Have you ever had a subject disappear before you could photograph it...

[Ariston]

I have a few ideas in my mind for photographs, and I am often nervous the subjects will be gone before I can get them done.

This seems particularly applicable to old buildings; but there was also a time when I took a woodland photograph, and the very next time I was in the area the scene was completely gone, changed by a storm that had come through. I was so glad I had taken that one when I had the opportunity instead of being my usual procrastinating self.

Do you have this anxiety, or have you had this happen? I bet there are some good stories...

 

[Saganich]

I like going back to a particular place over and over again. What you realize is everyplace is changing through time and witnessing change on a smaller scale, week to week or day to day, can elevate understanding and appreciation. Change should be expected, which may help with anxiety, or not.

 

[BrianShaw]

LOL... the best photograph I never shot was not because it disappeared too fast but because I had no film in the camera. It would have been a great one; I still remember it 20 years later!

 

[Sirius Glass]

A few times, fortunately not many.

 

[vickersdc]

I took the Cambo 4x5 out to a local spot one afternoon to photograph a specific scene - when I got there, there were a flock of sheep neatly arranged on the hill to the right. They stayed pretty much in position whilst I got myself set up and then as soon as I went under the dark cloth, all I could see on the ground glass wasthem running off down the valley... the farmer had come with their food and they didn't need much persuasion to run off.

So this was the shot I got, sans-sheep!...

 

[Ariston]

I took the Cambo 4x5 out to a local spot one afternoon to photograph a specific scene - when I got there, there were a flock of sheep neatly arranged on the hill to the right. They stayed pretty much in position whilst I got myself set up and then as soon as I went under the dark cloth, all I could see on the ground glass wasthem running off down the valley... the farmer had come with their food and they didn't need much persuasion to run off.

So this was the shot I got, sans-sheep!...

I have had this problem many times with children in the family... I see a sweet moment and want to capture it, but I am usually too late.

I can't resist taking photos of things I know won't be there long, or that would be hard to find somewhere else. Even bad photos of such subjects give me a lot of satisfaction. While on vacation at the beach, I once photographed a pier that was being re-constructed, cranes and all. I knew it wasn't a great photo, with a bland sky and the wrong time of day (I had my family to think of!), but it is a photo that could never again be taken once the construction was complete:

 

[removed account4]

LOL... the best photograph I never shot was not because it disappeared too fast but because I had no film in the camera. It would have been a great one; I still remember it 20 years later!

Yeah, me too. it was at this island I go to all the time now. I had hand coated some dry plates and loaded them into holders and walked around the island and made some exposures. I had a really strange experience on the island and never processed the plates, they just remained as latent images. Sometimes memories are better than photographs.

 

[Truzi]

When I was a child I saw a shining metal disk moving across the sky in the middle of the day. I walked towards the house to get my camera but couldn't take my eyes off it.
Then it turned, and without the sun's glare it was only a plane. I decided is wasn't worth a picture at that point.

 

[Andrew O'Neill]

It's happened a few times. In Japan on a train, I passed by a large bamboo forest out in the sticks, that had a bunch of abandoned houses inside it. I only discovered that when I cut through it to get to a train station from a student's house. I had no camera at the time, and vowed to come back on the following weekend. Well I did, but it was all mowed down, including the old houses. That happened a few times in Japan, so from that moment on, I always had a 35mm with me, just in case.

 

[juan]

Here’s my sad tale.
http://simmonsarts.com/2017/09/01/there-and-gone/

 

[Vaughn]

LOL... the best photograph I never shot was not because it disappeared too fast but because I had no film in the camera. It would have been a great one; I still remember it 20 years later!

I set up for developing a 4x5 of a wonderful image (not really, but I thought so at the time), only to find the holder was empty -- so it goes. I do miss an image occasionaly...it is the risk of always looking at the light and seeing the possibilities.

 

[Donald Qualls]

There were a group of houses and business buildings that were vacated for highway construction, that I drive by every day on the way home from work. I kept telling myself I needed to get down there (about ten miles from home) with a camera, ideally my RB67 or Graphic View, and photograph them in their partially salvaged state -- doors and windows had been removed (presumably to the ReHab store), etc.

Before I could find the time, they were demolished. Now there's nothing there but a field of red mud, waiting for pavement as the road moves onto the new overpass...

 

[Wallendo]

I had this experience with an old motel near where I lived. This was a long abandoned establishment where each room was actually a stand-alone building with a covered garage. This was located on a highway that had once been well-travelled before I-95 was opened. O took a few pictures with a test camera but kept meaning to go back to this place that I drove by every day and take photographs with a more serious intent only to find that it had been completely demolished. I have always had a fascination with abandoned buildings on old highways. I seems that there is a story these buildings have to tell, that is quickly being forgotten.

 

[Alan Edward Klein]

Sunset.....

 

[MattKing]

Toddlers...
But like sunsets, they come around again.
I have been driving by this location for a couple of years, meaning to get it photographed. I finally did:



(Scanned from a toned 11x14 print)

 

[winger]

Oh yeah. If there's a place where you see a cool image, TAKE THE SHOT, don't wait.

Back in MA, there was an old house with a wicked cool tree in front of it. It wasn't occupied and I finally decided to just go take a picture. My car needed gas and I stopped at the gas station across the street fromt he house because it would be easier than getting gas after. While I was pumping the gas, I heard a chainsaw start up. Yup, they were taking down the exact tree that I wanted to shoot.

Here, there was a cool house I drove by most days when I was taking my son to daycare. I had finally figured out the kind of light I wanted and was going to stop. As I was driving down the road, I could smell smoke. When I got to the house, it had burned recently (still smoking). I did make a few shots of it after it burned, but they're so-so. I was going to make more, but they bulldozed it.

 

[16:9]

Not a building but an architectural shot: passing through Central London on a train with Monkey's Wedding light. A little girl in a red dress came running out the back of a church wearing gold wings, right into a sunbeam. No time even to frame a shot. Still remember it 15 years on.

 

[16:9]

I guess the lesson of this thread is: always have your camera handy. Carpe diem.