What's the best shot you never took?

SimonSawSunlight

SimonSawSunlight

Simon Fabel
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I've had plenty of shots missed because I was changing film, had my hands full or for some other reason. Of course, we tend to tell ourselves that all of those would have been absolute crackers.



One of the "best" shots I actually did take but never saw was of a turkish man breaking up a furious and bloody fight between a stray dog and someone's pitbull with a hammer. The roll somehow got lost in Istabul or during my move back to Berlin. I really wish it would just magically reappear, not just for those few frames.



What's yours?


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I was not into photography until 2005 or so. Just very few film rolls per year.
I missed the universe, not just bunch of fancy shots. I was traveling a lot and Europe, USSR were changing a lot. Tanks and bullets in front of White House in Moscow. Finland before EU. Tashkent, LA downtown at night and so on...
 
It was some time during the night watch on my last deployment on the USS John C. Stennis, in 2000. I was up on the O-10 level, doing a weather observation. The moon was full and after looking at the sky for clouds, I started counting waves. Just off to the starboard side of the ship, a glistening shape moved the water and the spray of a whale's blow hole erupted from the surface. In half a second it was gone and I had to go back to the weather office to report the conditions.

There's no way I could have caught that, without already knowing it would happen and just waiting for it. I've always thought that some things are just too beautiful and rare to be captured in photos, only to live in our memories.

Phil Forrest
 
Woke up early one morning at my campsite in Utah and walked up into the boulders above to drink a cup of coffee and watch the sunrise. While watching the sun come up over the incredible desert scene, a man and a small boy walked into view in the rocks below. Just as the sun broke over the horizon and a shaft lit the youngster's blonde hair with a fire-like halo, a deer hopped onto a rise right behind them. I just watched as the boy and the man watched the sunrise and the deer watched them watching as I sipped my coffee. An idyllic scene but only lasting for a few seconds. Perhaps the memory is better than the photograph I might have taken. Whatever. I'll always cherish that moment in my memory.
 
A few years back i met a guy - he was dressed up as Jesus, was high on drugs and was trying to tie himself (as if he was crucified) on a traffic light in London.


I had just used the last frame i had on taking picture of a boring window shop. Mobile battery flat too. I just sat there looking at it all...
 
I have missed shots that were not taken due to safety issues then. Once, during a work related trip to Tripoli (Libya), I took a taxi to my “hotel” . I stayed at the main harbor where a tourist ship was the only available hotel left in Tripoli. I had with me my Zeiss Contina . An old nan with a rifle stopped the taxi, and he wanted me to remove the film from my camera. He was one of many Veteran Fighters who were let loose by Muamer Gaddafi. They had the right to shoot anyone if they wanted to.
It seems that the Harbour was off limit for photography.
I never gave up my film!
 
As someone who is famous for the great shots that he didn't take, I will relate two, neither earth-shaking.

The first was during a drive home on a county road. I came on a goose on the side of the road, standing beside, and loudly lamenting the body of her mate, the victim of a hit and run. I watched for about ten minutes as she called out to her mate, then drove off. I didn't take the photo because I hadn't brought a camera with me that morning. I now keep one in the car at all times.

The second was on a hike in a local woodland. I was crossing a footbridge when I looked down and saw that I was directly above a very large crayfish, standing still underwater. Not an amazing image, but uncommon. The water was still and clear, I took my time to set up the shot, and just as I was going to press the shutter, a fish shoots by directly on top of the crayfish, who immediately disappeared.
 
Soooo many to list. Mostly I came to the realization I wasn’t cut out for combat photography due to the number of photos I wasn’t taking ;)
 
I can't recall any at the moment. Not that there weren't any, I just don't recall them. I haven't taken anything but family vacation or work related in probably 10 years, give or take, and that mostly on a 6 mp P&S camera.

I try not to dwell on missed photos like that; after all, they are gone, why lament over what can't be recovered?
 
Back in the late 70's there was a girl from high school I had a huge crush on who lived around the block from me...we were good friends and I would go over her house quite often...I asked if she'd be up to shoot some semi-nude stuff...they had these "Ditto" pants back then and I offered to buy her a pair if she'd pose wearing just the pair of unzipped pants...she was up for it...
I never bought the pants. I never got the shot...that one still bothers me...
 
nikon_sam said:
Back in the late 70's there was a girl from high school I had a huge crush on who lived around the block from me...we were good friends and I would go over her house quite often...I asked if she'd be up to shoot some semi-nude stuff...they had these "Ditto" pants back then and I offered to buy her a pair if she'd pose wearing just the pair of unzipped pants...she was up for it...
I never bought the pants. I never got the shot...that one still bothers me...
Click to expand...

"I never bought the pants. I never got the shot...that one still bothers me..."
For photographic reasons??????????? :)
 
In the late 1980s I was on a bus heading for work. As the bus pulled away from a mid block stop on the old Portland Transit Mall, there was one blind fellow leading another blind fellow across the street. The early morning light threw their long shadows and left them in silhouette.
 
I was in London on the 87 bus headed to Wandsworth. It was the golden hour, and in the autumn, and the sun was just cracking through the clouds. Somewhere on East Hill the bus stopped in front of a fixer upper, and just east of the people getting on and off, was a rooster standing in the driveway bathed in the light. It looked me in the eye and laughed "make sure you have a camera with you next time"
 
three I still remember that got away. The first I mentioned years ago. At sunset I was driving by this newly plowed field that had an old barn right in the middle of it. The setting sun was shining right down the hall of the barn. I had no camera with me. A couple of days later I drove by hoping the sun hadn't shifted it's position too much. Would you believe the barn was completely gone. Not even a trash pile left. No second chance.

Second I was on a commercial flight home. I had a window seat. There were thunderstorms in the area that we were flying around. At a distance off to my left was a magnificent thunderhead cloud many thousands of feet higher than my plane. Suddenly there appeared my aircraft's sister flight headed the other direction with this monstrous thunderhead as a backdrop. Absolutely spectacular, but you can'e anticipate things like that.

Third think off yourself standing in the middle of a long straight railroad track. Look in one direction and the tracks narrow to a point at infinity. Now turn around, and the tracks narrow to a point at infinity in the other direction. Now look up in the sky and there is a bean of light that does exactly the same thing. It comes from a hole in the clouds (point source)widens over your head, and narrows to a point at infinity in the other direction. Sorry, didn't have a fisheye lens with me.

Life is interesting!
 
The week before Easter, two years ago. Sunrise at Newfound Gap in the Great Smokey Mountains of Tennessee. It was absolutely freezing, and my clothing was not up to the task for keeping warm. But, risking frostbite, I persisted with the OM-1n on a tripod, and several lenses and took a whole roll of the great scenery. When I went to rewind the film, there was no resistance in the rewind knob - the camera was empty.
 
Mine was the shot I could have taken of my friend nearly catching a fish. The fish got away and I had forgotten my camera. ;)
 
About six years ago there was a diner that I'd eat lunch at. I would often bring a small camera like a Minox 8x11, a Pentax 110, or a Retina IIa because the diner itself, inside and out, and the area around it were interesting.

Anyway, on this one day when I actually did have my camera, I was sitting in a booth. In front of me were other low booths, the main aisle off to my right, and additional seating further to the right. The place was crowded. I was having lunch and my camera was just sitting on the table in front of me. Then, coming down the aisle towards me and before I could react was a little girl followed by her mom, followed by her grandmother. The family resemblance was obvious. From my perspective, it was like seeing a single person, the young girl, followed by her later selves. That thought occurred to me in an instant. It would've been a stunning photo, but I would've had to have seen it coming.

Second missed shot, same diner, I'm in a booth with a counter and stools to my left. The place is very busy. I'm occupied with my lunch and probably reading a photo forum on my phone. At some point I look up and see three athletic guys in black suits sitting at the counter, their backs to me. In an instant the two outer guys swivel to face the center guy for a moment - it's a striking pose and contrast. It would've been a very good photo. But this time - no camera.
 
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