Your biggest WDW photographic disaster?

wdwmagic

wdwmagic

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Moderator
Premium Member
Original Poster
We've all had our share of problems with photography, so in the name of maybe helping others avoid the same, what's the biggest disaster you've had?
 
WDWFigment

WDWFigment

Well-Known Member
Memory card failure. I lost half of the Pirate and Princess Party thanks to that. Totally preventable on my end, too. Now I bring a laptop and external hard drive for added backup each day.
 
PhotoDave219

PhotoDave219

Well-Known Member
Letsee.....

I've lost memory cards with an assignment due an hour from then.

I've dropped cameras, rendering them as a paperweight. (Including the contemporary parking lot.) Dropped lenses in the middle of shoots rendering them as a paperweight. Flash tubes blowing at bad times.

I've had shutters blow at bad times. (Including FOLK and Fantasyland)

I've spent hours putting up remote cameras in catwalks, behind backboards and various other places only to forget to double check the focus and have 500 out of focus pictures.

Nearly been hit on the sidelines countless times although line drives are generally the worst. People jumping in front of my camera on the sidelines and blocking a great shot.

I've forgotten batteries. I've forgotten memory cards. Wrong exposure, wrong white balance. Suffered in rain with wet feet for 14 hours and lenses fogging up. Drunk fans.

But the biggest disaster is generally not having the camera ready to go with a card in it and a charged battery.
 
RiversideBunny

RiversideBunny

New Member
Not the biggest disaster but if you are taking shots around a place where food is being served, be careful not to dip the end of your lens into the gravy bowl.

:)
 
wdwmomof3

wdwmomof3

Well-Known Member
Taking a new camera and have no idea what all it will do or how to work it to get great shots at night. :hammer:

Going back years later and still haven't figured the darn thing out. :lookaroun:ROFLOL:
 
Laura

Laura

22
Premium Member
I've dropped a favorite lens on day 1 of a 12 day trip on the floor of the MK Barber Shop. Had to spend the rest of the trip being creative with the other lenses.

I've lost hundreds of pictures due to using crappy Lexar memory cards (but recovered them with software - thank you Dave for that life-saving advice many years ago).

I've had the little mirror doo-hickey inside my camera get stuck at the wrong moments.

This last one was not a WDW disaster, but it's the most disappointing thing that's ever happened to me photography-wise. I went whale watching for the first time in my life a few weeks ago. I was taking all these great pictures of the scenery while waiting for a sea creature to emerge. Finally, out of no where, about 100 dolphins surfaced and surrounded the boat. It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen. But of course, at that very instant, the focus on my lens locked up completely and I couldn't push the shutter down. After much anger and fiddling I was able to loosen it up...just in time for the dolphins to disappear. *sigh*

I can say with all honesty that every single photo mishap I've had has been a result of my own laziness and negligence. I am horrible with my camera equipment. I toss it all in a bag together, no lens caps or anything. I just can't be bothered with stuff like that when I'm switching lenses so often. I am lucky when a lens lasts me more than a year. All of them are scratched all to hell, dinged, and dented.
 
Laura

Laura

22
Premium Member
Oooh I thought of one more stupid mistake I make CONSTANTLY. Will have my camera set to ISO 800 or 1600 for some dark ride or something, then come off the ride and walk out into normal light and completely forget to change the ISO back until like 4 hours later. By then I've already destroyed hundreds of pictures with noise. I HATE when I do that more than anything else.
 
sillyspook13

sillyspook13

Well-Known Member
I dropped a lens once. Thankfully a) it was my kit lens and b) the af switch took the full force of the fall and popped off, which was fixed by simply popping it right back on!
 
sillyspook13

sillyspook13

Well-Known Member
PhotoDave219 said:
Letsee.....

I've lost memory cards with an assignment due an hour from then.

I've dropped cameras, rendering them as a paperweight. (Including the contemporary parking lot.) Dropped lenses in the middle of shoots rendering them as a paperweight. Flash tubes blowing at bad times.

I've had shutters blow at bad times. (Including FOLK and Fantasyland)

I've spent hours putting up remote cameras in catwalks, behind backboards and various other places only to forget to double check the focus and have 500 out of focus pictures.

Nearly been hit on the sidelines countless times although line drives are generally the worst. People jumping in front of my camera on the sidelines and blocking a great shot.

I've forgotten batteries. I've forgotten memory cards. Wrong exposure, wrong white balance. Suffered in rain with wet feet for 14 hours and lenses fogging up. Drunk fans.

But the biggest disaster is generally not having the camera ready to go with a card in it and a charged battery.
Click to expand...

I remember that!:wave:
 
sillyspook13

sillyspook13

Well-Known Member
Laura said:
I've dropped a favorite lens on day 1 of a 12 day trip on the floor of the MK Barber Shop. Had to spend the rest of the trip being creative with the other lenses.

I've lost hundreds of pictures due to using crappy Lexar memory cards (but recovered them with software - thank you Dave for that life-saving advice many years ago).

I've had the little mirror doo-hickey inside my camera get stuck at the wrong moments.

This last one was not a WDW disaster, but it's the most disappointing thing that's ever happened to me photography-wise. I went whale watching for the first time in my life a few weeks ago. I was taking all these great pictures of the scenery while waiting for a sea creature to emerge. Finally, out of no where, about 100 dolphins surfaced and surrounded the boat. It was the most incredible thing I've ever seen. But of course, at that very instant, the focus on my lens locked up completely and I couldn't push the shutter down. After much anger and fiddling I was able to loosen it up...just in time for the dolphins to disappear. *sigh*

I can say with all honesty that every single photo mishap I've had has been a result of my own laziness and negligence. I am horrible with my camera equipment. I toss it all in a bag together, no lens caps or anything. I just can't be bothered with stuff like that when I'm switching lenses so often. I am lucky when a lens lasts me more than a year. All of them are scratched all to hell, dinged, and dented.
Click to expand...

Oh? Please tell me more!:D
 
lilclerk

lilclerk

Well-Known Member
Laura said:
Oooh I thought of one more stupid mistake I make CONSTANTLY. Will have my camera set to ISO 800 or 1600 for some dark ride or something, then come off the ride and walk out into normal light and completely forget to change the ISO back until like 4 hours later. By then I've already destroyed hundreds of pictures with noise. I HATE when I do that more than anything else.
Click to expand...
That's my biggest mistake too. It's so avoidable, which just makes it even more annoying.
 
dixiegirl

dixiegirl

Well-Known Member
First nite on Disney Wonder Cruise ( and probably our one and only on DCL because they are so dam exspensive) hubby is playing with camera trying desperatly to get a pic of the freaking chandelier on the ship..He tried so many different setting on our point and shoot canon.....To the point he got so agravated he almost threw the camera in the ocean!! Back and forth to Shutters , the camera and picture store on the ship..Between looking at new cameras and getting tips on how to maximize the most with the settings on our camera...Well to say the least my hubbys last attempt on the taking a pic of that stupid light was well .....yeah not good...All of a sudden I heard Hubby say "uh oh".....Yeah he deleated our pics...of the first day ....between Port Canaveral with pics of our girls with mickey and many many other great once in a lifetime pics....I had to walk away because in all honesty I though I was gonna kill him!!

So we go back to Shutters now, to say the hell with it and just buy a new camera..Well after telling the story to the Manager of the Picture store he took my camera card ( which I did not know could be done) and got all but 10 pics back that my hubby had deleated!!!! Yes I could have kissed the guy!!
Yes hubby was saved......So yes happy ending!! Oh and that camera ...My girls have it . and I have my baby...My Nikon D60!!!!!
 

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