OMG _ I'm such a klutz!

[canuhead]

...she turned the light on. The switch is on the outside of the door....

yup, move the switch to the inside but also put it inside a covered receptacle so you can't accidentally flip it on. Have this in my darkroom and closing the cover after switching off the lights is automatic for me now. Mine is similar to this http://www.homedepot.ca/product/gfci-receptacle-cover-vertical-white/906884

 

[Dr Croubie]

yup, move the switch to the inside but also put it inside a covered receptacle so you can't accidentally flip it on. Have this in my darkroom and closing the cover after switching off the lights is automatic for me now. Mine is similar to this http://www.homedepot.ca/product/gfci-receptacle-cover-vertical-white/906884

Or this works just as well...

 

[Vaughn]

Or one of these over the switch:

http://www.homedepot.ca/product/3-4...lated-steel-10-clamps-20-nails-per-bag/982016

It is what I put on the university darkroom light switches that operate the white room lights -- tho not these fancy copper-coated ones.

 

[PPPPPP42]

I tend to try to make mistakes only once.

So far I have loaded 35mm film incorrectly and had it pull off the winder spool, ended up with a developed blank roll. Now I look to make sure the rewind knob turns too.

I have rewound a finished roll and when I thought I was at the end due to a snag I opened the back to find out I wasn't. Wrecked most of the roll.

I tried to use a lint free cloth to remove a large speck of dust that had landed on the emulsion side of a hanging wet roll of film on my favorite shot of the roll, only to discover the term lint free is relative to the application. I also discovered at the same time that you can shred a roll of film into confetti with your bare hands in a temper tantrum.

Honestly I wonder why I bother with film on many days.

 

[Maris]

Here's one I've told before but it's true and the horror lives with me still.

How not to spool 400 ft of film into canisters!

Years ago I worked as a junior darkroom assistant in the back of a camera store in Brisbane. The proprietor sold Leicas but most of his money came from selling film. He had a scheme of buying Ektachrome in 400 foot rolls and getting darkroom junior (me) to cut 5 foot 3 inch lengths and load empty 35mm cassettes. Everything was done manually in a darkroom with cassette bodies, cores, ends, film tape, scissors, and a bench top with a measuring nail all laid out exactly. Then I made a big mistake.

About 20 minutes before closing time I dropped a naked 400 foot roll and it clock-springed into huge tangled festoon of film loops about a yard across. In pitch blackness I could not find the end to try to re-spool it. The stuff was worth hundreds of dollars, the store was closing, I had to open the darkroom door, I had to leave and go home. I was dead meat. Or was there a way out?

The garbage bags, of course! Gathering up armfuls of film loops I managed to stuff the whole tangled mess into a huge black plastic garbage bag. That bag went into another bag, into another bag, and so on until the bundle was light tight. At closing time the boss opened the darkroom and saw everything in order. He didn't look behind the door.

The next day I got the film tangle out of the bags and just started cutting 36 exposure lengths from any loop I could grab. By lunch time it had all been loaded and labelled. The several short left over ends were easy to hide. I walked out of the darkroom sweating but smooth faced.

That film had been kinked, stepped on, scratched, buckled, and abused. Hundreds of transparencies came out of that unfortunate roll, mainly from Leica users, but there was not one single complaint. Amazing!

 

[Noisegate]

Nor does developer make for a good fixer.....

 

[TheFlyingCamera]

Nor does developer make for a good fixer.....

The converse is even more true. Fixer makes a TERRIBLE developer.

 

[ozphoto]

If nothing else, all of these "oops!!!!" moments are making me feel so much better after my disaster on the first page!!

 

[Jaf-Photo]

If nothing else, all of these "oops!!!!" moments are making me feel so much better after my disaster on the first page!!

I think this is a man/woman thing. Most guys' phonecalls last for less than 10 seconds, so I doubt that many men have lost rolls of film to hours of phone calls.

If I get a call while I'm developing, I say "I'll call you back, I'm developing some film."

But that may not be entirely politically correct. Possibly

 

[Vaughn]

I was giving a carbon printing demo to a class at the university and did not have a fan to keep the contact printing frame cool under the UV lamp. The gelatin of the tissue got too warm and stuck to the 11x14 negative. In front of the class I pulled hard to try to separate them and ended up ripping the 11x14 negative in half. Quite impressive. It was a nice negative, too. I was bummed.

Several months later I was going thru my 11x14 negs and found a second copy of that negative -- I had forgotten that I took two. The second negative was developed a little better, too.

 

[Jaf-Photo]

I was giving a carbon printing demo to a class at the university and did not have a fan to keep the contact printing frame cool under the UV lamp. The gelatin of the tissue got too warm and stuck to the 11x14 negative. In front of the class I pulled hard to try to separate them and ended up ripping the 11x14 negative in half. Quite impressive. It was a nice negative, too. I was bummed.

Several months later I was going thru my 11x14 negs and found a second copy of that negative -- I had forgotten that I took two. The second negative was developed a little better, too.

Yeah, always take at least two exposures, that's my rule of thumb. You never know what might happen.

 

[Vaughn]

Yeah, always take at least two exposures, that's my rule of thumb. You never know what might happen.

Generally, that is my rule, also. Especially using a printing process that can be hard on negatives. Ripping a neg in half is an extreme, but I occasionally get some moisture damage.

But, man...11x14 film is a bit pricey! Also I do not have many 11x14 holders, so I tend to be more conservative with them and expose only one. With 8x10 it is almost a no-brainer...I have a bunch of 8x10 holders. What is also nice is that if I am not happy with the contrast of the first negative, I can tweak the development for the second one.

 

[AnnP]

My Turn

recently went through 4 rolls of 120 on Yashica Mat with Flash..... forgot to put camera to x-synch....DOH !

sigh!

Damn. I just realized I did the same exact thing this morning. Haven't developed the film yet. At least it was only half a roll.

Lol.

 

[ozphoto]

I think this is a man/woman thing. Most guys' phonecalls last for less than 10 seconds, so I doubt that many men have lost rolls of film to hours of phone calls.

If I get a call while I'm developing, I say "I'll call you back, I'm developing some film."

But that may not be entirely politically correct. Possibly

If only it was an extremely long phone call - could have blamed the caller!! Alas, I had just had a long week with (yet another) long day, and the coffee I made to keep me awake, helped me to relax a little too long - and the rest is (awful) history.

 

[Steve Smith]

I doubt that many men have lost rolls of film to hours of phone calls.

I once took a phone call from someone I hadn't spoken to for thirty years. The film I had in the developer should have had ten and a half minutes but it got over an hour.

Luckily, the developer was Prescysol which is fairly immune to time variations and it turned out fine.


Steve.

 

[Jaf-Photo]

If only it was an extremely long phone call - could have blamed the caller!! Alas, I had just had a long week with (yet another) long day, and the coffee I made to keep me awake, helped me to relax a little too long - and the rest is (awful) history.

Fair enough

In fact, I try to mainly develop film on weekends these days, as I do make mistakes when I am tired after work.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I've just had a 'woopsie with a bulk film loader, and ruined about 20 ft of film.

I am in need of disaster stories to help me as I'm feeling down on myself at the moment.

Any stories out there to prove I'm not alone ...yes I know in the scheme of things worse things can happen in life but just at the moment I feel I've lost my mojo

how about writing on analog photography for a living and switching developer and fixer during a workshop.being an idiot is to mild of a description for mesometimes,but Jesus loves me anyway.

 

[Canuck]

Best thing I remember is an Ebay auction of a box of old box pf 100 sheets of fibre paper. The seller in his aim of full disclosure. counted the paper and took a picture of them.

 

[pdmk]

Not so funny/sad as some stories here but

1. I have borrowed Bronica SQ-A. First time I was shooting on that camera. They have dark slides with small hole in their backs, to show you which way dark slide should be inserted. I didnt know/remember that. I only remembered that if the dark slide is in camera will not shoot. Of course I have inserted dark slide the upside down, but I was lucky to notice it. So at the end I lost only like 3 pictures.

2. Early morning trip, I was inserting film to camera, and inserted it wrong way (paper facing outside). Realized in field. So I have put the camera inside bag, with as less light incoming as possible. Had to remove film from spool and insert it again. Lucky again, lost only first picture.

 

[frobozz]

Best thing I remember is an Ebay auction of a box of old box pf 100 sheets of fibre paper. The seller in his aim of full disclosure. counted the paper and took a picture of them.

I've seen a *lot* of ebay auctions for rolls of Kodak RA-4 paper done that way! I guess people buy up the stock from a shuttered local minilab and think they'll make a killing on ebay after tearing open the paper wrapper and getting a nice bright picture of that big roll of expensive paper.

I always send them a message letting them know they should have paid more attention to the "ONLY OPEN IN COMPLETE DARKNESS" part of the label.

Duncan

 

[winterclock]

Quote "But it was really dark when I opened it, I just turned the light on long enough to take the picture! It's probably still ok." Not!

 

[Vaughn]

how about writing on analog photography for a living and switching developer and fixer during a workshop.being an idiot is to mild of a description for mesometimes,but Jesus loves me anyway.

I gave a carbon printing demo last Sunday at a local art center. I accidently exposed the carbon tissue upside down -- so the people sat thru a 2 hour demo but without a final pint to see...so it goes.

 

[Dr Croubie]

I was doing some RA4 on the weekend, using a Jobo 2830 drum.
Expose the paper, load into drum, put the lid on, attach to Jobolift, turn on lights, fine.
Except that after a few tests I was getting impatient and putting the lights on after the lid, but before attaching to the Jobolift.
Not a problem under normal circumstances, when the lid has the proper 'cup' underneath, but in this case I had previously developed some 4x5s on a 2509n reel, and hence had the 'funnel' attachment on the lid, with a nice hole in the middle.
It did take a while to figure out what was that dark-streak that was going down the middle of the paper...

 

[Dr Croubie]

Well this was certainly a new one for me.
Developed a film fine, stopped fine, fixed fine, hypo cleared fine, then a few drops of ilfotol and hang up to dry.
Normally I pour the ilfotol from the bottle and do a bit more than a few drops, it's always too much and foams everywhere (so I just keep adding water and letting the bubbles overflow until it's clear, then hang the film up).
So tonight, I did it really really carefully. Steady hands (which I honed soldering using a microscope), and managed to get the tiniest of drops into the tank.
Success!
Then hung it up to dry, and went to get the second film. Devved that fine too, grabbed the bottle of Ilfotol, and realised it was out of reach.
Strange, as that's not where I would have put it for the last film, and the hole gouged in the foil under the cap looked a different shape (damn those Ilford seals that never peel off).

Then realised what I'd done. I'd rinsed the first film in nothing but water and the tiniest drop of Rapid Fixer.
Damn those bottles all look the same.

(wow, and when the last two posts in a thread such as this are both from me, you gotta wonder about my powers of concentration sometimes...)

 

[Too old to care]

When I got interested in photography in the 60's I shot mostly slides. Someone told me that Kodachrome would fade in time, to shoot Ektachrome because they would last forever. I was in the military and overseas and would love to have good slides of what I did and saw back then. But, the Ektachrome slides are mostly gone now, faded well past their prime, and the few Kodachrome slides that I shot back then still look like new.