What's The Dumbest Thing You Did Last Year?

[Rick Anderson]

I have been going back and forth with Sammy's and Canon for nearly two years because of a 50mm lens that is focusing soft. Well, it turns out that the UV filter I was using to protect the lens (I removed it when having calibrated but immediately put it back on when the lens was returned) was not a UV filter at all but a soft-focus filter! DUH!

[jimmeh]

i was half asleep and for some reason tried to put a CF in my 400D the wrong way round (ie short side first). It bent a pin, and cost £150 to repair...

[Mike R]

I can't remember any of the dumb things I did last year. I'll ask my wife, she probably wrote them down! :lol:

[bjyoder]

Placed my 10-22 on its side on a staircase up to a stage. Needless to say, it rolled off the side and hit the ground (about 4 feet!).

It's still ticking, and taking awesome pictures, but it stopped my heart for a few minutes...

[golfecho]

I can't remember any of the dumb things I did last year. I'll ask my wife, she probably wrote them down! :lol:

bw! Been there . . . !!

[Mike R]

bw! Been there . . . !!

It's good to know that I'm not alone.

[AmandaMarie]

manually focused an entire day's trip worth of photos without wearing my glasses.

[golfecho]

manually focused an entire day's trip worth of photos without wearing my glasses.
I borrowed my brother in law's 5DMKII over christmas. He shoots without his glasses, and so adjusted the eyepiece diopter setting. I always leave mine at the zero point, so when I first tried to focus, I thought he was on manual focus, then thought the lens was broken. So I "see" your pain . . .

[Jon Foster]

As usual I didn't follow my gut instinct on a few things... This year I plan to trust my gut more!

Jon.

[JeffreyG]

manually focused an entire day's trip worth of photos without wearing my glasses.

Just view the prints without your glasses too. Should look the same.

[photoguy6405]

I have been going back and forth with Sammy's and Canon for nearly two years because of a 50mm lens that is focusing soft. Well, it turns out that the UV filter I was using to protect the lens (I removed it when having calibrated but immediately put it back on when the lens was returned) was not a UV filter at all but a soft-focus filter! DUH!
Ok, that's funny!!! :lol:


I can't remember any of the dumb things I did last year. I'll ask my wife, she probably wrote them down! :lol:
I think my wife considers it her job to remember mine. :D

[mikekelley]

lost a lens over a cliff. woops.

[ronnier38930]

bad luck on the lens

[Rubi Jane]

Was rushing to setup a job and my Elinchrom Skyport transmitter wouldn't trigger the strobes. I quickly dropped in a new battery and it still didn't work. Then I realized I hadn't even turned the transmitter on...doh!

[MT Stringer]

Was rushing to setup a job and my Elinchrom Skyport transmitter wouldn't trigger the strobes. I quickly dropped in a new battery and it still didn't work. Then I realized I hadn't even turned the transmitter on...doh!

*1 for me also.

[Chairman7w]

I took what I thought were a great shoot full of photos, then got back to upload them into my computer and realized I was at ISO 800 the whole time... Noise city. Fffuuuuu......

[golfecho]

I took what I thought were a great shoot full of photos, then got back to upload them into my computer and realized I was at ISO 800 the whole time... Noise city. Fffuuuuu......

Arg!! Been there, done that!

[dugcross]

Going for days wondering why my flash wasn't going off right. I ended up with blown out photos, other variations of the flash not going off right and sometimes not flashing at all. Couple of weeks later I went looking for my circular polarizer filter and could not find it. Come to find out it was on my lens the whole time, solved the flash problem!

[[Hyuni]]

I got into this very expensive hobby. whoops. heh

[ssnxp]

;9322586']I got into this very expensive hobby. whoops. heh

Same :rolleyes:

[k4show]

I bumped my 30D off the edge of a 4 foot tall counter onto my toe and would not function, probably broke the shutter or something like that. Good news though I was able to sell it broken on ebay (the guy bought it for repair) for $300 USD and got a great deal on a 40D and I love the new features and faster frame rate and autofocus.

[justincase724]

Too many to list, but here's one...

Did a pregnancy shoot for a friend and uploaded them to my external hard drive only, no backup. Used the same flash cards the next day for a wedding, tried downloading all 16 gigs of wedding photos onto the external HD, crashed the hard drive. That was her only pregnancy shoot, the baby is now 3 months old, and she still doesn't have any pictures.

[beichh4046]

Had a shoot scheduled in a park. Decided after packing all my equipment I would go to Lowe's and buy a wagon so I wouldn't have to carry the equipment. Got to the park. Loaded all my equipment onto the wagon. Felt proud of myself for being smart enough to get the wagon to lug my lights,reflectors,Vegabond, and camera bag.

Then I realized I had left my camera bag on my kitchen table 20 miles away.

[quadrant6]

Planned on taking some good astrophotog pics out in the middle of BFE, about 50 miles away since I live in the middle of the city (to get rid of light pollution). Pack my tripod, camera, bag, made sure I packed my battery and it was charged, mem card, etc. Get to the desired location, bust out the tripod... top mount piece of the tripod was left at home on my kitchen counter. The whole shoot was a bust. At best I could get some decent pictures of the moon.. doh!

[Persephone]

Bought a new flash when the batteries started to die fast. Later realized that the batteries were dying themselves. I haven't checked yet, but I bet the original flash would still work fine if I inserted the new batteries in.

[Lightchaser]

Changed a memory card in such a hurry that I threw the full one on the ground intending to pick it up before we left...
It survived a night in a wet paddock and a morning frost but I had quite a sleepless night.

[JeffreyG]

Bought a new flash when the batteries started to die fast. Later realized that the batteries were dying themselves. I haven't checked yet, but I bet the original flash would still work fine if I inserted the new batteries in.

Nothing wrong with two flashes. I wish I had three.

[birdfromboat]

I got pissed at a mall cop that was doing his job as he saw it and gave him a raft of crap as he escorted me to the door. I still don't think he really gets paid to escort people out for having a big camera, especially in a mall that has a really big camera store, but I must have caught him after he had some trouble with another photographer or something cause he did everything but get pushy with me and I stupidly rose to the bait and got angry with him. Thats stupid thing 1.
Stupid thing 2 was coming home and posting here about it and getting told off by people from three continents about how I probably made it worse for the next photographer and how the guy was just doing his job and all like that. If I saw the guy again, I would apologize. He was just doing his job, maybe a little more, but I should have just walked out nice and easy, he was in his rights and I got caught.
oh, and I walked away from 2 different books I was reading while waiting for animals to show or for good light and left them sitting there while I took pictures and forgot about them until the next day or so. I retreived one, the other is in more responsible hands now.

[Persephone]

Nothing wrong with two flashes. I wish I had three.

I'm sure I'll probably love having a second flash once i get an ST-E2, 7D, or a lighting setup with some triggers.

[k_wakasugi]

Had a shoot scheduled in a park. Decided after packing all my equipment I would go to Lowe's and buy a wagon so I wouldn't have to carry the equipment. Got to the park. Loaded all my equipment onto the wagon. Felt proud of myself for being smart enough to get the wagon to lug my lights,reflectors,Vegabond, and camera bag.

Then I realized I had left my camera bag on my kitchen table 20 miles away.

lol this is a good one. reminds me of a time i took a 3 hour drive out to take some photos of the sky, grabbed all my gear, grabbed my tripod, got there and realized the quick release plate was on a different camera i had left at home.

[Brikwall]

After much procrastination I finally dug my Bronica out of the closet but shot half a roll of film before I realized I forgot to remove the slide from the back. And then did the same thing again with the next roll.

Oh, wait, most of you probably don't know what the slide is... or a Bronica... or film... :roll:

[JeffreyG]

After much procrastination I finally dug my Bronica out of the closet but shot half a roll of film before I realized I forgot to remove the slide from the back. And then did the same thing again with the next roll.

Oh, wait, most of you probably don't know what the slide is... or a Bronica... or film... :roll:

What the hell are you talking about? This is a photography forum, not an old folks home!

:D

[Lars Daniel]

I probably did dumber things last year, but in this context:
Dropping my brandnew 85mm 1.8 onto the stone pavement.
Note to myself: Check out some insurance.

[carronade]

While on holiday in Lincolnshire, I decided to go to Wicken Fen nature reserve to, among other things, photograph Dragonflies.
Carefully selected lenses etc.
20 miles down the A1, realised no camera.
Saw lots of dragonflies of course.
Ho hum.

[EmmaRose]

Grow a tumor. Oh wait were we talking about photography? Yeah really doesn't compare.

[neonlazer]

Probably buy a L lens...at least..that's the view of my parents :P

[Bearmann]

What the hell are you talking about? This is a photography forum, not an old folks home!

:D

It's not often that I laugh out loud from reading a forum. :mrgreen:

[Brikwall]

What the hell are you talking about? This is a photography forum, not an old folks home!

:D

It's not often that I laugh out loud from reading a forum. :mrgreen:

I thought it was funny, too, until I realized that I was being relegated to the geriatric ward at the age of 40! *sigh*

;)

[pcj]

Agreed to a "partner" that I can't get rid of now.

What started out as a "pool our resources, share our gear, split any income - hope like hell we break even" has become "I spend all the money, do all the leg work, take all the photos - no where near break even", and because he's a family friend, co-worker, and ride share - and still *says* the right things, I can't get him to back out and leave me to it.

[dustyporch]

Had a shoot scheduled in a park. Decided after packing all my equipment I would go to Lowe's and buy a wagon so I wouldn't have to carry the equipment. Got to the park. Loaded all my equipment onto the wagon. Felt proud of myself for being smart enough to get the wagon to lug my lights,reflectors,Vegabond, and camera bag.

Then I realized I had left my camera bag on my kitchen table 20 miles away.

Sorry, but this one tickled my funny bone. Total LOL!

[oaktree]

Forgot my SD600 at home for a trip to Japan and, during the same trip, decided to leave my 5DmkII in the hotel room so I had no camera (except an iPhone) when I needed one.

[Dawud]

I took what I thought were a great shoot full of photos, then got back to upload them into my computer and realized I was at ISO 800 the whole time... Noise city. Fffuuuuu......

Shot a full day on iso3200 on my 5D Classic.... :mad: