[Leica] Goofed with film advance on M3

["M.E.Berube - GoodPhotos" <meb@goodphotos.com>]

At 10:46 AM 6/6/00 -0700, Peter Niessen wrote:
>Dear all,
>
>I encountered a problem with the film advance. Of course, it happened
>when it mattered most, i.e. on my sort of first official assignment. I
>was to document our Choirs (www.amadeus-chor.de) trip to northern
>Germany and take a group picture of them all. This was hell! Getting
>to look 24 people smile friendly and look at you at the same time. So
>I bossed them around for 10 minutes and shot almost a roll, I thought.
>After development it turned out I goofed while inserting the film into
>my M3 and it did not advance the film. However, I used the rest of the
>roll later in the day and then it got the grip and advanced the film
>properly. Did someone experience this? How does one now handle the
>embarrasing situation to explain to 24 people they posed for nothing?

Respect your clients enough not to lie to them. Period. Explain that you 
made a stupid mistake and that it will have to be re-shot.
If this can't be re-shot (I assume that the location is far away) return 
any payment that you may have accepted and offer to re-shoot the group at 
your cost at another location or the next time they are all in the unique 
location. The "good will" of this offer will be appreciated and should more 
than make up for their inconvenience. (Unless of course you were shooting 
for free in the first place, in which case they got exactly what they paid 
for and should have no complaints anyhow.)

Don't let this shake you confidence. Stuff like this happens to everyone. 
(Especially on those first 'real' assignments.)

My first "official" shoot in the military (fresh out of photo school) was a 
group shot of our entire company in Alaska. We were team shooting on 4X5. 
They had the new guy (me) load the film. 130 people, a bucket lift, lots of 
lights and lining troops up 1 hour and 20 shots or so later we were 
finished...the film was developed and it was discovered that the new guy 
(me) had loaded every sheet with the notches on the wrong side of the 
holder...we had shot through the emulsion on EVERY SHOT. The Army does take 
kindly to 130+ wasted man hours, but they got over it and I'll never screw 
up loading 4X5 film again for the rest of my life.

I have since boned a portrait session in the last 15 years also and the 
clients have always appreciated the buck stopping with me and some of them 
have been repeat clients.

Now, four LUG digests have arrived since your post that I haven't gotten 
to. I hope that this advice finds you in a somewhat timely manner. My 
message is timeless however:

Honesty, is the best policy. (Unless "law enforcement" or the "judicial 
system" is involved.)

Carpe Lumen,
Michael E. Berube
http://www.goodphotos.com