p.2 #1 · Do You Ever Just Totally Blow It? I Did.....Missed BIF Opportunity
Well i was driving from the Aspen Airport to SnowMass. Along the road boarding the forest (about dusk) from a distance i saw a fox walking quickly with a live squirrel in his mouth. I stopped the car-- open the trunk-- grabbed my Canon 1DsmkIII with the 300/4 L IS which was attached--- just as the fox was going to cross my path. I turned the camera on to take the shot and realized I had left the camera on mirror lock up with 10 second delay timer (previously doing macro studio shots). The few seconds it took me to figure out what had happened--- well too late. Well i am sure it does not make up for what happened.. but as they say-- misery loves company
p.2 #2 · Do You Ever Just Totally Blow It? I Did.....Missed BIF Opportunity
Having this happen to me many times I'm wondering if anyone prepares for occasions like this:
Does anyone have a ritual of setting their cameras back to some neutral setting before you power down so it's ready for a quick shooting scenario the second you pick it up? Like a relatively fast shutter speed and auto-iso since many of these opportunities are for a quick moving object (animal, plane, child) that you only have seconds to capture?
I imagine Nikon's new U1 and U2 menus would be great for this sort of thing, since my bodies don't have a fast way to recall all the settings I'd need. It'd be nice if there was a way to update the firmware to have even 1 custom mode added to the current pro bodies. You don't need the physical switch to have it work just as well, and I'd gladly trade my P mode for a U1.
EDIT: I guess I could always try using P mode since I've never actually used it :P
p.2 #4 · Do You Ever Just Totally Blow It? I Did.....Missed BIF Opportunity
Happens to all of us. I have an amazing shot of an F111 in a steep bank at about 200 foot altitude. I can see inside the cockpit, the two pilots and condensation streaming off the wing leading edges. great shot except I cut off the front foot of the nose. I damn near threw the 7D onto the concrete after I bumped the settings in haste after waiting 4 hours for a shot, the shot was a total loss.
Oct 08, 2012 at 10:09 PM
brian_sp Offline • • • • [X]
p.2 #5 · Do You Ever Just Totally Blow It? I Did.....Missed BIF Opportunity
couple weeks ago i was just thinking of starting a similar thread, those missed shots, i was in Minnesota and stopped at Cross River to grab some fall time color shots, grabbing some shots of the ravine i never even noticed a bald eagle sitting in a tree, i could of gotten close enough to him that even with the 24-70 i had mounted would of gotten the shot
i didn't notice him till he took flight and missed some great BIF's cause of the fall colors in the ravine that would of provided the perfect backdrop
p.2 #7 · Do You Ever Just Totally Blow It? I Did.....Missed BIF Opportunity
Our local municipal golf course used to have an alligator that wandered from water hole to water hole on the course. I saw him one morning while I was playing so I went back in the afternoon to try to get some pics. As a walked around the edge of the lake, a bobcat jumped out of the brush just a few feet in front of me. I was proud of my fast reaction time and got off about 5 shots before he disappeared into the deep woods about 60 feet away. I told some of the people at the course that I had just seen a bobcat on the course and no one would believe me. But I knew I had proof. When I got home to view them, I was very disappointed that I had my D70 set on ISO 1600 from the night before. ISO 1600 isn't that pretty on a D70. They were so grainy it was hard to identify that it was a bobcat.
p.2 #8 · Do You Ever Just Totally Blow It? I Did.....Missed BIF Opportunity
To respond to Nikon Rob's comment I got myself into the habit of restoring the camera to what I consider neutral settings as I put it away. I still always double check before starting again though. I did this because I had experienced either missed shots or total bafflement as to why I cant get the right exposure.
Of course its not perfect because you never know what focus or metering mode you might want to be in if you start up again in a hurry.
I think it just helped me to make sure that I didnt have it set to a high ISO, self timer or an exposure compensation value.
As I said its not perfect, but I think getting in to that habit can eliminate some potential problems.
