RE: [Leica] Screw Ups 'r Us.

["B. D. Colen" <bdcolen@earthlink.net>]

Okay...I'm sure I've told this one before, so old hands delete...but it's so
wonderfully, embarrassingly awful that it's probably worth retelling for its
unspoken warnings of nothing else...

It's the summer of '65...I'm 18, working for the summer as the one
reporter/photographer for The Weekly Packet, in Blue Hill, Me...My entire
kit consisted of a Honeywell Pentax with 50 1.8, a Schneider 135 3.5, Weston
meter, and an inexhaustible supply of youthful hubris...so...

The summer of 65 was host in the Northeast to one of the words draughts on
record, and by August the vast paper company timberlands in Northern ME were
host to one of the worst forest fires in memory - companies from as far a
way as Jersey were driving up to help fight it...so I get in my beat up VW
Beetle and head north one Sunday to bring back Forest Fire Fotos.....And do
I get them....being too young to know better I of course ignore all road
blocks, warnings, etc....I go all over...I am on the fire line...I get
flaming falling trees and fleeing firefolks...I get plans dumping their
water loads...etc. etc....You get the picture....Then, blackened like some
90's cajun entree and stinking like Los Alamos the morning after, I rush
back toward Blue Hill....

On my arrival curmudgeon editor announces that he has spoken with The Boston
Globe and they are anxiously awaiting my brilliant photos...Folks, This Is
It! The Big Break! (Right, Ted?;-) )...From my camera to the Globe to the
wires to the front pages of the world...This is my moment...The Start of A
Brilliant Career....

So I rush into the darkroom and begin processing my million rolls of
Tri-X...I load those reels like a Grunt in a fire fight...I pour those
chemicals..I agitate...Boy, am I agitated....! I stop! I fix! I wash! I take
out my film and discover that, like the late Capa, I have had a darkroom D
Day!...I have so badly loaded those steel reels that most all the brilliant
photos exist only in my gray matter....and will never be seen by
anyone...Oh, yah, there are a few okay photos...But the good stuff, the
GREAT stuff? It's out there somewhere with The One That Got Away....The
Globe? Right. Fagedaboutit....

And maybe, we look for little Twists of Fate and what ifs,  that's really
why I ended up writing for the next 23 years instead of shooting. :-)

B. D.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> [mailto:owner-leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us]On Behalf Of Dan Post
> Sent: Sunday, June 11, 2000 12:40 PM
> To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us
> Subject: Re: [Leica] Screw Ups 'r Us.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Rick Dykstra <rdandcb@cybermac.com.au>
> To: leica-users <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
> Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2000 6:37 PM
> Subject: [Leica] Screw Ups 'r Us.
>
>
> > Tell us about your biggest, worst, most enlightening, whatever,
> > photographic screw up.
> >
> > Might save some of us from doing the same.
> >
> CLIP!
>
> This goes back to when I was foolish enough to do weddings! Then
> I was less
> wise and used an Hasselblad!
> I took a brand new 80/2,8 lens to a wedding, and failed to notice that the
> little tab that kept the sych set to the "X" had slipped to the
> "M" setting.
> I had always known that a lot of the local guys would set the
> switch to "X",
> insert a wooden matchstick in the slot, and put a dab of glue
> there to keep
> it from getting shifted to the "M" setting. I hated to do that to my brand
> new lens..... Well, massive screw up- all the flash shots at the bride's
> house came out horribly underexposed!
> Never would have that problem with the Leica.... of course I
> don't count the
> times I mis-loaded the LTMs!!
> Dan (OOPS! Did I do that?) Post
>
>