You're never too old to make a rookie mistake

Andrew_McP

Andrew_McP

Andrew_McP

Soldato
Joined
21 Apr 2003
Posts
3,356
Location
South North West
Imagine the scene. It's a gloriously sunny day in early May. The sun is beaming down, and although the wind chill is far worse than you expected, your half hour walk into the countryside is rewarded almost immediately.

A kestrel flies from behind the hedgerows behind you, concentrating hard on flight in the tough, blustery conditions, and either doesn't notice you or doesn't care. It comes to a hover only about 20 yards away, not so high up. Its wings are buffeted wildly by the wind as it holds station with almost unnatural ease. The sunlight flashes off its crazily angled wings, illuminating them perfectly.

You're reaching into your bag, pulling out the 40D & 100-400L, secretly smug that these regular trips out are paying off. You raise your camera to your eye, deftly flicking the power switch as you do, and...

No CF.

No CF?

Yes smug fool, no CF, on account of the card being sat plugged into your PC one and a half miles away.

Darn! But fortunately I always carry at least one spare. I mean, you'd be daft not to, right? That'd be crazy.

Mmm... but not in this bag. Not even a nasty little 1GB emergency card.

And for over half an hour the kestrel flew back & forth across the field, regularly coming closer to my position than ever before as it fought with the unpredictable gusts.

I think it knew.

Andrew McP... off to put some spare CF cards in some bags.
 
I always leave the door open if there is no card in my camera! Mine pretty much just gets used for product photography, and I once took about 10 photos without the card in! That was half an hour wasted.
 
This is why my card never comes out of my camera, only to swap when I'm, on location; I do all my transfers from the camera its self
 
Done same as the OP.

I spent 40mins checking on a map for a good position for a motorway trails shot, it was a 50minute drive from me. Packed my camera, lens, tripod etc...all set to go.

Jumped in the car (which at the time had a 2.5L V6 in it so was not cheap to run) drove to my location up...spent 10 mins picking my spot, set the tripod on, placed the camera on it, lens cover off...a further 5 mins making sure it was level, all perfect...flick camera on

'NO CF'

After dealing with the issue in a calmly manner (swearing a lot) I jumped back in the car, blitzed it home, grabbed the cf card, drove back, took the bloody photo and then drove home.

Took roughly 5-6hours for that one photo due to that **** up :p
 
I've made loads of mistakes but, touch wood, I've not managed to forget a CF card yet. It's one of my pet fears (along with turning up at the airport with my passport) so I always check and double check.

Good to see you've taken it in good humour!
 
PhillyDee said:
I always leave the door open if there is no card in my camera!
Click to expand...

That's a good habit, and one I usually share. However if the battery hasn't had much exercise the camera sometimes stay in my bag and I just whip out the card, closing the flap in case it snags.

I think I will stop being lazy from now on. That NO CF message is one I never want to see again. :-)

Andrew McP
 
oldbag said:
Not as good as playing with the ISO, forgetting and then taking a load of photos at the wrong ISO level.
Click to expand...

done that.. shooting in a gloomy indoor arena at ISO2500+ then going outside into bright daylight.. still, you only do it once. or maybe twice. okay a few times..

:rolleyes:
 
Ive done forgot the battery before :P

Put it on charge the night before left the camera out so it reminds me somethings missing. Over slept the next day grabbed the camera put it in the bag and went off on my trip. Got to the location whipped the camera out, "hmm this is abit light". Turned it on and nothing. Panic started to set in untill I opened the battery compartment. Was not impressed with that one.

Now I carry a spare battery all the time in my kit and a spare SD card. Not making that noobie error again.
 
PhillyDee said:
I always leave the door open if there is no card in my camera!
Click to expand...

That's my habit too, though I did my a small mistake this weekend, I'd downloaded the cards in a hurry and not gotten a chance to format them in my camera (my habit is to format in camera rather than in the reader once they're empty...). I'd shot a half dozen frames before I realised I was using a partially full card - too many old shots to delete one by one too.
 
Well I have recently come back from Madrid and the weather was pretty good.
My Up **** was I left the hotel went woundering for about an hour. Got on to an open top tour bus and went to the other side of Madrid to the palace Real, very impressive I thought.
So I reached for the said DSLR swithch it on took aim and nothing happened !
I had left the battery plugged in the charger back at the hotel !
And before you type in this thread get a spare, well I have one and left that at home in the UK ! !
pants

However I do carry the compact that the wife uses, still not the ame though !
 
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