The Thing I Always Forget...

[E. John Thawley III]

Just finished editing a job for a muscle car magazine this morning. Realized I forgot something...

I forgot to tell the driver to look at the tach during the burnout shot. He didn't. And now he's looking straight at the camera like some dork doing a burnout for a photographer.

Here are a few more that seem to haunt me again and again:
• forget to tell the driver where to look (and not to look)
• forget where I put the lens cap
• forget to tell the driver/car owner/handler to show up to the photo shoot with GAS in the car
• forget to ask them to make sure all the head/tail lights work before they show up
• forget to bring their cell phone number with me
• forget where I put the other lens cap
• forget to tell them to bring a jacket (No, you can't stay in the car with the heater on and the engine running during the sunset, beauty shots. I don't care how cold you are...)
• forget to tell them that we are stealing this location and "we'll get thrown out if you keep acting like a jackass"
• forget to put film in the camera (haven't done that in a while)
• forget to turn off "mirror lock-up" before I start shooting action
• forget where the hell all those damn lens caps ended up...

I'm sure I am missing a few. What do you guys forget when you're shooting?

Thawley

[Morgan J Segal]

The camera

[Erik Anderson]

The camera


Generally found to be helpful when taking photos. :D I always keep a 1GB card in each of my bags, just in case I forgot the 2GB cards in my card reader, which I've done more than once when I'm in a hurry. A few weeks ago, I got a last minute call, so I stuff what I think I need into my bag bringing everything......except batteries for the flashes. :eek:

[Jeff Wilson]

I don't know what I forget...I forgot.

[Mike Ditz]

These days I have a list of all my stuff that I print out and highlight what I need for the job.It works well unless I forget the list.
Back in the day when I was a pipsqueek assistant the guy I worked for would ask me if we had 2 things, Something to take a picture "of" and something to take a picture "with". Everything else, he considered to be extra.

[Paul Hansen]

I tend to forget the time...

I always put the lens caps in my pocket, so they can be covered with lint, immediately forming a protective layer of multi-colored dusty stuff on the lens when I put the cap on.

But then I get to clean and polish them up while killing time, it's mechanical therapy.

I've forgotten where my blower is. I've got to go buy a new one now.

I forget to put a protective filter on my lens before races. My 24-105 IS has a chip on the front glass now. :(

I forget where the writer that I'm doing photoshoots for is while running around. He's got a phone, he just calls me when he remembers he brought a photographer along.

I forget to bring my race suit for shooting in the pits, but it's kind of dangerous there anyways. or something. ;)

[Dennis Murray]

Lens caps go back in the bag when the camera or the lens comes out of the bag. Put the hood on, and leave it at that. Otherwise, you are fumbling to get it off when you want to shoot.

I think the worst things I've forgotten:
-Monopod for an SCCA club race when I had the 100-400 (which you can do fine with hand holding)
-Batteries for 550EX shooting high school football at night (flash is required, so I stopped on the way to the game to buy more).
-And I did forget a power adapter for a laptop once (which limited me to using it to dump to, and not get any editing done)

I got pretty organized this past fall with making sure I have everything. As I was going first to the day job before on to a game, I had to make sure it was all ready the night before. Pack your bag the same way, every time and it becomes clear if you don't bring something.

[Mike Ditz]

as Elvis said...."I forgot to remember to forget her" http://www.websmileys.com/sm/music/1.gif

[Morgan J Segal]

The face looks familiar, but I can't remember my name

[Daniel Buck]

yea, mirror lock up. Damn it all, why won't Canon put an external switch for that? that's so aggravating. Have to cry for features that my old film camera has standard :-\

[Morgan J Segal]

Pack your bag the same way, every time and it becomes clear if you don't bring something.


Bingo!

I used to hate assisting studio photographers on location shoots because they would never have their gear packed, so we would have to spend hours taking the gear off the shelf and packing it up for the shoot ( and then unpack after). Inevitably, we would forget something.
Conversely, the location guys would just say, grab this, this and this case and away we go (which is how I work)

Still forget the little crap like John mentioned.

One of my worst doozies was when I was shooting my first rally for Hyundai, I went to Calumet and picked up a brick of Kodak Extachrome 35mm and then drove 7 hours to the middle of nowhere Pennsylvania only to discover they gave me 120 film :eek:
the packaging was the same colors and wrapped as a brick it was about the same size.

I had to go to the local drug store and by really cheap consumer slide film (24exp). It had a pretty crappy color balance but I don't think the client noticed and it got published in a mag and looked fine

[Daniel Buck]

I actually never loose my lens cap, because I always put it in my shirt pocket. Just a habbit of mine. I'm also very habitual about where I pack things in my bag, I always know where they are, even if I have a different camera setup (film or medium format) in my bag, I know where things are depending on what camera I am using. I guess being anal about things can be good every now and then :-D

[Morgan J Segal]

What if you are wearing a shirt that does not have a pocket?


It's a lot different when you are shooting for work and you are under time pressure, it's pretty easy to misplace things or put things in the wrong place

[Daniel Buck]

What if you are wearing a shirt that does not have a pocket?


It's a lot different when you are shooting for work and you are under time pressure, it's pretty easy to misplace things or put things in the wrong place

actually, I do shoot for work. I shoot locations, HDR's, 360 panoramas, reference, textures and other things for use in my 3d work at the studio. Sometimes it's laid back, sometimes it's a crazy crammed schedule when there is a video/film shoot going on at the same time, and I have to duck in there real quick to get what I need to finish our part of the project while the light is the same. Sometimes it's inside, sometimes it's outside in the middle of a desert, forest, bridge, or where ever really. Sometimes it's 30 minuets, sometimes it's 3 days :) It's the farthest thing from 'regular' or 'predictable' that you can probably get! haha! So I come prepared.

My work photographs just get used in a different way than my personal photographs get used. Cars, I shoot for fun :)

All of my shirts have a pocket in them, in the summer my Hawaiian shirts have a pocket, and in the winter my long sleeve flannel shirts have a pocket. :) If it doesn't have a pocket, I don't buy it. My only few shirts that don't have a pocket in them, are shirts I would never wear outside (oil change shirts, you might call them) or they have been shredded for the purpose of cleaning my guns or engine parts.

[Morgan J Segal]

Flannel and Hawaiian, you're stylin' :cool:

[Daniel Buck]

That's literally about all I own :D It's great, because they all go with jeans and shorts, no need to think about what I'm gonna wear, just grab the next one in line and go :D hah!

[Mike Ditz]

I hire people to lose my lenscaps.

I've never done a shirt-pocket survey, something to do this weeked http://www.websmileys.com/sm/crazy/282.gif

[John Thawley]

Just finished editing a job for a muscle car magazine this morning. Realized I forgot something...

I forgot to tell the driver to look at the tach during the burnout shot. He didn't. And now he's looking straight at the camera like some dork doing a burnout for a photographer.

Here are a few more that seem to haunt me again and again:
• forget to tell the driver where to look (and not to look)
• forget where I put the lens cap
• forget to tell the driver/car owner/handler to show up to the photo shoot with GAS in the car
• forget to ask them to make sure all the head/tail lights work before they show up
• forget to bring their cell phone number with me
• forget where I put the other lens cap
• forget to tell them to bring a jacket (No, you can't stay in the car with the heater on and the engine running during the sunset, beauty shots. I don't care how cold you are...)
• forget to tell them that we are stealing this location and "we'll get thrown out if you keep acting like a jackass"
• forget to put film in the camera (haven't done that in a while)
• forget to turn off "mirror lock-up" before I start shooting action
• forget where the hell all those damn lens caps ended up...

I'm sure I am missing a few. What do you guys forget when you're shooting?

Thawley

What about your polarizer? You forgot to forget your polarizer. LOL~~~!!!:cool: :cool: ;)

Let's wind him up folks... c'mon big E... tell us about the polarizer. Every time I see a reflection post I die waiting for you to log on and give 'em hell!!!

JT

[Drew Phillips]

I've forgotten just about everything - camera, memory cards, tripod. I've forgotten to bring a monopod to several races, and I end up having to buy one at a local shop. I now have 3 or 4 monopods.

[E. John Thawley III]

Let's wind him up folks... c'mon big E... tell us about the polarizer. Every time I see a reflection post I die waiting for you to log on and give 'em hell!!!
I'm a lover, not a hater.

Actually, I had an uber-swanky, 77mm, multi-coated, warming polarizer that probly cost me four hundred bucks. I LOST it in the desert on a shoot. True story. I simply never replaced it.

I did miss it Friday, though. Said burn-out dork above had a fancy, only-see-it-in-the-sun type paint job with F#@$ing SWIRL marks all over it. Guess I should add that to the list.

• Camera... check
• tripod... check
• remind bonehead with $10,000 paint job it needs to be professionally detailed before a photoshoot... Damn.

Thawley -- who punished the guy by having him CONSTANTLY repose the car because "the sun is moving thru the sky and causing the swirl marks to show again"

[Jeff Wilson]

I'm confused...is John talking to himself? I think someone needs to call the nice men in white coats and a rubber truck.

[Owain Shaw]

I check, double check and then pack everything the night before, pack it the same way each time as well. That means I've never forgotten any of my gear. My lens caps are always in my back pocket, that doesn't mean I haven't occasionally forgotten that fact.

Probably the worst and only thing I have ever forgotten is my accreditation form for meeting at Silverstone. Luckily I arrived in masses of time (a good habbit) and actually had time to speed home and back before the first race. I think I made it there and back in a bit under the recommended journey time for one way, the average was something like 87 or 89mph for 200 miles. I'm never doing that again though ...

[Mike Hoyer]

I did a test day on a Thursday once. Went straight on to my "real" job, got home put everything on charge, then packed my gear.

Got up very early Friday to go to France. Check into the French hotel, and realise my D2h battery is sat in its charger about 300 miles away...

Luckily I had my other body and two full sets of batteries, so it wasn't too bad...

[E. John Thawley III]

Got up very early Friday to go to France. Check into the French hotel, and realise my D2h battery is sat in its charger about 300 miles away...
Hey I've done that! Phoenix not France, though.

[Britt McTammany]

I always forget to check my ISO.