[Leica] Re: Leica M-3 all or nothing

[montoid at earthlink.net (Montie)]

Ted wrote:
>You will shoot some of your greatest photographs on invisible film, ;-) not
only once, but quite probably more than once. Despite your saying I'll never
do that after doing it the third time! ;-)

I suppose I could confess to doing almost every screw-up possible with a
camera, however I don't remember them all so I'll just plead guilty to
everything. And warn you to never be so adamant about not being stupid and
never forgetting to load film, because you will, everyone does it no matter
what they say as it's in the rule book. That at sometime you will shoot
great pictures on invisible film!

If you never believed me before you can truly trust me on this one! :-)

>ted

Man this thread brought back a terrible incident I thought
I had forgotten...but here it is:  Back in 72-74 I was a
young Navy photog stationed in NYC doing alot of B&W
still PR work for the then new "all volunteer" recruiting
effort, all Tri-X

I had this habit of rewinding the film (M4) until I heard
and felt it click off the take up spool, that way I could
spool the film in the darkroom without popping the end off
the cassette.  After shooting,  I would throw the cassettes
in the "exposed side" of my bag, the "unexposed side" had
fresh film with no boxes or containers to save space. See
where I'm going here?

One busy day I had 3 assignments with the last one being
a formal occasion involving the Gov of New York, the
Mayor of NYC, a bunch of Flag Officers, and two US
Senators...a regular Murphy's Law bonanza. There was
very little press there and staff from the Gov's and Mayor's
office informed me they would be contacting me for pics.

It was one of those nights where everything just went too
perfect, and driving home I remember basking in my own
self importance, I was 22.

I can't describe the pain upon discovering I had shot that
job with the same 12 rolls that I shot the first two jobs
with. Needless to say there was great "gnashing of teeth".
In fact, Brandos famous line in Apocalypse Now fits real
well..."The horror...The horror".

Do I roll the film all the way into the cassette now??
Take a guess!

Montie