G-tower. It may or may not be a UN building. We got escorted off the premises by police, lol.
When was the last time you screwed up ...
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The rear glass of the viewfinder of my Pentax K50 was blown to smithereens because I failed to fully deploy the legs of my tripod. I was lucky in my misfortune as nothing else was damaged, it will cost 35$ for a replacement tho.
Sunny days and I'm out with my F2, 105/2.5, and Ektar 100 film. After a while I notice that I no longer see the aperture, shutter speed, meter display at the bottom of the viewfinder. Hmm? What has happened to my DP-1 metering head?
Go, home, take the head off, everything looks fine. Put the head back on and all is good.
Today I walk out the door, quickly glance through the viewfinder, and no readouts again! What is going on!?! Thinking that something loose is blocking the readout, I look through the camera upside down. Now it's back. Oh, wait, now I know what's wrong. Geeze!
Can you tell what it is?
.
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.
.
(wait for it)
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.
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The bill on my cap blocked the translucent window that the readouts are viewed against.
First time it's happened in 30 years of Nikon F2 ownership. Only recently have I been wearing a hat for protection from sunlight.
Go, home, take the head off, everything looks fine. Put the head back on and all is good.
Today I walk out the door, quickly glance through the viewfinder, and no readouts again! What is going on!?! Thinking that something loose is blocking the readout, I look through the camera upside down. Now it's back. Oh, wait, now I know what's wrong. Geeze!
Can you tell what it is?
.
.
.
.
(wait for it)
.
.
.
.
The bill on my cap blocked the translucent window that the readouts are viewed against.
First time it's happened in 30 years of Nikon F2 ownership. Only recently have I been wearing a hat for protection from sunlight.
I lost a tiny screw on the floor (again), spent almost an hour looking for it, I swept the floor twice and even removed a baseboard heater to look behind... Just when I finally gave up, I put my foot on it grrrrr
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Ever see pictures of dungeons or prison cells with a scratch on the wall for every day they spent there? - That's how often I screw up!
05/05/85... interesting since that's the same date as my wedding anniversary. To be honest, I made terrible horrific mistakes both before and after that date. However, that was my WORST mistake.
Never again.
Never again.
You mean like pouring E6 color developer in the tank before the first developer? Done that.
Left the shutter open after focusing then inserted a film holder and removed the dark slide on my 4x5..... too many times to count.
Left the shutter open after focusing then inserted a film holder and removed the dark slide on my 4x5..... too many times to count.
1- put some 35mm film underneath the sprocket wheel instead of on top and got some empty film with these weird black streaks.
2- forgot to open my external meter when using my medium format camera (which does not have a functioning meter), so the end of the roll didn't develop
3- forgot to change the asa on the meter, so I'm assuming I've got three medium shots that are two stops under exposed, if they turned out [since I haven't finished this roll yet]
2- forgot to open my external meter when using my medium format camera (which does not have a functioning meter), so the end of the roll didn't develop
3- forgot to change the asa on the meter, so I'm assuming I've got three medium shots that are two stops under exposed, if they turned out [since I haven't finished this roll yet]
This month!
My girlfriend wanted to do some portraits during a picnic day in the forest, and as she prefers SLR's I offered her being her assistant and giving her a Nikon body ready with film and the 105 2.5; light was low and she wanted a very fast shutter speed, so we decided ISO400 flm at 800... I told her "here you have the camera, it's ready, you have it in Auto+1, so unless you include overcast sky, it'll be fine..."
When we got back home, I remembered I never set the camera to Auto, but left it in the mecanical 1/250th speed I use for loading film... So, damn, I took the camera out of the bag, and yes, it was at 1/250th... The whole roll was always shot at 1/250th... I felt horrible...
Finally told her I forgot to set it to Auto, apologized, suffered while cooking dinner... Then after a bitter hour I thought, "I remember that overcast light at 800 and f/11 was good for 1/125th, so at f/4 it was good for 1/1000th... And the light didn't change all afternoon... So 1/250th means she gave the whole film two more stops of light, so... She just exposed the film at 200..."
I quickly put the roll in the tank and did a fast Rodinal development: by the end of dinner we were celebrating, with a perfect roll yet wet in our hands. All 36 frames were great!
I've screwed up many times as any photographer, but only this time it had a happy end!
My girlfriend wanted to do some portraits during a picnic day in the forest, and as she prefers SLR's I offered her being her assistant and giving her a Nikon body ready with film and the 105 2.5; light was low and she wanted a very fast shutter speed, so we decided ISO400 flm at 800... I told her "here you have the camera, it's ready, you have it in Auto+1, so unless you include overcast sky, it'll be fine..."
When we got back home, I remembered I never set the camera to Auto, but left it in the mecanical 1/250th speed I use for loading film... So, damn, I took the camera out of the bag, and yes, it was at 1/250th... The whole roll was always shot at 1/250th... I felt horrible...
Finally told her I forgot to set it to Auto, apologized, suffered while cooking dinner... Then after a bitter hour I thought, "I remember that overcast light at 800 and f/11 was good for 1/125th, so at f/4 it was good for 1/1000th... And the light didn't change all afternoon... So 1/250th means she gave the whole film two more stops of light, so... She just exposed the film at 200..."
I quickly put the roll in the tank and did a fast Rodinal development: by the end of dinner we were celebrating, with a perfect roll yet wet in our hands. All 36 frames were great!
I've screwed up many times as any photographer, but only this time it had a happy end!
I took eight rolls of film into the darkroom, shut off the lights, loaded them all onto reels, and stacked them into a tall can. When I poured the developer out, it was purple. I had grabbed the box with Vision3 500T instead of the box with FP4+. After fixing and scrubbing the remjet, the images were good, though a bit grainy. That project has just taken an unexpected turn...
I was trying to remove the top plate of a spare Spotmatic, the head of the screw which hold the frame counter just snapped... I didn't even put any pressure, it just snapped as if it was just glued : / I'm not mad, just confused.
Oh well, at least I removed the top plate...
My last big screw-up was Nov. 21, 1968. It was the day I enlisted in the USMC. It wasn't until a day later that I realized it, but when my feet finally hit those famous yellow foot prints I knew for sure. Now, for photography? Never ever! Ya, right!
I developed a roll of Tmax this evening with my Rondinax, and I cut the film before I had fully loaded it in the reel... Bye Bye frame 21, cut right in the middle (Nothing which can't be re-shot at another time). Anyway, I prepared new chemicals and processed the remaining 3 shots, it was fun (24exp).
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Developing sheets of film from Zion. One double exposed (guess I lost two images in one!), a blank negative, one badly fogged, one fogged bad enough, some very dense negatives, but some goods ones too. I have not started on the 11x14s yet...just 5x7 (10) and 8x10 (30) so far. Bunch of 120 rolls to still to go, also.
This first batch of 5x7 is on out-dated TMax400...lots of base fog, but at least even. The rest are on out-dated FP4+. Hopefully there will be less base fog when I get to those...but then I was having light leak problems with the camera when I was using the FP4+. I tend to keep the darkcloth over the whole camera, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Oh well -- forget the bad ones and print the good ones!
This first batch of 5x7 is on out-dated TMax400...lots of base fog, but at least even. The rest are on out-dated FP4+. Hopefully there will be less base fog when I get to those...but then I was having light leak problems with the camera when I was using the FP4+. I tend to keep the darkcloth over the whole camera, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Oh well -- forget the bad ones and print the good ones!
I screwed up just yesterday. I was developing a film for my wife, her first attempt at shooting 120 film....I always develop film in the bathroom. After drying I cut the negs into strips of three for storing in Kenro paper sheets, and after placing two strips in the sheet I managed to drop the sheet into the toilet.
Result is that one negative got really wet through the paper and doesn't want to clean.
Result is that one negative got really wet through the paper and doesn't want to clean.
Added benzotriazole to developer for a film, which I thought could be fogged. Did not have a clue how much to use, the film came out almost blank, so it was too much.
MattKing
Moderator
Our darkroom group recently did our own cyanotype workshop. One of our members who does/has done a fair number of them took the lead, while others of us brought in negatives - some film, some digital - to try out the process.
I picked a nice, moderately dense 6x9 pinhole negative.
We prepared the paper and each placed our negatives in borrowed printing frames.
Other people were getting nice dark images after a shortish time in the UV printing box that we were using, but mine just wasn't going dark at all.
We kept putting it back in for longer - the edges outside the negative area were getting darker and darker, but the image just wouldn't seem to go past pale ghost of blue.
Some of the alternative printers here probably know what the problem was, but I didn't clue in to the problem until many minutes of exposure time had elapsed, and just about everyone had their results.
The negative was on T-Max 100, and T-Max 100 has a UV blocker built into it that makes it unsuitable for most alternative processes.
I knew that, but didn't think to consider that when choosing the negative.
Here is a resized and sharpened scan of the negative - dust and all:
I picked a nice, moderately dense 6x9 pinhole negative.
We prepared the paper and each placed our negatives in borrowed printing frames.
Other people were getting nice dark images after a shortish time in the UV printing box that we were using, but mine just wasn't going dark at all.
We kept putting it back in for longer - the edges outside the negative area were getting darker and darker, but the image just wouldn't seem to go past pale ghost of blue.
Some of the alternative printers here probably know what the problem was, but I didn't clue in to the problem until many minutes of exposure time had elapsed, and just about everyone had their results.
The negative was on T-Max 100, and T-Max 100 has a UV blocker built into it that makes it unsuitable for most alternative processes.
I knew that, but didn't think to consider that when choosing the negative.
Here is a resized and sharpened scan of the negative - dust and all:
Where do I even start?!?
Most recent:
This morning I developed a roll from last weekend and found the first several frames badly fogged and a light-leak pattern causing stripes across several other frames. Camera? I don't think so. Door was shut, light seals good. Did light get into the cassette? Maybe.... Did I foul up loading the cassette? Maybe.... Problem loading developing tank? Unlikely.... Ancient Mayan curse? Very possible....
Second most recent:
Film jammed in an Agfa Karat IV (self-loaded reel of Foma 100, not sure why it bound up) caused a sprocket hole to tear. I should have stopped there and rewound the film because I had just shot a very nice portrait.
Nope... I wound again and shot another frame which overlapped the previous and ruined both frames. Crap.
Third most recent:
Two weeks ago I got a roll all kinked up and mis-loaded on the reel. I'm not even sure how I did it. I was only able to salvage 12 out of 36 frames. Many nice photos lost. Big swaths of film didn't come into contact with developer. It was a mess.
There's more. How much time ya got?
Most recent:
This morning I developed a roll from last weekend and found the first several frames badly fogged and a light-leak pattern causing stripes across several other frames. Camera? I don't think so. Door was shut, light seals good. Did light get into the cassette? Maybe.... Did I foul up loading the cassette? Maybe.... Problem loading developing tank? Unlikely.... Ancient Mayan curse? Very possible....
Second most recent:
Film jammed in an Agfa Karat IV (self-loaded reel of Foma 100, not sure why it bound up) caused a sprocket hole to tear. I should have stopped there and rewound the film because I had just shot a very nice portrait.
Nope... I wound again and shot another frame which overlapped the previous and ruined both frames. Crap.
Third most recent:
Two weeks ago I got a roll all kinked up and mis-loaded on the reel. I'm not even sure how I did it. I was only able to salvage 12 out of 36 frames. Many nice photos lost. Big swaths of film didn't come into contact with developer. It was a mess.
There's more. How much time ya got?
Shooting 8x10 portraits of my folks with a 14 1/2” Verito and Packard shutter. Wasted 2 sheets of film because I kept forgetting to close the Packard before pulling the dark slide. Haven’t processed the film yet so I’m sur there’s more mistakes to come. 
Roger
Roger
Made a Rookie Mistake a few days ago.
I've been using both my XA and FM3a and, as you know, the XA is aperture priority. Set the aperture, look at the lovely needle showing the shutter speed, and you're good to go. Used the XA quite a bit. Haven't used the FM3a in a while... So, for one nice afternoon-sunlit scene with lake and waterfall, I choose f/11 and f/16 on my 55/2.8 Micro-Nikkor for a few carefully composed shots. The needle shows 1/60 and 1/30. Not too bad - I can hold that. The blue needle at 1/250 just smiles at me. After about five shots I go back to the car and, while putting the camera back in its case I glance at the shutter speed dial...
Photography is a lot easier for me when I'm not captivated by information in the viewfinder. Especially when I'm ignoring half of it.
I've been using both my XA and FM3a and, as you know, the XA is aperture priority. Set the aperture, look at the lovely needle showing the shutter speed, and you're good to go. Used the XA quite a bit. Haven't used the FM3a in a while... So, for one nice afternoon-sunlit scene with lake and waterfall, I choose f/11 and f/16 on my 55/2.8 Micro-Nikkor for a few carefully composed shots. The needle shows 1/60 and 1/30. Not too bad - I can hold that. The blue needle at 1/250 just smiles at me. After about five shots I go back to the car and, while putting the camera back in its case I glance at the shutter speed dial...
Photography is a lot easier for me when I'm not captivated by information in the viewfinder. Especially when I'm ignoring half of it.
If a rooftop can't be prominent, it should at least be prolific.
#1.My latest fore into screwing-up was revealed when I started questioning the accuracy of the lightmeter in my MP due to what seemed like consistent overexposures. Checking against other various lightmeters, all seemed OK. I did a shutter test by shooting gray wall across shutter speeds and measuring the density. Nothing shocking revealed except the density, which was metered at Zone V was almost 2 stops off. With thoughts of overly dense negatives I went to work on the next rolls and it hits me... I had been replenishing my D23 at twice the rate for about 7 previous rolls Why I suddenly started doing that I'll never know. The effect was nice for those "it won't come out but I'll shoot it anyway" low light moments.
#2. Opened my wardrobe and the camera on the self (hawkeye brownie) fell out hit the floor causing the back to come off exposing half the roll. Bakelite was fine.
#3. Spent some time shooting my M2. Loading an M2 is involves taking the take-up spool out, threading the film, placing it all back into the camera, winding once to make sure all is well, then putting the bottom plate on. Amazingly I didn't mess any of that up, but when I went back to shooting the MP I discovered one should under no circumstances advance the film before replacing the base plate.
#4. Forgot about the Rolleiflex shutter cocking thing on the first frame and was convinced I broke it somehow.
This is like confession!
#2. Opened my wardrobe and the camera on the self (hawkeye brownie) fell out hit the floor causing the back to come off exposing half the roll. Bakelite was fine.
#3. Spent some time shooting my M2. Loading an M2 is involves taking the take-up spool out, threading the film, placing it all back into the camera, winding once to make sure all is well, then putting the bottom plate on. Amazingly I didn't mess any of that up, but when I went back to shooting the MP I discovered one should under no circumstances advance the film before replacing the base plate.
#4. Forgot about the Rolleiflex shutter cocking thing on the first frame and was convinced I broke it somehow.
This is like confession!
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