[David Smith]

Having recently posted a thread about missing some Woddpecker shots because of failing to check the settings I was (pleasantly) surprised to find out many others had done similar.

It got me wondering-how many of us have had SERIOUS mishaps i.e. wedding photographs that didn't turn out.
The nearest I had was with the old Minolta film camera-I finished the wedding and opened the back to take the film out, only to realise I hadn't re-wound the film OOPS!
Come on-as my granny used to say "confession is good for the soul"

[postcardcv]

I've had a couple of annoying ones...

Last year we took a trip to Cornwall, one day I managed to get my first ever photos of shag and gannet and also finally got a specific shot of herring gull that I'd been trying for. Got back to where we were staying put the card in the computer only to find it had corrupted. I tried a number of things to recover the images but they were gone for good, I'm still trying to get the herring gull shot again!

The worst for me came two weeks after I got my Sigma 500 prime, I was out shooting when some how my tripod got knocked over. It landed camera first so the lens survived unmarked (thankfully) but my camera was in bits. I felt sick. Luckily I was insured but I still had to go 3 weeks without a camera while it got sorted. Needless to say I am now paranoid about my ttripod being knocked over.

I've made a few errors like you did with eth woodpeckers, but thankfully not with anything too unusual. As for wedding photos disasters, I'm shooting my sisters wedding in September so hope I don't end up with tales to tell!

[crabplover]

Originally Posted by David Smith

Come on-as my granny used to say "confession is good for the soul"

Back in 1990 I was in my very early twenty's, On my third ever trip birding abroad and staying at skala Eressos in Lesbos. Birding was fantastic, but during the hottest part of the day I found myself lazeing on the beach admireing the view (naked scandinavian women paradeing themselves along the beach)
I thought it would be fun to take a few shots of these gorgeous blondes just to rub it in with a mate back home, who could'nt make the trip.
It was in the days of E6 slide film which I processed myself at home in the kitchen.
I thought I kept the offending film seperate, but eventually it all mixed together, and when I processed them all back home the horror emerged......
Half a dozen images of naked scandinavian girls with a near full frame Alpine Swift transposed, having put the same film through the camera twice produceing an unintentional double exposure!
The Alpine Swifts would have made very good slides - good composition, sharp focus, and well exposed. I still showed the pictures to my mate back home, and he was gutted, but not as much as I was.

[Doug Greenberg]

Back in the late sixties (yes, I'm OLD) I got what I thought were some great shots of one of the first Yellow-billed loons to appear in California. This was near Inverness, California. Very excited, I put the roll of film in my jacket pocket as I headed back for the car. I forgot that there was a hole in that pocket. The film dropped out of my jacket and fell into a puddle, ending up soaked. Still hopeful, I sent it in for processing, but of course, nothing came out. I still think about those lost photos from time to time.

[gordon g]

It's more equipment disasters with me. I've written several cameras off through errant carelessness over the years. For example, carefully placing my camera in what I thought was it's holster on my climbing harness, only to realise as it plunged 300ft down the cliff that I'd actually put it in my open pocket. Or when I left my camera outside my tent one winter trip and the shutter suffered ice damage and locked permenantly shut. Then there's the blown sand that wrecked my first bigma's focussing mechanism ...
It's things like this that led me to 1 series bodies - so far my 1DsII, and the 1V before it have survived snow, ice, rain, mud, sand and fresh water. The only other camera I have had that was as tough was an all-manual Practika which eventually succumbed to shutter failure - and was too old for the shop to get replacement parts!