missed photo opportunities

[jkn]

Everyone has those moments where you wish you had your camera on you - or something you saw and meant to go back to, but when you did it was gone... What have you missed?

A few of mine:

+ Pulled into my driveway after work and only 10 feet from me as I got out of the car was this immensely tall blue heron... easily up to my chin in height. It just looked at me from that short distance away. I tried to slip into the house to get my camera - but by the time I got back out - it had taken off. Oddly - I live in a city of 22,000 so it picking there to drop down to drink water from our ditch or whatever it was doing was very odd.

+ Some area near us was being excavated - taking the dirt somewhere else - I assume flattening it for a building sometime soon... (progress! cough) - and interestingly there was one tree on that lot - by the time they were done takin the dirt away - the tree was about 8-12 feet off the ground. It was so odd to see sheer walls of dirt up to the grass hanging over the sides and then this lonely and amazingly interesting tree. The photo op was so freaking amazing - and I missed it by not grabbing the camera and going back. I assume the saved the tree and moved it somewhere else otherwise they would have just removed it before hauling the dirt away.

+ In another odd excavation thing... there's a strip mine along the "back way" to where I work that previously was always behind some hills, never really obvious from the road. They expanded the mine to include a large corn field - and on the edge of that field was a healthy row of sunflowers. In a very similar way to the tree - they hauled all the dirt away and flattened it down several feet so the sunflowers were all on a thin strip of land about 40 feet long by only a few feet. Here again - I didn't come back to take the shot - forgot about it for a few weeks - and when I came back... gone.

Obviously there are a ton of freak moments that you can never recreate - amazing sunsets, someone's expression, etc... the above three were all ones I had a clear shot of having great photos - and missed the boat...

[Spudooli]

I used to miss those moments too. All the time. And then I started taking my camera with me. Everywhere.

Now my biggest problem is only having the wrong lens on the camera, rather than not having the camera at all ;-)

[nygorilla]

Same with me, I almost always have the camera with me, even if its only the point and shoot. Shame about those moments, I would liked to have seen them.

[jkn]

I've taken to bringing the camera along more of the time as well... :-)

[Joe[y]+]

i've really got to get myself a good quality 'pocket camera' - a nikon s1 or something - cause what you just described is exactly what happens to me every week or so! it's frustrating.

[Chazwicke]

Times I have missed:

The time I saw Elvis in a convience store.
The time I saw a UFO
The time I saw Bigfoot and the Loch Ness monster together

I always have my little Canon S400 with me. Just in case one of those moments really does come up. I am a novice photographer and I have lots of candid shots from that little Canon. I recently bought a Konica Minolta Maxxum D7. All my old Minolta lenses fit it. So now I guess I need to learn how to take quality pictures. This camera is a bit too big to carry all the time though.

[davenewt]

I need a smaller camera. I'm lugging my Canon G5 around with me. Good job I have a decent coat with big pockets. Trouble is, I won't be wearing that coat come the Summer!

Hmm
Dave.

[iphimeda]

The recent Bauhaus concert in Brussels: great lightning, lots of front light, but no camera's allowed (and it sure isn't easy to hide a Rebel). =(

[blinking8s+]

i pretty much live with my camera, but often there is only a split moment to capture something i really want to get, and i'll get home to find it totally soft or some important setting way off...seems to happen to me a lot lately

spot news is normally what eats me though, when i go to the grocery store and there is a fire or car wreck, or somethign drastic is happening nearby and i cannot make it...being a photojournalism major that is just part of the job, and i seem to totally SUCK at spot news...

[ctfoto]

Originally Posted by davenewt

I need a smaller camera. I'm lugging my Canon G5 around with me. Good job I have a decent coat with big pockets. Trouble is, I won't be wearing that coat come the Summer!

Hmm
Dave.

check out the Lumix DMC-LX1 (same as Leica's D-Lux 2).

the lens makes it a wee bit chunkier than the slimmest shirt pocket slider, but then, the Leica glass is the reason you want it...

even with the big bright glass, it's tiny. (so small in fact, i'm having a bit of a time getting used to it. it's about a fifth of my Mamiya 6.)

the Lumix retails for $200 less than the Leica (it IS the same camera), and i found a brand new one for $200 less than THAT on eBay. (i paid $450)

(i got the black matte-finished Lumix (DMC-LX1K), and it is sexy!)


-ct