Stupid things you did

repairing old lenses or just opening them to clean has become a hobby of mine. Once I had scored a rather rare and to me also rather dear Voigtlaender Color Heliar SL f2.5/75mm, relatively cheap because it came in Canon breech mount.
I thought that one inner element might have a slight haze and decided to try cleaning it. It was a simple setting, me "on the road" in Asia sitting on a tiled floor, and there it happenend: An inner element fell out and on the floor and the glass chipped on one side!
Man, was I furious about myself and my stupidity! Since then I only open a lens if it really is necessary, and always use a soft surface to be working on, usually on top of a plastic plate that also would catch any small parts like screws falling out.
Resale value dropped considerably but now I shall keep it anyway. Luckily I can't detect any problems in performance! I guess because the chipped glass element is about in the middle of the lens. I guess it might lead to some reflections under certain circumstances. What do you think? Could it be that the chipped element really does not or hardly compromises performance?
 
For the digital users among us - I've forgotten to re-set film simulations, contrast settings, and exposure compensation too many times to want to try to remember! Oh, and when I tried to take a picture of my photo-jounalist son, I forgot the flash won't work on my Fuji X-t2 when the shutter's set to electronic.
 
charjohncarter said:
One complete roll in Mexico. It was actually in the camera but I neglected to slot it. The great thing about that failure is the film window shows you what film you haven't slotted.
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Sweet. To complete the catastrophe I hope you then rewound so the unused film was inaccessible in the canister.
 
I misloaded my M6 last month. I still can't believe I was that clumsy having been a Leica user for 20 years. Normally after I replace the bottom plate I would wind on a bit and see if the rewind lever moves which means the gears are catching. I should have looked if the lever moved every frame.
 
* on holldiay in Paris, in Jardin du Luxembourg I misloaded my F3 and took some great shots of my kids playing there, people playing petanque etc. I totally forgot to check the winding-a thing that I always do...
*I regret selling my Pentax 67 with 105mm 4 years ago for €300-they are selling for much more now!
 
Yesterday afternoon I left my camera bag in a cafe. It wasn't until this afternoon I discovered it missing. Inside was my OM4-Ti, Zuiko 28mm f/2, Instax Mini 9, prescription sunglasses and my diary. You can imagine how I felt. Rang the cafe, and 10mins later they rang back to say they had it. All contents present and accounted for. If I was a cat, I've got 8 lives left!
 
Hasselblad

1. Bending to tripod, camera still around neck, shutter trips on my belt.
2. Coming to the end of a roll at the New Year fireworks much sooner than I'd expected. It was the Tri-X magazine I was meant to have finished earlier in the day to make space for more Ektar.....Champagne that time.
3. Forgetting to wind the magazine ten times before the first shot. No picture.
 
Last week I developed a roll of Tri-X in "old" R09. Roll completely blank - no frame numbers. Guess it doesn't last forever after all.
 
Shooting some artists for a book one Saturday, 5 rolls into the tank and used fixer before developer. Been processing for years and a background in Chemistry and never done it before.
Contacted all the artists and told the truth.
They all laughed and welcomed me into the club with invitations to return and re-shoot them.
 
These first two I’ve posted before, so here’s the condensed version:

25+ years ago: 6-hour car trip to a mountain lake with Nikon F2 and two identical 36-exp color rolls. Make photos, drive 6-hours back. The result: one blank roll and one double-exposed roll. Have never gone back to the lake.

This year: Good day shooting with my Hasselblad. For some reason, I deliberately decide not to rewind. Get home, pop out the film insert. Oops. Luckily, none of the frame areas were light struck!

Here’s stupid stuff from the 1970’s, when success made me too confident in my abilities:

When developing film in my plastic Yankee tank, I’d get impatient and twirl the thermometer thingy that you use for agitation. I got too aggressive. I ruined film several times more before I realized my aggressive agitation was causing the film to come out of the spiral grooves and stick together. This caused undeveloped areas which became light-struck when I took the film out.

The worst one: one day the computer scientist Donald Knuth came to UCLA, where I was a student, to give a lecture. Naturally I brought my camera to make photos. By that time I was experienced in developing and printing. After I developed the film with Knuth on it, it was all blank. Expired developer. I had been too cheap to buy and mix fresh chemicals.
 
I trusted a complete stranger to rope me down at dawn into a dark hole (Lower Antelope Canyon). If he had decided to let go of me, I would be a skeleton inside Antelope Canyon. It turned out that Frank (Navajo) was a decent person, and he did not let go of me as I dangled inside the Canyon in darkness.
 
Counting waves, I think I know my stuff when it comes to predicting waves. They come in sets. Sometimes you miscount, or you get careless... sadly me and my camera took a saltwater shower. The only saving grace was that at the last second I ripped the hat off my head and placed it in front of my camera thus mitigating the dousing.

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Fujifilm GFX 50R
Fujinon GF 30mm f3.5 R WR lens
Classic Chrome Film Simulation
Jogashima Island, Japan - May 2021
*Image was resized smaller than original
 
After doing this photography thing for almost a half century, I have a litany of stupidities. Stuff like opening the camera back with film inside, shooting with an empty camera, loading 4x5 film backwards in a stack of holders, failing to notice film not advancing in the camera, leaving darkroom doors partially ajar while loading film, driving away from a scene with a lens on the roof of the car, formatting a card without having downloaded the images and many, many others.

But I'll never admit any of them. Wouldn't be "professional".
 
I run into a Zeiss Ultron lens, the one with the concave element (not the color-ultron). It had some fungus and I decided to clean it. Opened the lens and discovered it to be a job far too complicated for me. Lost the lens. These are going for over $600 nowadays.
 
Around 2005 I could have bought a Rolleiflex E model, 2.8, in beautiful condition, with a raft of accessories, for $400...and I didn't.
 
lynnb said:
Last week I developed a roll of Tri-X in "old" R09. Roll completely blank - no frame numbers. Guess it doesn't last forever after all.
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I gave up on my year 2005 R09 last summer. When restarting my film development after a year or more I usually try my R09 on the leader of a film to make sure that it gets black - that way I to some extent know that it (somewhat) works.
 
Buying a Kowa 66. Then building a Kowa 66 system. All this when I already own a full complement of Hassie bodies, lenses, and finders. Duh.
To anyone who ever considers buying a Kowa: DON'T!!!!
 
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