Blew it! Still cannot believe I did that!

PatTrent · Apr 30, 2007

OK, so there I was this morning in my totally blacked out darkroom loading a 220 roll of 320TX onto a reel--paper at both ends removed, and one end of the film firmly clipped into the center of the reel and about 2/3 the film wound into the spirals--when my elbow bumped the flat-panel switch for the overhead room light! In a flash (literally) I knew those 24 exposures were gone!

Granted, they weren't pictures of Elvis stepping out of the space ship with the aliens who abducted him, but still . . . some really nice images lovingly shot in the Hassy, which I was really looking forward to seeing on the light table later today. This was hours ago and I STILL cannot believe I did that. In 35 years of developing film I have never before flashed an exposed roll of film while loading it--although over the years I have done one or two other stupid things.

While I continue to kick myself over this during the next day or two (or three?), I'm looking forward to hearing any stories you'd like to share about your lost pictures.

Meanwhile, I'm going to do something about that light switch which is too easy to push "on" if you bump up against it. Hmmm, I also need to work on the clumsiness that caused me to bump up against it! :rolleyes:

Pat

Monophoto · Apr 30, 2007

I have a pair of switches mounted on the front of the shelf holding my enlarger - one for the white light, and one for the safelight.

I thought this was a brilliantly convenient design, until I leaned over the shelf to put a sheet of enlarging paper into the easel, and inadvertently flipped on the white light.

!@#%^&

I discovered some neat gadgets at the home center that mount over a switch to prevent it from inadvertently being operated. It's still possible to operate the switch, you just have to come at the handle from the side rather than from head on.

George Papantoniou · Apr 30, 2007

Last week I lost a REALLY easy (and important for the match) shot I was aiming for when the rear end of the cue hit the light switch on the wall and the lights went off, but I couldn't stop myself from hitting the ball (you see, it happened a split second before I would hit it)...

You see, in some sports you lose something when the lights go on and in some other you miss the target when the lights go off...

That's how it goes, you win some, you lose some, but in the end it's the fun you have that counts (I won the game anyway)...

Akki14 · Apr 30, 2007

Ahh Must be the day for stupid things. At least mine wasn't fatal. Too many jugs that were unmarked, mixed some fix with photoflo and even though my brain muttered something about "Hey that water is cloudy looking! it's never done that before when i've added photoflo to it..." I still poured it in. Then I noticed the fix jug was empty. Then I realised I had to go rewash that film...

I always load film (and sometimes unload it depending on how reliable the camera is) in a darkbag.

Gay Larson · Apr 30, 2007

I remember once on a field trip with some of my photog friends, I thought I was loading a new roll in my Pentax 645, AF and I was talking and laughing and not paying a whole hell of a lot of attention to what I was doing and I put the film holder in the camera and turned it on and it began to make the most god awful noise that I knew was totally wrong. I looked down at the paper I had taken off the roll and it said EXPOSED!! I had to pull the roll out and of course it was completely gone, a lovely roll of portraits of some children I had been commissioned to do earlier in the day. I was more worried that I had messed up my camera but luckily I had not and luckily I had another roll of the children that I could salvage an image from but I will never know how great the prints could have been. I can still tell you what they were and how natural the kids looked in the roll I lost! I had never done that before and hope I never do again, particularly in front of a group of people.

bdial · Apr 30, 2007

I developed a roll in fixer a couple of weeks ago, needless to say, the negs were a bit on the thin side. Fortunately my light switches are not easy to bump into, and I have a long habit of doing an inventory before turning on any white lights.

eddym · Apr 30, 2007

Pat...
What, you couldn't flip the switch back off before the light hit the film??
I once tried to close the back of a Pentax MX before the light hit the film that I had, um, forgotten to rewind! I didn't quite make it!

copake_ham · Apr 30, 2007

Just last week I had a "situation" with my Bronica ETRSi.

I'm new to the camera anyway but decided it was time to try out the 220 back. Now there is a "problem" with this back in that it will let you fire the camera even with the dark slide still inserted! Most have told me this is a defective back.

But on my first roll I didn't know I had a defective back. First I took two "dark shots" before realizing what I was doing. But, hey, I figured, no big deal, I still have 28 to go.

I took a few "real" shots and then put the camera away; carefully reinserting the dark slide and scratching my head as to why it let me shoot two "baddies".

A few hours later I went to shoot some of the cacti flowers growing around our Tucson house and fired off most of the roll. Only to once again realize I done so with the dark slide firmly inserted!

Well I had to trash the roll - but I did salvage the plastic spool so I now have a spare!

Sh*t happens.

rmolson · Apr 30, 2007

faster than the speed of light

Once worked in a lab where one of the older guys would zip into the darkroom from outside, absolutely convinced he was faster than the light pouring in wrecking our open paper.

PatTrent · Apr 30, 2007

eddym said:
Pat...
What, you couldn't flip the switch back off before the light hit the film??
I once tried to close the back of a Pentax MX before the light hit the film that I had, um, forgotten to rewind! I didn't quite make it!

No, sadly I haven't yet learned to move at the speed of light--well, actually it would have had to be "faster than" the speed of light . . ..

Maris · Apr 30, 2007

A few years ago my photographer pal J.E with whom I shared an apartment managed to get himself accredited to photograph the 1000km power boat race from Sydney to Brisbane. J.E. hired a light plane for a complete set of aerial shots from start to finish.

As it turned out the weather was rough and the little plane bounced all over the sky, could scarcely keep up with the power boats, and had to refuel five times. J.E. was horribly
airsick. This was going to be a nasty, expensive, but potentially profitable day!

About midnight I heard J.E. come back to the apartment. I could smell the vomit. He went straight to the darkroom/laundry and the usual film processing noises followed. About an hour later I woke to hear roaring and furniture smashing.

It was a horrible sight. J.E. had loaded the big 8 reel Paterson tank with his film and, in his addle-pated state, went fixer first and developer second. Eight 36exp rolls of crystal clear film, J.E., and a broken chair formed a heap in the middle of the floor.

There was a happy ending. The next morning J.E. looked in his camera bag and saw a Canon EOS1 belonging to one of the boat drivers who was a photography enthusiast. The boat driver had asked J.E. to finish off a roll that was in his camera. The roll was developed very carefully, dev first fixer second, and came out with 24 frames of the boat race. All frames sold and making enlargements was like printing money. Even the boat driver bought a set.

As for the eight clear rolls, well, we never said a word.

I've made plenty of mistakes but never that big. Not yet.

Buster6X6 · Apr 30, 2007

I use pull switch for white light in my dark room. You cannot bump that. And it is only long enough so I have to get up from my chair to pull on it.Works all the time.

Greg

copake_ham · Apr 30, 2007

Maris said:
A few years ago my photographer pal J.E with whom I shared an apartment managed to get himself accredited to photograph the 1000km power boat race from Sydney to Brisbane. J.E. hired a light plane for a complete set of aerial shots from start to finish.

As it turned out the weather was rough and the little plane bounced all over the sky, could scarcely keep up with the power boats, and had to refuel five times. J.E. was horribly
airsick. This was going to be a nasty, expensive, but potentially profitable day!

About midnight I heard J.E. come back to the apartment. I could smell the vomit. He went straight to the darkroom/laundry and the usual film processing noises followed. About an hour later I woke to hear roaring and furniture smashing.

It was a horrible sight. J.E. had loaded the big 8 reel Paterson tank with his film and, in his addle-pated state, went fixer first and developer second. Eight 36exp rolls of crystal clear film, J.E., and a broken chair formed a heap in the middle of the floor.

There was a happy ending. The next morning J.E. looked in his camera bag and saw a Canon EOS1 belonging to one of the boat drivers who was a photography enthusiast. The boat driver had asked J.E. to finish off a roll that was in his camera. The roll was developed very carefully, dev first fixer second, and came out with 24 frames of the boat race. All frames sold and making enlargements was like printing money. Even the boat driver bought a set.

As for the eight clear rolls, well, we never said a word.

I've made plenty of mistakes but never that big. Not yet.

Gawd you Aussies live large!

Now - you're not gonna next tell us about how a Texan came down there bragging about how big everything is in the Lone Star State - only to see a 'roo leap past him and be told it's nothing but an Oz Rabbit!

You tell a great tale - whether true or not - it's an Oz classic!

jim appleyard · Apr 30, 2007

Then there was the lab tech who processed the paper instead of the roll of 120.

Or the lab tech who processed the roll of E-6 thru C-41.

Me? After 15 years of photography, I open the camera before rewinding!

After 20+ years, I open my paper safe with the lights on!

For everything, there is a first time and these things happen to all of us.

jstraw · Apr 30, 2007

My first freelance magazine asignment, I accidently cross-processed the film in the Wing-Lynch. They looked strange and cool and were used for the article...mostly environmental portraits and workplace shots for a tech publication...

I played it off..."don't you remember me telling you how cool this would look before you signed off on the idea?

pnance · Apr 30, 2007

I put my white light switch, 6' off the floot, on the other side of the room. I'll have to make a different dumb mistake. I once started developing a tank of 4 35mm rolls by pouring in fixer. Obviously, not pictures I'm showing anyone.

Sirius Glass · Apr 30, 2007

pnance said:
I put my white light switch, 6' off the floot, on the other side of the room. I'll have to make a different dumb mistake. I once started developing a tank of 4 35mm rolls by pouring in fixer. Obviously, not pictures I'm showing anyone.

Well, if you fixed them first, then they were no longer broken. 'splain to me why you won't show them to us.

Steve

brian steinberger · May 1, 2007

First time using an all manual camera (about 13 years ago) when I was 12. Loaded a roll of film into the camera (atleast I thought I loaded the roll) and was the first time visiting Cape Hatteras Lighthouse in NC. This was before they moved the lighthouse from the coast. I was in the zone man. Shooting all these awesome shots at such a young age only to come home thinking I had finished the roll, opened the back and there was the leader. The roll had never caught. I literally cried.

Sparky · May 1, 2007

Yeah - that's like my first 'commercial' job - when I was 17 years old. I rented an SL66 from the local camera store to photograph a bar-mitzvah (family friends) and got $100 up front for my expenses. The mother of my client (boy's grandmother) was VERY old and visiting from South Africa. It was going to be the VERY last time they would see her in all likelihood - this point was stressed over and over to me. So - knowing how important the pictures were, I got the big 60 series metz flash, plugged it into the FP sync (!!) port - and proceeded to annoy the hell out of all the guests at the party with the big gun. That night after I got home were some of my first radical experiments in extreme push processing, as you can imagine. Precious little came out.

The one great thing that came out of it - is a huge aversion to weddings and bar-mitzvahs!!

matthewbetcher · May 1, 2007

now see, that's why digital is the way to go...
.
.
.
oh wait, what forum am i on?

seriously, though, it's a risk one takes, eh? i guess it's sort of darwinian when you really think about it. yeah, we've all done stupid things (like knowingly turning the light on in the darkroom just so i could fiddle with the ipod and change a song - WHILE IN THE MIDDLE OF EXPOSING A 40 X 60 INCH PIECE OF FORTE POLYWARMTONE r.i.p.), but imagine a world without photolabs (wait, i guess we're almost already there) and no digital. if someone wanted to take a picture they would actually have to think how it was going to look when printed taking things like exposure, chemistry, and materials into consideration. maybe if that was the case, i wouldn't have boxes and boxes of old faded color photos that my mother took of animals' asses.

i guess i just see way too many people wielding a camera all willy-nilly and all...

Steve Smith · May 1, 2007

Maris said:
fixer first and developer second.

I have done this once but quickly realised, poured it out and replaced it with developer. I got some just-printable images.

To make sure I don't do this again, I don't mix the fixer until the film is in the developer. Having a couple of similar looking jugs of liquid to choose from is not a good idea.

This reminds me of the time I was helping a friend with some wood staining. We had some potassium permanganate solution mixed up in a glass and we were also drinking red wine from similar glasses. Somehow we managed not to drink the potassium permanganate solution.

Steve.

marbrog · May 1, 2007

My darkroom has these old fashioned knob switches that you cant bump into, and I use rodinal so I cant mix it up with the fixer. Still doesnt stop me from making stupid mistakes though!

Yesterday I decided for some reason after a longish hiatus from photographing to make some prints of some old negs I had lying around from last summer. And to spur myself a little I got a box of Kentmere Fineprint warmtone and warmtone dev just to try something new.

Anyway after a few hours making a bunch of test strips of nearly a whole 18x24cm sheet I was ready to throw the whole box in the trash. All the prints were terribly soft not to mention that it took ages to get a decent exposure. Then I tried some Illford RC just to se if it wasnt some other problem.

When i compared the them i saw that the Illford image was mirrored from the kentmere. So I had been exposing it though the paper!!

Still, its a cheap way to get a soft focus effect, might use it for portraits someday..

Solarize · May 1, 2007

I bought a 120 back for my ETRSi a day or two before going on a trip to South Africa. It was supposedly in perfect working order and from a reputable dealer. I wasnt thinking clearly and after a 10 minute exposure I decided to change films backs, popped the release and off it came - I put my old back on, got a few exposures, loaded my kit back and trundled away. It was very dark.

I didnt open my kit bag unhtil the next day, when I realised that the 'new' back had disengaed without a darkslide *sigh* image ruined.

Does anyone find themselves continually misalligning paper in their easel? That must have cost me a fair old bit in the long run.

Peter Williams · May 1, 2007

A few weeks ago I was walking a friend through the film development process. By the time the developing was finished I was talking about the wash step after the fix and sure enough I poured the developer into my bottle of fixer and began to wash the film. I don't think I converted him to traditional methods.

pentaxuser · May 1, 2007

rmolson said:
Once worked in a lab where one of the older guys would zip into the darkroom from outside, absolutely convinced he was faster than the light pouring in wrecking our open paper.

How did he ever get to be older?

pentaxuser

Blew it! Still cannot believe I did that!

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