|
Forums >
General Industry >
Your most memorable failure as a photographer.
Several years ago,....8 years or so. A young woman contacted me for a nude photo shoot. She mentioned that she was paralyzed from the waist down from a accident when she was 16 years old. and had been in a wheel chair for almost 10 years. I missed the context of a young woman wanting to show that in spite of her challenge was a beautiful and attractive person. After the shoot, we both agreed that all the pictures should be deleted. I hope she found the right photographer to convey her message. I had many photo shoots that failed, but this one, I'll always remember. Dec 26 14 04:35 pm Link Hmmmmm... well I can't think of any at the moment... but THIS GUY is sure owning a HUGE piece of the 'fail cake'...  http://www.break.com/video/wedding-phot … il-1879791 Dec 26 14 09:05 pm Link I can't imagine a woman not wanting to look beautiful and attractive. Edit: So how did you miss this? Dec 26 14 09:14 pm Link During one photo shoot, my strobes would not go off. I tried moving the trigger from one light to another, I tried using the sync cable instead of the wireless trigger, but I just couldn't get the lights to work. Dec 26 14 09:23 pm Link forewarned by a beautiful lady, she said she was the most impossible subject...and yes...I failed...the camera hates her...and she told me that before hand,...true story....Mo Dec 26 14 09:37 pm Link Most memorable failure... late 1990's, trusty Nikon F3HP ready to go, motor drive was ready and I was ready. I used to load my own film canisters so I was used to 36-40 exposures per roll, sometimes a few more depending on how tightly wound the rolls. We start shooting, and keep shooting... took me a while to realize the leader did not catch. OOPS. That is a plus for digital. Dec 26 14 10:07 pm Link What is this "failure" of which you speak? I've never experienced such a thing! :T Dec 26 14 10:53 pm Link I have never had a shoot failure. Dec 27 14 12:09 am Link I do remember a family portrait shoot I did once where the family was a mom, dad and a young daughter. It was in the spring and I had planned to shoot at the local botanical gardens. They didn't want to pay the admission fee so I suggested another garden area that wasn't far away. They agreed, and we got there and realized there was some kind of function going on. After we drove around for about a half an hour looking for parking we just parked on the side of the road. By this time the kid was getting hot and antsy, and trying to shoot around the people just wasn't working. My shots were passable at best. I notified them and offered a free re-shoot. They agreed, and showed up with half their extended family. The shoot ended up lasting about four hours, after the several locations and looks they wanted, and all the combinations of their family members. They totally took advantage of my offer, but I just sucked it up and went with it. I got them their new shots and wrote it off as a loss. I really don't miss portrait photography. Dec 27 14 12:23 am Link I am not talking about technical failure....Been there, done that..... I talking about failing to convey a message.... Dec 27 14 02:00 am Link 1. I remembered I done Photoshoot for black female model that time I was very new into Photography, she done poses in different rooms then when all the shoots done. She seen the work she look unhappy, told me why am I doing this with no professional lighting, I told her that time I was new so I kept the most of them. 2. Second Female model I have done photography studio as she paid me good money but she want me to send her email but after the shoot, She left country and lives in Nigeria, I still got her money but She ask me to post her photos prints to her country in Nigeria which I can not do that. So up to now, she have not come back yet but she contact me few days ago saying she want photos prints when she come to London and told her she will have to pay for prints charged. 3. I have turned down many female models for photoshoot due family man and children of three. I have cnacel many female models for 3 years up and down due family helping with food shopping, home cleaning helping my wife cleaning the house and spending time with kids. Double Eyes Photography Dec 27 14 03:40 am Link First time was allowing an escort, it was an uncomfortable disaster for me and the model, it could have been an incredible shoot, but it was totally ruined by escort hovering, making comments and suggestions!, the second disaster was photographing a student photographer who began directing me on how to "properly" shoot him! Now I have a no escort/ no photographer rule....................W Dec 27 14 03:56 am Link Secured a great location. Willing model. Drove up 2 hrs to location. Unpacked lights, stands, lighting modifiers then realized that I failed to pack my camera case. Dec 27 14 05:37 am Link I'll never tell!!!:-)))) Dec 27 14 05:59 am Link Can't beat that!.... Hope the model had a great sense of humor! Dec 27 14 06:34 am Link It would have to be the time I booked a hotel for a boudoir shoot. I checked in, set up my equipment and waited for the model. When the model arrived the hotel staff wouldn't let her in because it was a single room. I always make sure to book a double room now if I'm doing a shoot in a hotel. Dec 27 14 06:48 am Link I was 19 and at my first duty station at a Navy photo lab in Hawaii, which was located at the midpoint of an 8,000 ft runway at a naval air station. One day I had an assignment to shoot a group photo of the entire crew of the small Coast Guard air station (about 100 people) located directly opposite of us on the other side of the same runway. The shoot concept was that they were having a uniform inspection on a Friday morning, they had their C-130 airplane and two H-52 helicopters parked at complementary angles nose-in to the hangar and the entire crew would be in formation in front of the aircraft. I was to shoot the entire group plus airplanes from the top of the hangar and thus make a lovely picture-postcard perfect group shot. OK, 100 people, 3 airplanes, big group photo and as soon as I am done everyone is off on liberty for the rest of the day to enjoy a long weekend. Simple stuff. The terms of service were that the client had to come and pick up the photographer, so I was at the lab early to prep my gear and wait. At around 0700 a Coast Guard officer came and got me for the long ride to the other side of the runway. Even though I could plainly see the Coast Guard air station from the photo lab (it was only a few hundred yards away line-of-sight), this was not a direct trip. Only airplanes taking off and landing and emergency vehicles are allowed on a runway. No exceptions, and airports worldwide are very strict about this. So it's not like we're going to just zip across and snap a photo. We travelled nearly a mile to the end of the runway, and through a circuitous route we got to the other side and then nearly a mile back up to get to the Coast Guard station. And the standard speed limit on all US bases is 25 MPH unless otherwise marked so this was a half-hour trip, but just enough time for the 0730 formation waiting for me to execute a brief series of 1/125 second exposures. So we arrived, I was passed off to a very nervous and more senior officer who was charged with the execution of this mission. As he was explaining to me what he wanted (and I am thinking "Right. Simple. I got it. Can I just get to work now?”) the station commander strolls by to listen to me being briefed. The officer gets even more nervous, so I try to put everyone at ease by pretending to be attentive and reassuring them I have this under control. Remember, I am a 19 year old apprentice trying to tell senior officers I have this locked. But they calmed down long enough to begin assembling the crew into a large, orderly formation. I slung my camera bag across my back, grabbed the steel rungs of a ladder attached to the outside wall of the hangar and began to climb up to the roof of the airplane hangar that was determined to be the vantage point for this epic photo. I never did care much for heights, but I figured I'd just grit my teeth and make the trip up, collect my thoughts, shoot the job and get back down. It would be over before I knew it. Up I went, hand over shaky hand, until I arrived rooftop on wobbly legs. I took a few deep breaths to calm myself and peered over the edge of the hangar roof. The formation was nicely assembled and the NCOs were making last minute adjustments while the skipper looked on with all the authority in the world. I reached in my bag, grabbed the camera, selected the appropriate lens (we really didn't use zooms in those days) and framed the shot. When I was satisfied with what I was seeing, I reached in my bag for a roll of film and discovered that there was none. No film. None. A jolt of electricity shot through my soul and I instantly broke out in a cold sweat. I immediately knew what I had to do. I left the camera bag on the roof and made my way to the side of the hangar where that damned ladder was. Now as much as I hated to climb long, narrow, steep ladders up the side of a tall building there was one thing I hated worse, and that was going back down. But I had no choice and I got back down as quickly as I could. As soon as I was on the ground I strode quickly up to the officer who had been my chauffeur and told him what happened. To my surprise, he immediately thanked me for bringing this to his attention and he told Nervous Officer what had happened. Nervous asked me what the remedy was. I told him there was no choice, we had to go back and get the film. Dead silence as we all took turns looking at each other, then simultaneously we all slowly turned and looked across the runway. There was my photo lab, 300 yards away. We couldn't say anything because there was nothing to say. We knew what this meant. A half hour to get back to the lab and another half hour to return, and a stern commanding officer was about to receive some unwelcome news. Commander Nervous said "I'll call the lab and tell them you're coming. Lieutenant, get back there with the photographer and get that film." And just that quickly we were gone. I would like to say that as law-abiding duly appointed officers we strictly obeyed the speed limit, but we did not. Even so, we were flirting with disaster by pushing it to 30 MPH, as this area was known to be a favorite hangout for the base police who always made up their speeding ticket quotas by stopping sailors coming back from a day of surfing and drinking beer on the nearby beach. But we somehow made the half hour trip in about 20 minutes. We rolled up to the lab and the door opened and the coworker who had received the warning call rushed out and put a bag containing several rolls of film in my hand, which was extended through the open car window. I didn't even have to get out of the car, which was fine by me as I could already hear the guffaws of laughter coming from the rest of the crew through the open studio door. I knew I'd be hearing about this one for a while to come. We made the return trip in record time, getting back to the hangar about 45 minutes after I had first divulged my error. After reassuring several officers that I really did have the film I scurried back up that damned ladder to the sound of my officer driver repeating to the other officers that yes, the photographer really does have the film. I reached the top rung and vaulted over the roof of the hangar and quickly loaded the camera, which was still on the roof where I left it. I was shooting 220 roll film in a Pentax 6X7 SLR, so as soon as the formation was ready and Commander Nervous gave me a thumbs up I returned the signal and began shooting. The formation was never-changing but I shot all 20 frames, bracketing and moving back and forth to get as many variations in composition and exposure as possible, then I repeated this with another roll just in case this one died in the chemicals during processing. Just in case. When I got it all I hollered back down "Got it!" My chauffeur rushed to the base of the building and throwing his head back sharply and looking straight up at me hollered back "Are you sure?" I leaned over and in a softer voice explained everything I had done to make sure we had the shot. He did a snappy about face and looking at both Nervous and the skipper gave a thumbs up. Someone gave the order to fall out and everyone did. I made my way back down the ladder with all my gear and the two precious exposed rolls of film clearly outlined through the fabric of my securely-buttoned breast pocket, and with a sigh I gave an embarrassed smile to my officer driver who simply shrugged his shoulders and said "OK! Well, let's get you back." I never ever forgot film again after that, not have I ever forgotten a memory card after I began using using digital cameras. Dec 27 14 07:39 am Link ^ That is by far the best post I've seen on this forum. Thank you for taking the time to share. Dec 27 14 08:00 am Link at weddings sometimes i'll space out for a moment and miss a great shot. but it's hard to stay focused for hours on end. one reason why it's great to have a 2nd shooter. one time my camera slipped into B (bulb) mode during the walk down the aisle. after that i sent my 5d MK II to canon for a locking mode dial. one time i was in the studio with a model who doesn't usually do nudes and she took off her top for some from-the-back topless shots and my strobe settings were all wrong but i didn't have a chance to shoot again because i had to move her car so she wouldn't get a ticket. fortunately i did manage to save a few of them anyway. regarding the "i've overcome adversity" style of boudoir i think i would find that challenging to shoot. seems like it's not as much about them being a sex object as a strong woman who beat the odds. and the photos are probably more for them than for a lover. Dec 27 14 08:21 am Link Not mine but one I assisted Dean Collins on. Yes, THAT Dean Collins. I had taken a week vacation from the ad agency I was working at in Nashville and decided to make it a working vacation by assisting my dear friend and mentor Dean Collins in San Diego. He was contracted to shoot some fashion and also some interiors of restaurant for a local mall. Shoot actually went well. One particular shoot was that of a Mexican restaurant that included the owner of the place in it as well. Kind of an evironmental portrait, sorta. Used several Bron strobes to light both the restaurant and the owner. The owner was posed just in from of an open archway that lead into another seating area. Everything seemed fine. The next morning I arrived at the studio and we went over the chromes (this is 1988 folks). Dean looked at them, handed me the loupe and asked what I though of them. I looked all around the image(s) and noticed something. I turned to Dean and asked him "I know Broncolor is one of your sponsors but does that mean you have to show their lights in all your shots?" He said "What?" I said "Look behind that archway going into the back room. The light we used to light up the left side of the wall is sticking out from behind that wall of the archway. I can read Broncolor clear as day!" I couldn't help but chuckle a bit. "Son of a bitch". he replied. I will admit, the place was decorated so that it was kind of hard to see it. But it was there. I'm not sure what happened after that. They either had a retoucher retouch it out (by hand!) or they didn't use that particular shot. But I did give me comfort in knowing that even the ones we admire and respect screw up now and then as well. These days, it would have not been that big of a deal. That would have been about a 30 second fix in PS by cloning it out. But in 1988? Not as easy and pretty costly. Dec 27 14 08:29 am Link It was, I believe, my third shoot involving any degree of nudity at all and may well have been the model's first shoot ever. It was certainly her first implied shoot. We were both a bit shy and embarrassed and so were appropriately silly and laughing constantly at nothing at all. In other words a shoot that was in no way memorable other than that the participants had a fun time shooting it. We reviewed the shots together, removing anything that went beyond her boundaries (nip slips, etc,) and I did a quick clean-up of those remaining and gave her a disk with the files. When she walked out the door, disk in hand, she flashed me a big grin, saying, "I can't wait till my boyfriend sees these!" Two days later I god a phone call--it was her. "Ray, I don't think I'm going to be doing any more nude shoots. I'm going to be leaving Model Mayhem. I hate to ask this, but would you mind not putting the pictures up on your page?" I said "Sure." I still hear the sadness in her voice. I don't know if it counts a a failure as a photographer, but with that it went from a fun, successful shoot to a totally failed one. Dec 27 14 08:51 am Link on location setting up lighting equipment for a company i was working for at the time. plugged in a strobe, that had a plastic cover on over the bulb. someone who used it before me, left the model light on. i noticed it a couple minutes later then it went up in smoke. Dec 27 14 09:25 am Link Most memorable at this time, is when Nikon sent me a D4s to test, it was brand new, in the box. Was shooting some action and went through far too many frames before I realized that they shipped the camera pre-set to AF-S, aka, single-focus AF. Yes, Nikon's top of the line, action/sports camera defaulting to single-AF, like for shooting stationary objects. So, that bit me in the ass, but fortunately, it was more like a nibble, because it did not matter too much in the scheme of things. That is the thing with new, borrowed, rental gear, you need to almost have a checklist of all the settings you'll need to confirm/possibly change (with borrowed/rental gear I also suggest a "reset" if you can... although, if borrowed, see if you can write the "settings" to a card before the reset, so you have the option to return the gear as-it-was when you're done borrowing it.) Dec 27 14 11:48 am Link Too many smaller failures to list - culminating in the larger realization that I would /could not make it as a real full time self supporting photographer Fortunately I never really tried to though still makes for a fun hobby Dec 27 14 01:36 pm Link did a photoshoot with this model, that was a friend of mine.. but her skin was really awful.. she had spots, bruises, and bad shaving all over her body and she wanted to do a swimsuit shoot so it was a pain editing them.. another time realized i didnt have the memory card n the camera after hours of shooting.. Dec 28 14 01:20 am Link Had a gallery showing and invited 20 of my closest friends to the opening. We all showed up to find the gallery locked, lights off. Apparently the gallery manager missed the deadline for advertising in the newspaper and pushed back the show date without telling me. Dec 28 14 05:17 am Link I did an three hour private session with a terrific art model resulting in some of the best nudes I had made up until that time. After the model and I reviewed the result on the camera I removed the SD card from the camera, put it in a plastic case and into my pants pocket. When I got off the train it was not there. I called the railroad and reported it. I even looked around the seat in every similar train car for months. It never surfaced. I now, of course, never remove the card until I get home but do write lock it as soon as the session is over. I did work with her again and will in the future. Dec 28 14 05:30 am Link Too many to count. Dec 28 14 08:02 am Link Michelle-Martin wrote: What a great story...thanks for sharing!! Dec 28 14 08:42 am Link Worked in a camera store long ago. The darkroom lady called in sick and the boss put me in there since "You (me) took four years of photo classes and you should know something." So I mixed the day's chemistry and poured it in the machine's tanks - wrong! I put fixer in the developer tank by mistake. So the first few rolls of B&W came out clear before I figured "Hmm.... Something has gone askew here!" and the smell told me the wrong stuff is in the wrong place. Boss told customers, "You must have not gotten your film caught on the take-up spool" as an excuse even though the factory film labeling numbers were absent too. Never got that gig again. Then I went home and did the same damn thing to my own rolls of stuff from the prior weekend. Pouring out gray stuff in the first chemical run is sort of telling. Need better labeling. Okay, been guilty of leaving home with the camera's battery in the wall outlet charger too. Nice two hour scenic drive in purple air. Dec 28 14 09:01 am Link Did a shoot at my house and in backyard with a VERY PROMINENT MM model.....got beautiful shots in backyard, but then my primary camera failed and had to use back-up camera inside house and shots were just HORRIBLE. Terrible missed opportunity with her!! Dec 28 14 01:08 pm Link Got arrested for trespassing. Ended up on the news, twice (when I got arrested, and 2 months later when I went to court. They acted like I killed someone). Then it ended up on national news somehow. My shitty mugshot was plastered everywhere. Awesome. Episode 1: http://www.wmur.com/news/woman-accused- … t/27767274 Episode 2: http://www.wmur.com/news/photographer-p … e/29141280 Edit: Also, everyone I had ever taken photos of at this location was arrested as well. Dec 28 14 01:55 pm Link karenjerzykphotography wrote: Wow! now thats a story! and it made the news like it was a murder,lol Those reporters and police are amazingly bored! sounds like the stupid things they turn in to stories they do here in san antonio. Im so sorry for you and the models, I dont shoot anywhere here but my own property, Id love to shoot other places but around here they make a huge deal of it!. hey but you got some "press" for your website, I hope it got you some good exposure? Dec 28 14 02:21 pm Link DAVISICON wrote: I'll admit, it WAS almost like free advertising. The whole thing was really messed up and surreal (the media made it sound like someone lived there- no. The house was crumbling and had trees growing in the living room because of a hole that went through the roof/floors). In total, 6 of us got arrested. A model and photographer did simply because a hateful photographer from a state away from us decided to call the cops after I had gotten arrested and rat them out. I actually wrote a blog about it: http://hatersthathate.tumblr.com Dec 28 14 02:33 pm Link Back in the mid-1980s I did the "Four Corners" tour on a motorcycle (hit all four corners of the continental U.S. in 21 days). Part of the proof that you had to submit to confirm your completion of the tour was a photograph of your motorcycle with the license plate visible in front of a local landmark at each corner, usually the post office (in Key West, Fla, it's almost always the "Big Conch"). I started in the NW at Blaine, WA, went south to Cali, east to Key West, and then north to Madawaska, Maine for the finish. Got all my photos just fine, but I was running late on the 21st day starting out for the 4th and last corner and decided to be extra cautious. So I loaded a new roll of film at my last stop before reaching Madawaska. Took the photos, jumped over the border for a spirited run through Canada and stopped the next day at Niagara Falls for some recreational shots. It wasn't until my 36-exposure roll came up on 42 that I realized my film had not loaded properly, and I hadn't taken any confirmation photos of my fourth stop. Yes, I know I did the tour successfully and it was a wonderful experience. And yes, not being able to officially prove it still grates 30 years later. BTW, in the 40 years or so that I shot film, this was the only time I ever loaded a roll incorrectly. Talk about not being able to go back and fix the screw-up later... Dec 29 14 12:46 am Link Failure is a strong word. Personally I don't have any. I have been on shoots as an assistant where shit got loco. But in the end things are what they are and they work out. I find that as photographers we're often the hardest critic on our work. But you make shit happen. But forgetting camera cases, not having charged batteries, etc... Hommie don't play that. Stakes are too high. Dec 29 14 10:16 pm Link My very first "fashion shoot" involved a shot of a champagne bottle popping. The lighting was a mix of ambient and strobe. I forgot to switch to 2nd curtain sync so champagne drops looked like they were going into the bottle. Client didn't notice/care but I set my camera(s) to 2nd curtain sync and leave it on that setting forever hahaha. Dec 30 14 09:57 am Link During my last photo class in college, I had just shot a roll full of photos for my final project. I went into the loading room, opened the canister, and the film slipped out. And I couldn't find the film. I spent 20 minutes in complete darkness on my hands and knees groping around for the film. I swear I touched every square inch of the room at least twice, and I was on the verge of madness when I gave up and turned on the light. And even in the light, I couldn't find the film. It was just gone. I still have no idea what happened to it. Then I had about 20 hours to figure out how to make a cohesive final project from negatives I already had developed. It was not good. Dec 30 14 10:48 am Link When I was a wee young thing I did my first nude shoot with a friend. It was outdoors in tall grass that almost looked like a wheat field. The sun was low and the lighting was perfect. Shot 8 rolls of T-Max 100 and couldn't get home to process it fast enough. I've always been very methodical about film processing and I NEVER screw up but that day I managed to put the fixer in first instead of the developer. The sinking feeling when I discovered I had 8 rolls of entirely blank film was unbelievable. It still hurts to type about it  Dec 30 14 11:23 am Link So many failures. It's hard to pick one. Dec 30 14 11:33 am Link |
