Confess your Mistake Here!

[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.