We are all human and everyone makes mistakes at some point.

With light fading fast, I ran a quarter mile down the beach, long lens and monopod in tow. There was an offshore breeze blowing and 8 foot waves, which never happen in Florida. I wanted to get some shots of a couple of guys surfing before the sun faded past the waves. Anyway, completely winded from the run I made it just in time. Checklist: check iso, check aperature, check shutter speed, check to make sure image stabalizer on..snap, snap, snap.....what!!! forgot memory card (card back at house quarter mile away)

Also, I was shooting a beautiful calm clear day at Bahia Honda State park in the Florida Keys. I shot for hours and  got some great shots!! to bad they were all at Iso 800.

Anyone else??

did the memory card thing a few times.... fortunately each time I got a little smarter and didn't take as many great pictures of .....nothing..  Now, it's the first thing I do whenever I pic the camera up.... check for the flash card..

..... here's a classic I'm sure many have done....  I do a lot of nature stuff, spend a lot of time sitting waiting and waiting for just that perfect shot, ....and then, there it is!!!!  Punch it, hear the click followed immediately by... beep beep beep....  had it set on remote... 

...how incredibly stupid is this one.... went out on a shoot one time, got all set up ready to do it... only to find every....every... battery I had was dead.  I was kind of ticked at myself that day. But, never did that again either.  Happily, I do learn from my stupidities...  LOL

... years ago, I wanted some shots along a river bank... waded out into the river up to about my waist. Took the shots and started back in. Didn't get too far and... I slipped, went down on my knee, thrust my hand with camera up into the air, dropped the camera, however, I always (even to this day) wrap the strap around my wrist. Well the camera came swinging around, had this huge metal lens hood on it, wacked me right in the face. Hour later I walked out of the e-room with three new stitches over my eye.  I  DID  save the camera, didn't hit the water and I got the shots... so in the end, I was pleased.  LOL  =tom

No film, or didn't have it threaded right, so it never advanced. On a day trip, one time deal. But that's too easy. No memory card? Nah, I have that blocked, so I can't pull that one. Dead batteries? Come on, everyone does that. Hardly worth mention. Leaving the ASA set for the wrong film speed like 400 and loading 100 film... if it never happened, you never owned a film camera. 

This is probably the worst and it happened in the early 70s. Got a call at night that I needed to be at the radio station in the morning to shoot a celebrity who was being interviewed. Specific time, within 15 minutes from start to finish.

I took out the Honeywell flash (that should date this a little?) Put it on the charger, checked, it's fine, took a charge, flashed, I'm OK. Left it plugged into the wall, went to sleep.

Up in the morning, packed up the gear, drove to the station. No flash! it was dead. Seems that I plugged it into the wall, but left it on, and it drained faster than it charged, all night long, plus all the way to the station.

But I'm not dead. I always carried a folding flash and some 25B bulbs in the bag for such and emergency! I'm saved. Well, no, not really. Batteries in that flash that I never used... were also dead.

Took some available light photos, no tripod, with the announcer and the subject, now yelling at me, to get on with it, they had things to do. Pushed the film and got some horrible grainy photos.

That agent never called me again. Now that's blowing it big time and being stupid! 

Just this month I went to my sister's - 750km for Easter...   I know some teenagers in this town that will model for me... wouldn't you know it - every piece of equipment that I own

- and two half charged batteries - and NO CHARGER!!! 

I knew it too, once I was about 200km from home.  It was a dilema, let me tell you.  Do I turn around for it?  And I took the Yellowhead Highway as well, there is 1 city of about 30,000 on this highway in Northern Saskatchewan... I doubt they even have a Nikon store.

I managed to get about 100 shots... Haven't edited yet, but hopefully my own approval ratio will be high on these ones!

There is a lesson to this story though... I'm going back to this town to shoot graduation and have several other sessions that week.  I will definitely NOT be forgetting my 2 chargers!!!

My camera has this darn habit of staying in the last ISO used, irregardless of mode.  Normally not an issue, in fact I've developed bad habits simply because I never change the ISO from 100, however...

My brother had a destination wedding and I had one of the two fancy cameras in the group.  I always shoot with my cam in manual, but the first night somebody picked up my cam, shifted into night portrait mode and took a shot.  Which of course kicked my camera into 800 iso, and my bad habits never checked it again the rest of the trip.  Boy that sucked when I downloaded all 4000 pictures that I took and realized that all but about 2-300 were at 800 iso.

Here's my list!
http://www.ronshoots.com/2007/09/04/dumb-stuff-ive-done-on-shoots/

Out of town wedding 1998 - 300 mile drive. Had all camera gear. Forgot all luggage. Clothes, toiletries, etc. Small town, but luckily it had one of the "mart" stores that was open so was able to get shampoo etc, and even a decent yet cheap dress and shoes for the festivities.

My packed clothing bag was smaller than some of the gear bags, and I just missed it on the way out.

Camera disasters? I've been very lucky. One strobe disaster on a shoot, but was not familiar with the new gear. So that's a mistake I promised myself not to let happen again.

I have many situations like this, most of them is about forgeting lens, model releases etc...

Something interesant I was learn when I'm look behind scene video from one shootin. It is 20min video taken with point and shoot camera and is really disappointing when I see what shoots are missed. You can see what images are taken if you look at image gallery and what is not if see video.

image gallery:
http://www.shock.co.ba/index.php?option=com_zoom&Itemid=2&catid=14

behind scene 20min video:
http://www.shock.co.ba/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=7

Well 2 moments come instantly as a flashback at this topic.

I was saving for months for my first SLR 2 years ago.  Few days after I bought it I went to a friends boat and I was shooting lighthouses. Suddenly a speeding boat passed near us and huge wave was going in our direction. Our boat was missing a window just where I was standing and I put the camera quickly  inside the boat trough  that  missing window  to protect it from the wave. Unfortunately the wave that was coming also went in the boat trough that same window , a gave my camera a long cold bath. It was a compete damage so I had to buy new one. The lens survived , it was 70-200 f4 L and I highly recommend it 

Second stupidity was not so long ago , I was shooting my first wedding , everything was going great. They told it was going to be a pause after the ceremony so I can rest for an hour or so , so I put my batteries to charge and had a tea cause I caught a cold few days ago.

In a moment people jump on me to go and shoot a huge group photo with about 300 people at a city square.
I took my camera and run quickly , and there were 300 people standing on some stairs and waiting me for some time.

First thing I saw was my zoom lens that i forgot to change , I was all in panic , cause I couldn't push 1/5 of all those people in a shot. I run to take my wide lens and 5 minutes later when I come back people were going crazy standing there in a small rain. I turned my camera on , but , what , I forgot my all batteries , and If I go away again I risk that someone kill me in anger. So I did a set of shoots without batteries , people were smiling , changing places , and I was just pretending to shoot. I was just waiting the moment when someone will notice that my flash ain't  working , but no one did. In the middle time there were some kids with PS cameras shooting near me so I ask them If I can use their photos later , and I had some work in photoshop but it turned out well.

 

So I did a set of shoots without batteries , people were smiling , changing places , and I was just pretending to shoot.

hahahhaa.... you are the legend!!!