what was the biggest MISTAKE you made, and was it really a mistake ?

[removed account4]

we've all made mistakes, whether we just learned how to load a film reel 6.4 minutes ago,or if we are seasoned pros with 50 years of experience. sometimes
we do something wrong, very very wrong .. and the results weren't as bad as they could have been. maybe when we saw we did the bad-thing we tempered it
with a very good thing, maybe with unconditional film + chemistry love, maybe somehow we were smiled upon by the fate sisters or st jude ( i think he is the patron saint of lost causes ? ) and nothing terrible happened.
we wiped the sweat from our brows and somehow incorporated that bad into something good the next time

what was the last dreadful mistake you made, and was it all that dreadful? do you do something similar, maybe tempered down now in your bag of tricks
and if you did temper it down what did you do so if we make the same mistake we can learn from you ?

i know this is in the film/chemistry/b/w area, but this can be for anything: gear related, b/w or color related too

 

[baachitraka]

Lens: I once failed to grab the Zuiko 100mm f/2.8 lens that went unsold for €2.00

Darkroom: After my father has passed away I returned to darkroom and the first exposure was with red filter.

Camera Exposure: Changed yellow filter to Rolleinar I but forgot the compensation. One stop over exposure.

 

[railwayman3]

Many years ago. in the school photoclub darkroom......first attempt at processing a B&W film by reversal, and totally miscalculating the correct time in the bleach. Watched 36 prize-winning pictures disappear down the drain as the emulsion was stripped. :eek:

 

[Jager]

Knock on wood, I've yet to experience any great catastrophe's in the darkroom. But I did once shoot a wedding wherein I failed to notice, for half a roll, that the rewind knob was not turning...

 

[tomfrh]

I did a photo course as a teenager using my mothers AE-1. I took the most careful 36 photos I'd ever taken in my life and was so excited to see the results, then I realised it hadn't wound on.

 

[dosilverhalide]

Hand processing an ancient roll of b&w 120 in the bath room sink and bumping the light switch on with my elbow.

 

[removed account4]

I forgot to close a box of photo paper a couple of years ago, I turned the lights on to check a print ...
then I realized ... the box was open... I quickly shut the light off ... close the box ...
then I took a sheet out and made a print from it ...
since it was AZO paper it was unaffected ( or so it seemed ) from the room light ..
luckily it is very slow paper, or I'd have lost it all ..

also ...
I mistakenly exposed film in a camera and over exposed it by a few stops ...
so I gulped, and split processed the film in print developer and then caffenol c...
developing all my film in this split developer is now my regular routine, no matter the exposure or film ...

 

[RalphLambrecht]

we've all made mistakes, whether we just learned how to load a film reel 6.4 minutes ago,or if we are seasoned pros with 50 years of experience. sometimes
we do something wrong, very very wrong .. and the results weren't as bad as they could have been. maybe when we saw we did the bad-thing we tempered it
with a very good thing, maybe with unconditional film + chemistry love, maybe somehow we were smiled upon by the fate sisters or st jude ( i think he is the patron saint of lost causes ? ) and nothing terrible happened.
we wiped the sweat from our brows and somehow incorporated that bad into something good the next time

what was the last dreadful mistake you made, and was it all that dreadful? do you do something similar, maybe tempered down now in your bag of tricks
and if you did temper it down what did you do so if we make the same mistake we can learn from you ?

i know this is in the film/chemistry/b/w area, but this can be for anything: gear related, b/w or color related too

I once started film processing with the fixing bath and blamed the blank negatives on old developerintelligence has limits;stupidity doesn't

 

[Nathan King]

My biggest mistake was believing the chemistry volume recommendations on the bottom of the developing tank. The film wound on the uppermost reel didn't fare so well. I lost some good shots but never made that mistake again.

 

[fotch]

When I was about 10 my dad came home with some developing equipment he got from a friend at work along with chemicals. I proceeded to develop a roll of film by the red safe-lite, using the seesaw method. Nothing came out. Turns out the instruction book was printed in the era of ortho film and my film was panchromatic. Still, it was a lot of fun & I was hooked for life.

 

[Stephen Frizza]

Biggest mistake I made was getting into analog photography in the first place! It's as bad as the most addictive of drugs and has totally consumed my life.

 

[David Brown]

Once, hundreds of years ago, I reflexively, inexplicably, unconscously reached down and took the lid off of the developing tank in mid development!

Never did know why ...

 

[Old-N-Feeble]

I divorced my biggest mistake.

 

[Vaughn]

I failed to completely check out a 4x5 camera (bought new) that I took on a 3-month hitch-hiking trip thru New Zealand. Major light leak where the back connects to the main body and just about all my negs were fogged.

That was a mistake -- I corrected the mistake by buying another camera, testing it for a couple years, then taking it back to NZ for a 5 month bike-tour.

A more recent darkroom mistake: I knocked the last unloaded 8x10 film holder off the counter when I put the lid on the drum. Broke the darkslide (it was still extended out partway).

To keep this from happening again, the next time I loaded the 3005, I carefully put the last unloaded holder safely away from the edge as soon as I had put the film in the drum. I then turned on the lights and wondered why the 3005 drum looked weird -- I had forgotten to put the lid on!

 

[Hatchetman]

the biggest mistake I made -- by far -- was quitting film in about 2000 and not picking it up again until about 2009. I pretty much gave up taking photos at all during that time.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I only started to black and white on film in 2012. One of our clients gave me for free entire set.
My biggest mistake was on learning of developing only and buying film scanner. I shouldn't do it, but use provided enlarger instead.
Now I'm slowly taking it right...

 

[Matt Fattori]

This is a weird one and definitely caused the most heartache: I was working in a bush camp with 30 people and we decided to play 'Whackbat', the absurd game played by the animals in Wes Anderson's 'Fantastic Mr Fox' fim. There were costumes, there were pinecones on fire...it was the sort of magical event that can occur amongst a small group of people isolated from society and fuelled by enthusiasm and a little booze.
I filmed it with my Cannon 310XL Super 8 camera. Several months later, after having it developed and transferred to CD, I discovered the whole thing was completely out of focus: the result of not having checked the diopter adjustment! I still get a good laugh from it but could not share it with anyone as I'd hoped.

 

[GarageBoy]

Buggered loading a Paterson reel the first few times
My first roll ever developed shows some damage
Same roll- couldn't cut into even number of strips... (one had 4 frames, other had 5, others had 3)

Still don't know how this happened- but I'm pretty sure I had the time/temp down for my first roll of TMAX 3200 and got some REALLY dense negatives

Partially shot a roll- wound it back and reloaded it into my FE2 (I wanted to finish the roll in a camera in AE)- set to 1/4000 sec- advanced past the 10 or so frames.... AND FORGOT TO SET THE SHUTTER SPEED BACK TO A... 1/4000 and 1/60 sound the same to me in a loud room

Was busy following the inversion schedule and didn't realize I shot the development time by a minute- luckily- Delta 3200 could always use some overdevelopment

 

[Slixtiesix]

I once left an exposed roll of 120 film in the fridge for 4 years before developing it and then I used the last bit of fixer that had been sitting on my shelf for 10 years. The fixer worked fine! But over 4 years, moisture must have crept between the film and backing paper, which resulted in the borders of the film ending up slightly darker than the rest. Then I also regret not having started to shoot slides earlier than 2009...

 

[tomfrh]

Shooting large format velvia at f/45, metering with my SLR set to f/22, and then setting the shutter two stops faster instead of two stops slower.

 

[bdial]

Buying more than one camera, followed by getting more than one lens for it.

 

[eddie]

I once took the drainage tube of my 20x24 print washer out of the sink, to mix some chems. Didn't put it back, but did wash a bunch of prints, while taking a lunch break. About 20 minutes later, there was water all over the floor. Not a mistake you make twice.

 

[Paul Howell]

Not a mistake I made, but the one mistake that still lingers, in Air Force Photo School in 1970 one of the guys somehow managed to load the paper backing from a roll of 120 onto a stainless steel reel and develop the paper, which by the time he finished was just a mess at the bottom of the tank. We checked and found the film in the trash in the room where we loaded film. Luckily it was just a training assignment not mission critical.

 

[DannL.]

I've heard people say that the equipment doesn't matter. And on some levels they may be right. But when you don't like your equipment, and you're not pleased when using it, it really can suck all the enjoyment from your endeavors. I once sold my 5x7 and 8x10 cameras, well thinking that it was a good time to upgrade everything. That was a big mistake. I went through multiple cameras, new and old, and to no avail. Many times I was tempted to throw in the towel. Many months later I met with both owners of the cameras, and in both cases they were very nice in allowing me to buy/trade back for my children. My babies. This proves that there are a lot of nice people in the world. I'll never make that mistake again. I say.

 

[Sirius Glass]

I divorced my biggest mistake.

Ditto