Stupid things you did

I’ve admitted this before, pouring straight indicator stop concentrate into a tank with APX25. Thinking “that’s kinda strong, how did I mix that wrong?” And pouring out a paste of black goo...

Just last month at the farmers market here I got a jug of the first batch of cider. Opened it and as the pressure was released the jug got squeezed just enough to send a dollop of cider out onto my 35/2. Wiped it off, got home and did a more thorough job. Next day the aperture ring would barely move. Just got it back from DAG last week.

I also just shot with an empty camera recently. Did somehow notice immediately that the wind-on was even smoother than warm butter. Of course no film in my pocket, we were only out for an hour or two and the camera was at 0.
 
Selling my Yashica mat 124g.

Selling my Bronice ETRSi with 75mm, 50mm and 40mm lenses.

Can someone ask doctor who to go back in time and smack me in the gob and say "Don't do ti, Moron!"
 
Walked out on a very high abandoned railroad trestle with trusty F2 in hand. The rails and ties had been removed. The only place to stand on were 12 inch wide planks. After reaching the middle (about 200 feet above the river) I shot a roll of film and walked back to the car. Rewinding revealed that the film came off of the spindle and not a single exposure had been made. I couldn't face another "tightrope walk" back onto the trestle. I filed all of those non recorded on film images in the things seen but not photographed file in my head.
 
Earlier this year, I shot my last roll of APX100, in an Exakta Varex. I loaded the film onto the plastic spool in the changing bag, and processed it. When I lifted the spool out of the tank, I saw that I hadn't reassembled the spool correctly, after washing it. Only the first few shots were developed - the rest of the film was wound together in a clump, and unprocessed.
 
Opening the back of my camera before rewinding after shooting a roll of portraits with my biggest crush back then. This was on a deployment back in 2000 aboard the aircraft carrier we were stationed on.

Phil Forrest
 
Shooting a Leica M2 past 40 something frames before realizing the film was never loaded properly.
 
I just (1/2 hour ago) developed a roll of color film in B&W chemistry. I had specifically chosen color film for the subject matter (colorful art.) I even looked at the roll before putting it into the tank "Kodak 400" (not, as I imagined, 400TX.)

Oh well, there are some sort of images on it, I suppose I'll scan it once it dries. Wow - it dries MUCH faster than trix!
 
Stand up very proudly with my M6TTL in the middle of a blues concert, compose and focus and then fiddle with the aperture ring of my 90mm lens. Why aren't the values changing in the viewfinder? I turn and turn and turn until I hear a voice:

"Your lens cap is on!"

Done the same thing with my M6-TTL, while photographing along Historic Route 66. Why won't those damn red arrows stop blinking. Stood there for, had to be five minutes. Finally walked back to the car, then noticed the lens cap was still on.

Aargh!!!

Oh yeah, and when I was nineteen, me and some buddies went climbing in the Rocky Mountains for the first time, and I brought my Canon TX. Shot 36 Kodachrome exposures of some of the most breathtaking scenery I had ever encountered. Got home to Ohio and had the film processed. Turns out I shot 36 exposure on the first frame of the roll, everything else was blank.

Best,
-Tim
 
My "no film in the camera" experience was spring break in NOLA... Rue Bourbon in the French Quarter...

lens cap on a IIIf in Germany...
 
After two weeks of photography in Switzerland, my wife and I were taking the train back to Rapperswi-Jonal outside of Zurich. Had to make a very quick change of trains in a small town 1.5 hours outside of Zurich. Made the switch just in time. Sitting in our seats now bound for Rapperswil, my wife asked, "where's your backpack?" which had all my exposed films in it. It was still on the other train, forgotten, left behind on the overhead rack. Panic seized my heart as I looked out the window and saw our old train with my backpack full of film head toward Zurich and Basel. Luckily, we got to Rapperswil before the old train with my backpack full of ilm made it to Zurich. The Rapperswil stationmaster telephoned the train with my backpack, described the item, and the conductor was able to retrieve it and leave it at the Zurich lost and found during the train's stop at Zurich. Took train from Rapperswil to Zurich and was luckily reunited with my film. Anywhere else in the world and my films would have been lost. God bless the Swiss railway system.
 
Anywhere else in the world and my films would have been lost.

Soon after arriving in Tokyo I left my bag with camera, wallet, etc. on the subway... picked it up at Lost & Found about an hour later... mind you it was 30 years ago ; )

More recently it was my obento (lunch) which likewise found it's way to Lost & Found.
 
left a pricey sekonic meter on the roof of the car. drove off. left my macbook pro on the roof of my car, drove off. both smashed up quite nicely, but still work.
 
Developing a roll of HP5+ with DD-X in a JOBO tank and finding the tank empty after opening and the roll of film still on the counter.

Two times in a row!
 
We were in GA and a building being built caught my eye. Terri gracefully sat in the car while I shot half a roll in my FED2.

Figured out that I had left the lens cap on when I saw all those blank frames on the processed film. Not the first time I have stepped into that hole.

Where can I buy the tee shirt? ;-)
 
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Just remembered shooting a bunch of sandpipers freshly hatched and playing around along a rocky steam here in VT. Back in 1999 or so? F100 with Provia400 and a 500mm lens. I was in a little blind I’d set up a few days earlier after flushing the mother on the nest. Been back every day since. Was shooting away when I thought “that’s a lot of frames”. The camera was set to multiple exposure. Shot like 50 or more on the first frame. Reset the drive mode and made the rest of the roll, but certainly missed the best ones because the light changed for the worse.
 
"The camera was set to multiple exposure. Shot like 50 or more on the first frame."

That's a lot of sandpipers in one frame, sepiareverb.
 
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