistake of not having two assistants at all times and not shooting 200 sheets of 8x10 of one subject to get one I really like... now where's that cable release?

[Dan Fromm]

Stupid Speed Graphic Tricks:

Firing focal plane shutter with front shutter closed.

Firing front shutter with focal plane shutter closed.

Trying to focus with focal plane shutter closed.

Winding focal plane shutter with dark slide out. Self capping shutters? We don' need no steekin' self capping shutters!

Not dropping the bed when using a short lens. I can't always see the bed rails on the GG when I use a short lens and leave the bed up, but the film always does. Why is a minor mystery.

Using the thing as a press camera and not using the RF. This is especially bad when I'm using a fast lens fairly open.

Using the RF when I haven't pulled the front standard all the way out to the bed stops.

Forearms in picture when using very wide lens and short cable release. Generally not the framing I want.

Many are the ways to go wrong.

[Paul Schilliger]

I seem to make most mistakes when I have people looking over my shoulder. The worst mistake is now quite a few years old now: A good friend artist asked me to take pictures of her paintings. She is a charming person and I accepted with pleasure. The paintings were made with some gold and already framed under glass and it was a pain to get rid of all the reflexions while making the metallic paint shine. I used a Bronica 6x7 and we worked for a couple of hours until late getting everything right and taking most of her paintings which she had to pick up the following morning for her exhibition. After she left, congratuling me for how professional I was, I unloaded the back and saw that I had loaded the film with the paper backing towards the lens! By chance the frames were still there so she never knew about it, but I had a short night.

[Christopher Nisperos]

Bless me, Jeff, for I have sinned. It has been two years since my last screw-up. (whew)

Let's see ... shall we do this by category? Ok.. LF first: I have shot with the darkslide in place (once, during a ten minute time exposure); removed the holder without the darkslide; inserted a darkslide, causing a misloaded sheet to "shoot" into the camera; set-up, open the lens, try to focus on a blank groundglass for 5 minutes —before I realized that a rear lenscap was in place ..

Once, after a long, tiring day of shooting, I was loading sheets into a developing tank which was in a film changing bag. The TV was on while I loaded. I watched it. I finished loading. I looked down. The film and tank were not in the bag. I turned off the TV.

A memorable darkroom flub, when I was 10 years old, printing family negatives: I exposed and developed the paper, only to come up with a blank sheet. I opened one stop. No picture. Two stops. Nothing. Opened all the way. Still nothing. I began to add more and more time; still nothing. I mixed fresh developer and again exposed the paper, with no results. I printed nearly all the package before I realized what the red filter —which was in place— was for.

If you need more examples, just contact me. We can create a whole new website.

[Robert Brown]

As if what I do out in the field or studio is not bad enough,(just read all of the above), one day after exposing about half a 50 sheet box of Velvia with what I felt to be some really good scenics, I went into the dark room to reload. I was taking the last sheet of exposed film out of the holder and dropped it on the floor. Without thinking, I reached up to pull the string connected to the 100 watt light bulb in the ceiling...click . . . . . I keep telling myself that they probably wern't that great of shots anyway!

Keep shooting--

[jantman]

Robert, I've taken steps in my darkroom to avoid such a disaster. Instead of ruining the film, I must navigate around two enlarger benches, a horizontal 8x10 on a cart (placed randomly in my path) and the wet bench in order to fumble for the white light switch.

Of course, all of those little pinpricks of light serve just as well as lighted buoys on a dark sea.

[Shilesh Jani]

After canoeing 10 miles into lake Ouachita (Arkansas), setting up camp on an island, I found my tent bag had no poles. So I used the trusty Bogen tripod inside to prop-up the center of the tent. Best ever use of the tripod. Until then I thought using the tripod for hanging a lamp was the pinnacle of photographic red-neckism.

[John Alexander Dow]

The most irritating thing is that a DDS has a black and white side but really there are three states - exposed, unexposed, unloaded. This creates confusion and therefore I have

a) opened up a slide in daylight, only to see a piece of film in it, and b) opened up a dark slide in the darkroom, only to find no peice of film in it.

The greatest sin though is that I have NOT LEARNT, and STILL do these stupid things.

There is one mistake I have made only once and that was getting the wrong developer dilution while processing 5 assorted 35mm and MF rolls. That was a lot of pictures; at least with LF you can only ruin a few this way.

[Wayne]

You all are mere amateurs when it comes to screw-ups. I once travelled a couple weeks through the NW, and then accidentally opened up an exposed box of several dozen Velvia 4x5's in front of a bright, sunny window.

[Wayne]

I should add that only a few of the were completely ruined, and a few more had edge problems. Most of them were fine!

[Mike Tobias]

My personal favorite story is a time when I was shooting birds in a local swamp, and kept being bothered by a paricularly persistant magpie, who seemed far too friendly for its own good (also, magpies make lousy pictures). Intent upon ridding myself of the pest (he was trying to take things out of my camera bag) I chucked what I thought was a small stone at him. Only in mid-flight did I realize that the object I tossed was in fact not a stone but instead the previous roll of 120 Velvia that I hat just shot. Needless to say, the bird did finally go away, and the film landed in a nice pile of muck. Never did find it. But then again, I didn't really look that hard.

Mike

[Barry Trabitz]

I am so relieved. I thought that I was the only one who did the silly deeds described in such excruciating detail by so many.

The only one I am not guilty of ---yet is leaving the ground glass on the roof of my car for 5 miles. Probably because I try t keep the top down on the convertable as much as possible.

[Morey Kitzman]

Camping out in the Tetons for several days waiting for the clouds to clear, it was December. When the perfect sunrise shot at Snake River opened up, the first Velvia Quickload pulled out of the holder...it was quite cold. So I proceded to shoot half a dozen shots there and another dozen or so in the Grand Canyon. When I arrived at Mesa Arch I discovered that Quickloads were not locking in because the metal strip had broken off and lodged itself in the holder. Nothing was being exposed since the cover was not being pulled back.

On the bright side, I had an extra twenty slides for other shots and plenty of valuable practice. PS I was backing up my shots with medium format.

[gfen]

I used to like not having the focal plane shutter on my Graphic not set so I could compose on the GG and being utterly baffled by it.

Also a big fan of not setting aperatures, not chaning ISO settings, and forgetting to remove darkslides.

With my new camera, I'm a big fan of turning the wrong knob and sending the whole thing outta whack or carefully composing the whole image (including at least one point where I accidently release the front standard), getting it all set up, stopping down, pulling darkslide and everything else... and then not telling the subject I'm actually TAKING a picture.

Hello, blurry faces!

[Bob._3483]

I do not make mistakes: I have "learning experiences"...

.

and boy, have I "learnt" a lot in the last couple of years....

Cheers,

[Øyvind Dahle]

Reading LF forums instead of fixing my wobbly camera and go out in the snow to take pictures under the full moon.

Do a LF workshop without rehearsing: http://www.oslokameraklubb.no/nyhet29.html me taking pictures of the sky.

That it took sooo long to easen up the equpiment junkie behavior, still not well.

Øyvind:D

[Robert Haury]

How about this. I spent a whole day shooting at the coast. Got home, all excited to develope my film and discovered I had been exposing empty film holders all day. Doh!

[Max Wendt]

I *always* forget to add the bellows extension factor. Granted, I've only been at LF for < 6 months, and I can count on one hand (with fingers to spare) the number of shots that needed it, but still. Grrr...