I watched as a photographer's strap broke and his camera and monster lens went tumbling to the ground. (hit the concrete not his foot) Painful for him to be sure and I felt a little sick to see it. Lesson? If you're carrying a heavy 300mm lens around, make sure it's got a sturdy strap attached to it.
Allow Me to Intoduce Myself: I'm an Idiot.
-
A
- Thread starter skyrick
- Start date
Recent Classifieds
-
For Sale FS: Gundlach-Manhattan Hyperion Diffusion 7in f/4 Lens
- Started by B.S.Kumar
-
For Sale FS: Linhof Recessed lens board
- Started by dirkfletcher
-
For Sale Leica M4-2
- Started by chriscrawfordphoto
Forum statistics
I watched as a photographer's strap broke and his camera and monster lens went tumbling to the ground. (hit the concrete not his foot) Painful for him to be sure and I felt a little sick to see it. Lesson? If you're carrying a heavy 300mm lens around, make sure it's got a sturdy strap attached to it.
I am an idiot
Never fear, you are in good company I have been developing, my own film for 50+ years professionally and as an amateur My latest goof was loading a particularly troublesome reel using infrared goggles to see if I was kinking the film. Finished loading and took off the goggles and looked at the tank. Took a few minutes for it to sink in that I was seeing the tank in what should have been total darkness, I had forgotten to turn off the safe light!!! I didnt bother to process the film it was truly and completely fogged to maximum black!!! Bought a new reel after that.
Never fear, you are in good company I have been developing, my own film for 50+ years professionally and as an amateur My latest goof was loading a particularly troublesome reel using infrared goggles to see if I was kinking the film. Finished loading and took off the goggles and looked at the tank. Took a few minutes for it to sink in that I was seeing the tank in what should have been total darkness, I had forgotten to turn off the safe light!!! I didnt bother to process the film it was truly and completely fogged to maximum black!!! Bought a new reel after that.
When this happens, turn off your computer immediately (as in pull the plug) and don't use it until you can have the hard drive taken out. It is possible to recover deleted pictures, and even reformatted drives, with freely available software.
The important part is to not write any new files before the old can be recovered.
SMART that you have the original FILM backups !!
Definitely made my fair share of mistakes - although I try to follow a simple protocol by not leaving things out which could be zapped by light. When I do have them out - like cutting paper - I always have an uneasy feeling in the back of my mind about it and this helps prevent screw-ups. However, I think that when we get comfortable is when the mistakes start happening. 
Classic APUG thread: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)
Classic APUG thread: (there was a url link here which no longer exists)
You forgot to say please!
Went for a nice walk with the Rollie the other day. Got some great shots. Opened the camera when I got home -no film.
My parents have retold the wedding version of this tale many times... the photographer shot the whole thing with no film loaded. They had to go back and re-enact.
Wow. I hope they got a steep discount out of him.
However, I think that when we get comfortable is when the mistakes start happening.
No kidding. All of my major screw ups in life have happened while I was content and unaware.
I haven't made a lot of processing mistakes like fixing before developing and have only once opened a tank lid (although slammed it back so quickly I didn't notice any damage). Even when I have multiple unlabeled trays of print developer out, I never forget which one is which. But a few noteworthy moments of brilliance:
1) Exposed brand-new paper to light. THREE TIMES. Although the damage has shown to be minimal thus far, every time it was something special. One was a 500' roll of 4" RC that I had waited for a long time to order from Freestyle because I knew it would come with 10 tons of styrofoam peanuts, and wanted to add things to the order to make it worthwhile. Somehow I thought the brown paper bag was an outer bag and there would be a black bag inside. Nope, the brown paper bag was coated in black and I exposed part of the roll. One was a pack of 11x14 MCC, which I'm sure you all know is frequently sold out...had left the bag open and turned the lights on. Oh, and then there was the free 100-sheet box of J&C Nuance a kind APUG member gave me...on the first day I was using it I made the MCC mistake...again.
2) Had a sudden jet-lagged panic moment while taking a few shots with my Fujica Half--was pretty sure I had Neopan 1600 in it but the ISO was still set on 100 for autoexposure. Since at one point recently I'd also had 160S in there, I decided "not to risk it" and rewind, check, and forward to the same frame again later. Except I guess I let go of the rewind button briefly enough for something in the mechanism to stop working. And even though I was SURE from the loose way the knob turned that the film was no longer rewinding, I decided to open the camera immediately instead of waiting until I got home to my dark bag. On the subway, under bright fluorescent lights. Completely ruined and yeah, it was NP1600 all along.
3) Forgot I was developing 120. That one was covered above. I ended up just agitating more and it was OK but not great.
4) Just about 20 minutes ago, I had on my sink a brown 1L bottle that I was soaking with dishsoap next to a bottle of DD-X. I know they look and feel nothing alike. However, I was watching TV--er, multitasking, I mean--and instead of dumping out the soapy water in the brown bottle, I dumped out a bunch of DD-X.
1) Exposed brand-new paper to light. THREE TIMES. Although the damage has shown to be minimal thus far, every time it was something special. One was a 500' roll of 4" RC that I had waited for a long time to order from Freestyle because I knew it would come with 10 tons of styrofoam peanuts, and wanted to add things to the order to make it worthwhile. Somehow I thought the brown paper bag was an outer bag and there would be a black bag inside. Nope, the brown paper bag was coated in black and I exposed part of the roll. One was a pack of 11x14 MCC, which I'm sure you all know is frequently sold out...had left the bag open and turned the lights on. Oh, and then there was the free 100-sheet box of J&C Nuance a kind APUG member gave me...on the first day I was using it I made the MCC mistake...again.
2) Had a sudden jet-lagged panic moment while taking a few shots with my Fujica Half--was pretty sure I had Neopan 1600 in it but the ISO was still set on 100 for autoexposure. Since at one point recently I'd also had 160S in there, I decided "not to risk it" and rewind, check, and forward to the same frame again later. Except I guess I let go of the rewind button briefly enough for something in the mechanism to stop working. And even though I was SURE from the loose way the knob turned that the film was no longer rewinding, I decided to open the camera immediately instead of waiting until I got home to my dark bag. On the subway, under bright fluorescent lights. Completely ruined and yeah, it was NP1600 all along.
3) Forgot I was developing 120. That one was covered above. I ended up just agitating more and it was OK but not great.
4) Just about 20 minutes ago, I had on my sink a brown 1L bottle that I was soaking with dishsoap next to a bottle of DD-X. I know they look and feel nothing alike. However, I was watching TV--er, multitasking, I mean--and instead of dumping out the soapy water in the brown bottle, I dumped out a bunch of DD-X.
- Joined
- May 15, 2005
- Messages
- 1,212
- Format
- 8x10 Format
Spooling 100' of 16mm film onto a reel and I got in a little trouble - decided that splitting the reel and starting again would be the best way out... I ended up with 100' of film with about 50 twists in it - instant tangle
Prob spent about the best part of an hour in the dark untangling it - even broke it and managed to find my splicer and fix that at one stage. A few kinks, but mostly ok, zero scratches !
Prob spent about the best part of an hour in the dark untangling it - even broke it and managed to find my splicer and fix that at one stage. A few kinks, but mostly ok, zero scratches !
| Photrio.com contains affiliate links to products. We may receive a commission for purchases made through these links. To read our full affiliate disclosure statement please click Here. |
PHOTRIO PARTNERS EQUALLY FUNDING OUR COMMUNITY:  |