The worst feeling ever

Rgollar · Jul 23, 2015

Well here is how it started. I get to my place where I am trying to get a picture of a osprey. Been going there every night for a week straight. I finally see the bird sitting almighty and proud in a tree. So I am running to my spot to get ready to take a picture. Turn on the camera and it wont focus. So I look at the lcd and it says NO CARD. I am so sick to my stomach. So I run home and get it thinking I have lost all opportunity I get back and its still sitting there 20 minutes later. Then I commit the next worst sin. I am in shutter priority with exposure comp at plus 2 because I was against the bright sky. Now I know to shot in manual mode. But screwed up again. So all my shots were wasted except for the osprey coming circle. The first one isnt to bad the the second picture was so blown out and missed focus. Lessoned learned the hard way.

Osprey by rgollar, on Flickr
I have a series of thirty blown shots. Well I will keep learning and trying

Osprey 2 by rgollar, on Flickr

snowbear · Jul 23, 2015

No, the shots are not wasted. You learned to: 1) check your card before you head out; and 2) check your settings.

Bryston3bsst · Jul 24, 2015

You don't have extra cards with you when you go out?

Tsk......tsk......

Rgollar · Jul 24, 2015

I do now. I went and bought two more and put one in my bag and one in my truck. The sad thing is my camera has 2 camera slots. Lesson learned

astroNikon · Jul 24, 2015

Before I leave anywhere with my camera I go through a checklist in my head
- batteries in the camera (I charge them from time to time)
- memory cards (remember to erase them in camera from time to time).-
when i get someplace I'll point it to an object in M (mostly) and check for my Shutter and Aperture I want, confirm ISO. Take test shot ... only takes a few seconds and I'm ready to go.
If I'm taking a camera bag with needed stuff, I go through the rounds with that too. I also have some small cases with certain equipment (telescope stuff mostly) and I make sure if I take something out of that case, I put it back in after using it.

TCampbell · Jul 24, 2015

I've written about this in the past... it's one of the reasons I suggest people own multiple smaller cards rather than one large card -- for this very reason.

A few years back, a friend of mine went out shooting with me and he had the same issue... no card in the camera and no spares on him either. Fortunately I had two spares so I loaned him one.

Bryston3bsst · Jul 24, 2015

I have a little wallet in my bag........has 6 or 7 of them in there.

runnah · Jul 24, 2015

Why would you shoot in Manual mode while birding?

Derrel · Jul 24, 2015

Unfortunately, it has always seemed to me that the best-learned lessons were quite often the most painful ones. Still...these two photos represent one step in your journey. You're getting closer and closer to where you want to be. Keep at it--you will get there! I know you will!

JacaRanda · Jul 24, 2015

That first shot looks really nice and I wonder if it was one in a sequence of bursts. I don't think either are blown out
Were you shooting high speed, ai servo?

Suggestion - if you don't already have them set - configure your 3 custom settings C1, C2, C3. They can be shot savers if you forget to reset something. It's been a long time since I shot (birds or wildlife) in AV or TV. I am 95% in manual (M) with auto iso max limit 6400. However, if in a real panic I twist the dial quickly to C3 (best because the dial ends there before having to twist the opposite direction). In C3 I have set my default panic mode settings to 1/1250 shutter, back button focus, auto iso, F8 because of the lens most often attached, high speed continuos, auto wb, raw large, AF Case 3 etc. The camera is still in manual mode, so I can change any setting. After a few moments of no activity (no button push) it will return back to the default C3 settings.

Hope this helps.

runnah · Jul 24, 2015

JacaRanda said:
That first shot looks really nice and I wonder if it was one in a sequence of bursts. I don't think either are blown out
Were you shooting high speed, ai servo?

Suggestion - if you don't already have them set - configure your 3 custom settings C1, C2, C3. They can be shot savers if you forget to reset something. It's been a long time since I shot (birds or wildlife) in AV or TV. I am 95% in manual (M) with auto iso max limit 6400. However, if in a real panic I twist the dial quickly to C3 (best because the dial ends there before having to twist the opposite direction). In C3 I have set my default panic mode settings to 1/1250 shutter, back button focus, auto iso, F8 because of the lens most often attached, high speed continuos, auto wb, raw large, AF Case 3 etc. The camera is still in manual mode, so I can change any setting. After a few moments of no activity (no button push) it will return back to the default C3 settings.

Hope this helps.

You crazy, I always shoot in Tv and auto ISO. If I need to fiddle with things i use the exposure comp. set it at 1/1250 and let the camera do the rest.

PropilotBW · Jul 24, 2015

runnah said:
Why would you shoot in Manual mode while birding?

I agree. I've always shot in Shutter priority to keep the shutter speed, and allow the camera to automatically adjust the f/stop based on changes in light.
I'm not a bird shooting wizard though

JacaRanda · Jul 24, 2015

With the Tamster I rarely deviate from F8 unless Im really close to the subject. I use auto ISO and exposure compensation. All can be changed while looking through viewfinder.

Bryston3bsst · Jul 24, 2015

I guess I'm just old school but I shoot birds manually too.

Derrel · Jul 24, 2015

The "new" type of Auto ISO is remarkably good in the way it can be used. Pentax was for years the undisputed leader in Auto ISO, at one time being the only company that offered an AUTO ISO system where the photographer could set the needed shutter speed and the needed f/stop, and then the camera would vary the ISO up or downward, in order to deliver the needed speed AND f/stop. Nikon later adopted this same system, AUTO ISO in Manual exposure mode, and with the ability to dial in Plus- or Minus- exposure compensation.

I am not sure if Canon offers the same thing on all models, or just on selected, newer models. Once you have used this form of "manual" exposure setting under the right circumstances, you will realize what an amazingly powerful option it is. AUTO ISO really was not that useful an option 10 years ago, before the advent of amazingly good Sony sensors that have amazing ability to show almost no noise in the shadows, and which have amazing higher ISO abilities.

Back when ISO 500 was "noisy as hell" on the Nikon D2x, in the 2004-2006 era, AUTO ISO was next to useless, but since the Sony EXMOR generation sensors premiered, AUTO ISO has become something that allows you to achieve the **NEEDED** exposure (for motion-stopping, or for DOF control, or both) settings on rapidly-moving subjects or under rapidly-changing situations, like where the subject moves from say...bright sky to dark water in open shade in 1.6 seconds...

TPF's own coastalconn (Kristopher Rowe), the osprey and bird specialist, does most of his shooting using Auto ISO and exposure comp, and his results are exceptionally good...