What life changing moments do you wish you had photographed a lot better and why ?

GBaxter · Dec 18, 2008

What (serious or humorous) past or present life-changing moments you've experienced so far, would you most like to have (or have had) professionally captured on film properly or much better, that for some reason you didn't, or if you did or anyone did so for you, it was done in a very mediocre manner for some reason and please say why, for anything mentioned.

LaFoto · Dec 18, 2008

GBaxter said:
What (serious or humorous) past or present
life-changing moments you've experienced so far, would you most like to have (or have had) professionally captured on film properly or much better, that for some reason you didn't, or if you did or anyone did so for you, it was done in a very mediocre manner for some reason and please why, for anything mentioned.

My wedding (I hope my sister will never read this, for she did the best she could!!! But there's hardly any photos of me being the bridge, at only about one or two posed ones of the two of us - I had a hard time finding a suitable one for the Thank-You-cards).

My first-born's first days in life --- but all I had at the time was a camera with a broken lens. And I was FARTHEST away from the family (and their cameras) as I could have been ... OK, today to be in Berlin (West-Berlin at the time) is no distance any longer, but back then it was a major hassle for any West-German to travel there, or for any West-Berlin citizen to travel to West-Germany... So ... only BAD (blurred) photos of him when he was a newborn.

Most of my photos taken before I joined TPF (which will have been 5 years ago come February) ... looking back through my albums of holidays abroad, the children growing up, birthdays, first day in school, Christmas situations and more, from back then makes me CRINGE!

JerryPH · Dec 18, 2008

My high school grad photo. When I graduated, my family was in a very sad financial place, and me in my infinite wisdom decided that rather than waste money on pictures of me, I would save them that loss and I did not tell them and just did not get mine done.

Turns out my mom had been secretly saving for over 8 months so that she could afford them. I felt like sh!t that she did without on some things to save for something that I took away from her.

stsinner · Dec 18, 2008

Wow, Jerry-that sucks!

I wish I had more pictures of the 6 months I lived in Switzerland, but all I had was a crappy digital camera that was probably less than 1 megapixel.. It was one of the cheapies where you looked through the viewfinder, which was not TTL, and it had only a small number display on the back. You had no idea whether or not you got a shot, and it had no slot for a memory card.. It had an on/off switch and a shutter release, and that's IT.

When I lived in Germany for 2 years, all that was around was film, and I HATE film photography, so I didn't take many pictures of that. I took a few, but not nearly as many as I would have had digital cameras been around. I miss those places, and can't adequately reflect without the visual aids.

fwellers · Dec 18, 2008

My BIRTH.

mrodgers · Dec 18, 2008

LaFoto said:
My first-born's first days in life --- but all I had at the time was a camera with a broken lens.....

I bought my first digi camera in 2002. My daughter was born in 2000 and I borrowed a camera from work (the old Sony Mactiva with the floppy disks) to use. I had tons of pictures from (after, not the actual birth) the hospital.

My wife bought me a CD burner for the computer that year for Christmas. Yea! I was going to back up all the photos from my daughter being born on to CD. It was my first CD burner.

Time goes on and my wife kept asking me if I installed and used that CD burner yet. I didn't install it. More time, still not installed. Finally, a few months after Christmas (March or so), I was going to install the burner that weekend. At the end of the week, before I installed it, my hard drive crashed big time.

Literally the day before I was going to install the burner, the drive crashed. I lost all the photos of my daughter and all the photos of us buying our first house together. At the time, I didn't know anything about file recovery or if you could even do that.

Now it's eight years later, and I haven't learned my lesson from back then. I've been into the photography thing for a year now, have thousands and thousands of photos on my computer, and I don't back them up (somebody smack me, PLEASE!) My hard drive will probably crash on me tonight now that I've said that.

LaFoto · Dec 18, 2008

Will that do for a smack?

My camera back then (I'm talking about 20 years earlier than when your first daugher was born) was my good "old" (at the time just 7 years old) Rollei 35, for digital photography was something all UNHEARD of. And a tiny grain of sand had snuck between the ring and lens, and that camera would pull inside its little lens when switching it off and put it out when switching it on. But the fact that the lens was now forced to stick out at all times (as it would no longer move with that little grain of sand inside) wasn't the worst. I had to turn it to focus, too. And that no longer worked. Was set to "infinity" forever. Hence ... no close-ups (or risking to get all unfocussed close-ups, which I DID risk to do ... only to be all disappointed with the results) of my baby-boy, or photos with lots of context, a tiny mommy somewhere and an even tinier "something", who was supposed to be my baby. Sigh...

LaFoto · Dec 18, 2008

Ah no. That first smack came out a little weak and "girly-like".

Have this one! And now GO AND BACK UP YOUR FILES!

mrodgers · Dec 18, 2008

LaFoto said:
Ah no. That first smack came out a little weak and "girly-like".

Have this one! And now GO AND BACK UP YOUR FILES!

Thanks for that better smack :mrgreen:.

I'm in the process of moving files from one drive to another so I can reformat and reorganize my extra drive. After that, I've got to get some DVDs and back up as well as get either a larger 2nd hard drive or I'd like to get an external drive I think.

stsinner · Dec 18, 2008

Losing my virginity. As it turns out, I didn't think about the camera for a second.. I guess we've all missed great photo opportunities. Well, if it ever happens again, I'll be ready this time around!

skieur · Dec 18, 2008

Let's see:

As a child, the day my grandmother committed suicide in her bedroom of our house. As an adult when I was told I had cancer. The phone call from the police telling me that my son was being flown to a trauma centre after being critically injured in a major head-on collision coming home from his last course at university.

skieur

craig · Dec 18, 2008

A photo of me skiing very deep powder.

Love & Bass

benhasajeep · Dec 19, 2008

My wedding. I think my own camera on a tripod with a remote would have come out with better shots than what I paid a good price for.

Like Jerry I also did not get HS graduation pictures. Mother could afford it but didn't do anything. So, I figured what do I need them for. Didn't have a graduation party, or anything either. One uncle did send a watch. At the time it didn't bother me that much. Wasn't too worried about gifts and pictures and such.