I wanted to inject some humor for all of us thus thought of this topic- here is one of mine (sadly a true story)-

While shooting on a small ladder I decided to push my body as far as it could stretch to the object and suddenly I lost my balance and fall off the ladder backwards and down the wall I slide in my studio with a very loud thump. So how I was able to keep my camera in front of me and not break it. My wife came running into the studio to see what in the world had happen to me! I told her what happen and she immediately ask me how many beers did I have before the photo session- sadly, none but I had a few right after that fall to take some of the pain away on my back side 

Dumbest, and als most dangerous thing I ever did in the studio :  I was working with candles and incense, and an old incense holder.  I did not want to burn my fingers while putting the little round black charcoals in the burner, so I used pincers, lit the charcoal and tried to put it in the burner.  I'm rather clumsy with pincers, so I dropped the glowing black coal on the floor ... a synthetic BLACK carpet.  No idea how far the ROUND charcoal had rolled through the studio.  Result :  I KNEW there was a burning black coal on my black carpet, but I could not SEE it. Not even with all the lights on. Total panic.  Then I pulled myself together, filled a bucket with water, took the fire extinguisher and waited till I could see smoke or flames starting ...  Suddenly I heard a hissing sound behind me, and yes, the fire had started and I poured the whole bucket on it.  That was the last time I used fire in the studio.

Ouch!  I fell off a ladder once, the bottom rung grasped hold of my foot and twisted it giving me a terribly sprained ankle.  Another time the ladder slipped and I fell down on top of ladder and nearly broke a rib.  Ladders are evil devil spawn!

BTW i gave all of you dumb asses a big +1 just cause you are dumb!!! we should start a dumb club

BTW i gave all of you dumb asses a big +1 just cause you are dumb!!! we should start a dumb club

Only if I am appointed King of the Dumb Club 

Many years ago I packed the car for a shoot, drove off and stopped at some traffic lights. They turned green and as I was turning right all the coloured gels for the flashes fell off the roof! How I laughed stopping the traffic running over them. Managed to to pick them all up and thought it could easily have been camera parts. I still check the roof before a journey!

Way back when I'd been shooting assignments for just a couple of years, I was asked to shoot an article including the cover with the president of a major national TV network at his home. It was a big deal for a local magazine and my editor was there directing some of the shots. I set up my lights while the writer was interviewing him and shot some photos then as well as afterwards.  Everything was being done at once since this man was obviously a very busy person but he and his family were incredibly nice. His wife had been a professional photographer before they had kids. I got some terrific shots of him and his family but when I went home and processed them I realized that instead of setting my ISO to "LOW" (on my old Nikon D70), I'd gone one stop too far so it was set to 1600! Incredibly embarrassing!

The shots for inside the magazine were fine but he was wearing blue and the possibilities for the cover were all way too grainy. I had to call him up and explain the situation. He was terrific about it. We decided I'd get there early one morning and shoot some photos of him outside - no lights - faster. As it turned out, his son had not yet left for school and I got some great shots of them throwing a football around (which they later purchased from me along with some of the original shots) as well a new shot for the cover. As I was leaving he told me he was glad it happened since he got to spend the morning with his son - a rare treat - he was probably just being nice but I was so lucky it worked out so well.

Okay, I have another one to tell- don't everyone laugh at me after you read this one. 

While at Disney world I decided to bring my camera into the water ride (inflated inter-tubes) to get that ultimate shot- well, as you can probably guess someone from behind me hit me hard and flipped my inflatable inter-tube and off I went into the water! Now I was at the bottom of the man made river and my camera! That it was ruined! Thank God it was only a point and shoot camera and not my high end dSLR! Still very embarrassing...


 

Packing up gear after a wedding and I always take both batteries out and put one in my mouth to hold it while I put the other in it's case. Accidently got the battery turned around and got myself a pretty good shock. Tingly face on the drive home. Lasted close two hours.

While I was filming a music video, I noticed that one of my quick release plates was kind of strange. I tightened the screw and thought nothing of it. When I came back in from a cigarette break (I don't smoke any more!) a bit later in the shoot, everyone in the room was really quiet and looking at me with fear in their eyes. Turns out the quick release failed and my 5DII fell off the tripod from about 6 feet. The body was fine, but the lens had to be sent in for repair.

Even funnier was the time that my wife and I took a few friends up into the Adirondack mountains to picnic and take photos along the Moose River. I dropped something small and cheap (I can't remember what) and my buddy was on a rock trying to reach it. I asked him to give me his camera which was on a neck-strap. He declined. I asked him to hold onto my arm for support. He declined. He fell into the river with his D40x. It wouldn't have been funny except he looked like a cat in a bathtub. The look of pure panic on his face just set me off. We both look back and laugh now because that was the incident that made him buy his first t2i and now he makes a living as a video producer.

I have done plenty of dumb things but this is the funniest. While doing a fashion shoot with a pretty model, I was surprised to see all my strobes trigger without me tripping the shutter. Seeing my bewildered face the model pointed to the floor of the open door behind me. My four year old grandson had sneaked into the studio with a clunky old point and shoot that I let him use. He was laying on the floor behind me and took his own picture. His flash triggered the studio lights.

for me it was shooting a story for a major travel magazine on the subject of  afternoon tea and tea in general. i had access to one of the top high society places for afternoon tea, but the access was limited to no more than 10 minutes so as to not disturb the guests, and i shot like there was no tomorrow, tons of great stuff. in my moment of glory, i at one point sort of figured out it was one hell of a long roll of film, never ending...
once i figured out i totally screwed up big time and was shooting away with no film, i did actually get a moment to put a roll of film in and managed to cover my ass in the shoot - barely as the good stuff got away, but oh boy did i feel dumb!!!

A photographer on a newspaper I ran came in from a job one day, went into the darkroom and came out red-faced to admit he had forgotten to load the camera.
He was a damned good photographer anyway (totally out of my class) and went on to become a major TV film cameraman and director (most people here have probable seen some of his work).  Making a mistake doesn't mean you are stupid.

I had one even dumber, life-threatening experience which was so embarrassingly stupid that I won't even admit to it here. Suffice it to say that it could have put me in line for a Darwin Award.

oh please please please tell us??