Photos that got away

Calina

I think we did this in the past and I know there's a blog on this subject somewhere but I think every photographer has a photograph that they missed because they didn't have a camera.

I'd be interested to see what people missed.

Rathaus Marienplatz Munich sunlight against a jetblack thunder cloud.

AnCatDubh

Mines a swan

Two swans (what else) in flight directly over my car as I drove today - it is indeed good to be alive.

nilhg

I suppose the one off misses you can put down as an act of God but there's one I've missed several times, Edenderry Power is clearly visible to the north of us and in certain conditions (low fog, clouds on the horizon, setting sun) it and its plume of water vapor can be illuminated in a way that makes it clearly stand out. I've seen it maybe 5 or 6 times over the last 10 yrs or so and never captured it.......

Simplicius

Two Street Drunks of Eastern European Origin .. they were like laurel & Hardy, I was cursing myself. Both were standing by this top end serious dosh Mercedes pretending they owned it.

One guy had the handset from a white plastic phone with the cord inside his jacket, pretending he was posh and had a mobile phone, talking away on it. while other laughed

He then went further and demonstrated to his friend it was also a cameraphone and was hunkered down in front of the parked merc holding it to frame the shot , theny had his friend pose with the car.

Covey

Most of my "best" shots I've missed. So much so that I can recall in detail shots I've missed years ago and can't recall what I got last week.

sineadw

Not the same thing at all, but I was at a biker rally years ago, was in with the organisers and there was a guy with the most beautiful and intricate tattoos all over his back. These are not people you just snap away with, especially when it comes to tattoos - some are very private about them. I asked the organiser (a mate) to ask if I could take some shots and the guy posed for me for a few minutes. Finished up and reviewed the shots, and had the feckin iso on 1600. Totally blown out. There was no way I could ask him to pose again. I'm still sick any time I think about that. Wouldn't have been nearly as bad if I'd had no camera..

Kintarō Hattori

One very fantastic firefighter/model on Henry street and some dude waiting to get his hair cut in an African barber on North King Street. Oh they were both fantastic potential photos and I regret not having the balls to take them. I know had they turned out how I imagined I'd be so proud.

sineadw

But more in line with your post Calina - was down with Darren about a month ago and there was the most beautiful frost and freezing fog all over balbriggan harbour. It was really something. No camera First time in ages at the time that I'd really wanted to take a shot..

gerk86

Trying to capture close candid moments of strangers. You raise your camera to your eye and everyone within a 10ft radius looks at you and gets out of your way. So annoying.

Covey

gerk86 wrote: »

Trying to capture close candid moments of strangers. You raise your camera to your eye and everyone within a 10ft radius looks at you and gets out of your way. So annoying.

Just needs practise:D

Simplicius

gerk86 wrote: »

Trying to capture close candid moments of strangers. You raise your camera to your eye and everyone within a 10ft radius looks at you and gets out of your way. So annoying.

Possible solutions to reduce this somewhat: not all serious

1: Prefocus your lens
2: If autofocus aim at something else in opposite direction same distance as target then rotate , reframe and click
3: wide angle lens and shoot from hip
4: rangefinder - assuming you are using a SLR

5: get rid of the pink body and neon green lens combination you use

Fionn

was sitting in my car in the driveway yesterday and spotted this small bird flitting between the roof and the mirror of a car parked outside my house.
I thought it would have made a very good series of shots as he hopped from the roof to the wing mirror to gaze at his reflection.
I reached for my camera, adjusted focus, iso metering etc. but whirr of the window alerted him and the little bastard fleew off!

ike

On the River bank last summer and moth flies up out the grass, I stopped to watch about 6 feet in the air a bird flies off a branch, kinda spreads its wing to put the brakes in and plucks the moth out of the air...right in front of me

Wouldn't mind but 9 times outta 10 I would have the camera with me on one of those walks :rolleyes:

Ricky91t

Missed a closer than normal moon last Sunday over Cork city,Was Planning on bringing my camera but decided not to in the end..Quite annoyed really,But I'm quite surprised there wasn't a thread on it..

GavinZac

Similar to someone else's post about a biker's tattoos, I 'missed' a shot out of not being set up properly.

Florence and the Machine gig a few months ago, Florence Welch is getting well into things and very expressive, so I decide to switch from wide angle to zoom in order to frame her face. I had only one camera body with me so as I unclip the lens while looking at herself, she gets to the part of "You've Got The Love", a favourite of mine, where she's calmed down a bit... dead chuffed at myself for having worked on this skill of changing the lens while not looking down at it ... I'm a few feet away at the front of the stage, she turns, points a finger and looks directly at me with a look that'd sell a million magazines... camera is still in two pieces. Two seconds of frantic scrambling to get it together later and she was gone, lost to her mental jumping up and down. Gutted.
Got some great shots that night but it's always going to be in the back of my head that I need to see if the moment can be recreated, hopeless as it may be.