Money ? Check!! Car Keys ? Check!!, Camera Gear ? Oh Hell !!

[iwatkins]

Hi All,

Went out for an all day trawl around the Forest of Dean - Chepstow area yesterday (Saturday) for the WyeDean Stages Rally. For those who don't know, it is a gravel special stage rally through the forests.

Was up with plenty of time, had all my kit ready the night before, had my wellies, had wet weather gear, had my flask made up, everything was as slick as the most well oiled military operation. My route to the event and between stages was planned to the minute after obtaining the official competitors map book.

Anyway, planned my route perfectly and arrived on scene at the allocated time. Perfect.

Poured myself a coffee, had a smoke and waited for the action to start. Went to the car to get my gear out once seeing what the light levels were like. Open boot to retrieve bag. No bag. NO BAG !! :shock: :shock:

Turn on mobile to call home, already have a message waiting "You have left your camera bag on the kitchen table".

Arrrggghh !! :cry:

Anyway, still had a good day watching the rally. Wouldn't have minded except I found the perfect spot for photography. Eye level was at road level on the outside of an open hairpin. Protection by a large ditch and was sunlit through the trees. There was no safety tape, signs nor lots of spectators at this spot, just me an a radio marshall. Couldn't have got a much better spot.

Ah well, you live and learn. :)

Cheers

Ian

[ChrisNardone]

Wow, the whole bag. :cry: I usually just forget one critical item, like CF cards.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Knocks on wood,. haven't forgotten anything ... YET!

No idea why though,. for several years straight in school,. I would make a nice little sandwich or something for lunch.. and prompty leave it on the kitchen table.. every day...

[TeraGram93013]

Wow, the whole bag. :cry: I usually just forget one critical item, like CF cards.

Heh! I used to leave the SmartMedia card in its reader all the time when I was using my Fuji.

I have (so far) not done this with my 10D.

I have, however, left the battery in its charger once.

As Homer would say: D'OH!

[EoSD30fReAk]

i forgot my cf card once.
never the whole bag

and i once forgot to put batteries in an A40! but luckily i was carrying my G2 too

[robertwgross]

I always keep my main camera in a shoulder-strap holster, and I have a small nylon wallet that holds the CF cards. It attaches by Velcro onto the main strap, so it is almost impossible for me to separate the two. Most of my big camera cases and packs are too heavy or bulky for me to carry when covering ten miles or more of nature trail, so I sometimes put one or two individual lenses into plastic bubble wrap, and then into a simple cloth shoulder bag.

I have one tripod that I use only outside, and I have another one that I use only inside, like for weddings. I keep the outside tripod in my car's trunk, so with all of these systems in place, it is almost impossible for me to arrive someplace with half of my gear missing.

Oh, and I keep at least one spare battery pack in the camera holster along with a polarizer.

---Bob Gross---

[defordphoto]

Okay well that's a first. You're pretty brave to share that one with this crowd. We're pretty nice and all but I'm not sure we can let you live this one down. You will probably not be able to forget this one. ;)

Just curious: Why didn't you have your cell phone ON?

[iwatkins]

Okay well that's a first. You're pretty brave to share that one with this crowd. We're pretty nice and all but I'm not sure we can let you live this one down. You will probably not be able to forget this one. ;)

Just curious: Why didn't you have your cell phone ON?

Live it down ? No, I doubt I ever will. But I'm not that bothered as I still enjoyed myself. :)

Phone is switched off when driving. It is now illegal to use a hand held phone while on the move in a car in the UK. I usually switch it off when I get in the car and switch it back on when I get out. (Note - car fitted phones are OK, i.e. if your mobile is car mounted so you don't have to hold it, that is OK)

Cheers

Ian

[cgratti]

Hi All,

Went out for an all day trawl around the Forest of Dean - Chepstow area yesterday (Saturday) for the WyeDean Stages Rally. For those who don't know, it is a gravel special stage rally through the forests.

Was up with plenty of time, had all my kit ready the night before, had my wellies, had wet weather gear, had my flask made up, everything was as slick as the most well oiled military operation. My route to the event and between stages was planned to the minute after obtaining the official competitors map book.

Anyway, planned my route perfectly and arrived on scene at the allocated time. Perfect.

Poured myself a coffee, had a smoke and waited for the action to start. Went to the car to get my gear out once seeing what the light levels were like. Open boot to retrieve bag. No bag. NO BAG !! :shock: :shock:

Turn on mobile to call home, already have a message waiting "You have left your camera bag on the kitchen table".

Arrrggghh !! :cry:

Anyway, still had a good day watching the rally. Wouldn't have minded except I found the perfect spot for photography. Eye level was at road level on the outside of an open hairpin. Protection by a large ditch and was sunlit through the trees. There was no safety tape, signs nor lots of spectators at this spot, just me an a radio marshall. Couldn't have got a much better spot.

Ah well, you live and learn. :)

Cheers

Ian

You need to buy another camera and gear and keep one in the car....

[defordphoto]

Hey Ian, why didn't you just go buy one of those disposable film cameras?









:D

Yeah I know. That would just be so, so wrong...

[Belmondo]

I keep most of my equipment in 3 bags/cases…..a Lowerpro backpack, and two Zero Halliburton aluminum cases. The tripods live in the back of the truck and never leave there except when being used. There’s a 4th regular camera bag that only goes on overnight trips, and the two big lenses travel in the cases that Canon so graciously supplied with the lenses.

All my spare CF cards are kept in a wallet much like Bob Gross describes---it might even be the same thing. Anyway there’s a loop on the side of the backpack that the wallet’s attached to, so it’s always with me.

One day, I hauled all the equipment down to my favorite train-watching location, and went to snap the first picture only to get the ‘NO CF CARD’ message. I’d left it at home stuck in the card reader. No problem. I went to get another CF card from the wallet……no wallet. To suddenly realize that you have misplaced around a dozen CF cards, including a few of 512mb, causes instantaneous sphincter pucker. The photo shoot was rescued when I found an extra card in the other 10D, and I did manage to get some pictures, but the thought of all the missing CF cards cast a pall over the day’s fun and games.

The wallet turned up. Somehow it had detached itself from the backpack and spent the day buried in one of the dark recesses of the closet.

You only do something like that once. The mental checklist forever after includes “check for CF card wallet.”

[TeraGram93013]

To suddenly realize that you have misplaced around a dozen CF cards, including a few of 512mb, causes instantaneous sphincter pucker.

Well maybe for a certain percent of the population, but I'm sure a great many other people would be quickly changing their pants.

[CyberDyneSystems]

Well,. I bet you were at least clever enough to rememebr to set your ISO back to 100!!!!!! ROFLMAO