Most memorable MISSED opportunity?

[Steve Wheeler]

I had a rare (for me) opportunity last night that got smooth away from me.

What's your most memorable photo opportunity that has escaped you?

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I belong to an organization that has a work shop here in Dallas. The shop faces south and sits just north of and across the street from a fair size field and railroad right-of-way next to a major freeway. (Lot's of critters in the field & RR ROW... We've even seen bobcat in this area.)

I was at the shop last night... It was a little before 8:00pm (perfect golden light), I'd just finished a project I'd been working on and was out in the front talking with friends.

A RED TAIL HAWK WITH A SMALL RABBIT IN IT'S CLAWS comes slowly at us from east to west about 40-50 ft off the ground trying to gain altitude with his fresh and obviously heavy kill... There was a mockingbird furiously on his tail... Dive bombing him along the way.

We are all watching in amazement when the hawk gets just over our parking lot and makes a BEAUTIFUL, SLOW, BANKING TURN to the south towards the RR & freeway, the underside of his wings and the rabbit now PERFECTLY ILLUMINATED WITH GOLDEN LIGHT... PERFECT HEAD AND WING ANGLE... MOCKINGBIRD HAMMERING AWAY.

The hawk (w/rabbit and mockingbird in tow) get's just to the freeway, makes a north westerly turn and eases toward the west end of the field across the street and eventually disappears into the sunset.

Would have been an AMAZING series of images for me... At least in my minds eye.

No camera...

No words...

Very grateful to have even seen such a thing...

But very pissed my camera wasn't with me...

That's my most memorable missed opportunity in the short time I've been doing this.

WHAT'S YOURS????
(There's BOUND to be some good ones out there!)

Steve

[Brian Kersey]

I was at Bolsa Chica wetlands and finally saw a coyote fully front lite, standing in the middle of a field of golden grass. I put the camera and lens up to my eyes and he went away as I mis focused :(

[George DeCamp]

I was in Kenya when we spotted a Cheetah and 3 cubs. The cubs were alongside Mom, one in front, and one on each side all were sitting upright. They were slightly above me on a hill and the sun was coming up. It was a perfect family portrait so I took 3 images before they moved and the perfect image was gone.

After they left I looked at my LCD and it was almost black. I had the camera set for the prior day on manual and the setting was totally wrong and way too dark. Image ruined and I was not a happy camper. To this day I remember the scene, it was perfect and a cover shot....sigh. :o

[Robert Amoruso]

In the summer when I walk my dogs in my neighborhood I will regularly have a Shallow-tailed Kite fly over me with 20 feet.

Go out with a camera.... nada!

[Harold Davis]

happened at wakodahatchee last year. i'm on the boardwalk and one of the big gators is really agitated and i know something spectacular is going to happen. he swims at some birds on shore and starts to really get some water moving around him. i have the camera perfectly focused on the gator waiting for him to jump out and attack a bird when all of a sudden three fish, in perfect unison, jump out of the water and over the gators back!!! i never pull the trigger!!! i was so shocked that something like that would even happen i just froze up! AND it was perfect light angle!

oh well. better luck next time!!

[Roger Clark]

The first time I saw a cheetah break into a full sprint on the Serengeti, all I could do was drop my mouth wide open and watch in awe. My 500mm and 1DII were ready and pointed at the cheetah, with an excellent angle running diagonally towards me and she was large in the frame. I guess I'll just have to go back..... ;-).

Here she is with her cubes moments before the sprint:
http://www.clarkvision.com/galleries/gallery.africa/web/cheetah.c01.26.2007.JZ3F2494b-700.html

Roger

[Steve Wheeler]

I knew there would be some really good stories out there... Thank you guys for sharing!

They say the only bad experience is one you don't learn anything from.

Keep'em coming!

Steve


Steve

[Philippe Collard]

Hey guys, great (and sad) stories :)

I was at the Montreal Botanical Garden one day last winter. It was freezing cold but the light was magic. I had a 20D and a 300mm f/4L ready, my walkaround setup, although I knew in advance that at this time of year there's nothing really extraordinary there. Suddenly my GF says "hey look there's a big bird standing on the border of the pond". I looked through the viewfinder... a beautiful male Merlin! He was 30ft from us, below eye level, no branch or nothing in the way, no obvious intention to fly away. I crawled to a respectable distance and I framed carefully. That was going to be a killer shot for sure. I was the next Shell Wildlife Photographer of the Year.

I pressed the shutter and as nothing happened I read on the top LCD blinking... "no CF".

As Artie says "gotta love it or else you jump off the bridge".

[Steve Wheeler]

"gotta love it or else you jump off the bridge".... That's funny... and oh so TRUE.

Some amazing stories....

[Steve Bein]

I was in Los Angeles at the Sepulveda basin shooting white pelicans. They were getting large fish and then swallowing them. They shook for minutes after swallowing the fish. Finally, one got a very large fish, bigger than the pouch, sticking out of the beak, the sun was front on, the background and water, golden and I shot happily thinking "cover Shto". when i reviewed the images, I noticed that i too had not changed the settings from the last night and all were overexposed. One was salvageable for me at the time but I never submitted it. Frustration overruled. Now, with the additions in PS CS3, I might be able to intensify the images and make them saleable. The feeling when I realized that the fish had been swallowed, and the opportunity was over was a deep weight in the pit of my stomach.
there have been other times- no camera, bad lighting on amazing situations, but this is foremost in my mind.

[Lyall Bouchard]

I was driving when a red tailed hawk flew directly in front of my windshield and crashed with wings spread into the ditch on the opposite side of the road. I realized he had caught something as he hopped around in the ditch. I backed up, rolled the window down and had my camera at the ready. Sure enough, he flew up out of the ditch, and perched on an old post right beside the road. I've got him full frame in great light, with a big vole in his beak, and staring straight down the lens. I've also got the 100-400 focus limiter switch set to 6.5m to ~, and he's too close to get focus. He's gone before I can react, and all I can do is watch him fly away with his lunch.

[Harold Davis]

great thread!!! hope others keep it rolling!!

[Ed Grella]

Back in the film days, it was my neices first day being able to crawl. I was in front of her, crawling backwards on my elbows and knees with camera in hand. I took 34 beautiful pictures of her smiling and crawling. Next day I went to remove the film to have it processed. Guess what, Their was no film in the camera!!!!!! After that dumbass move, I always checked for film tension with the rewind knob.
Ed

[Jim Neely]

It was one of my first shoots at the Port Aransas Birding Center back in the film days. I had a roll of what I was sure were outstanding images. After completing the roll, I removed it, put it in the plastic container and shoved it in my pocket. Only problem was, I missed my pocket and it rolled off the boardwalk and into the water.

I agonized about climbing over the side, but was concerned I might not be able to get back on the boardwalk. It's a wetland and quite muddy. I finally gave up on retrieving the film, reloaded and shot some more.

The next morning I was back shooting with first light and about 20 feet from where I dropped the roll of film there was a large (very large, 10 feet plus) alligator.

Sometimes I don't always do the dumbest thing. ;-)

jn

[Steve Wheeler]

Hmmmmm lets see....

Re-shoot pictures or risk possible death role with a 10'+ gator...:eek:

I think you made the right choice Jim!:D

Steve

[Rosl Roessner]

Great Thread!
I was at Bonaire for holiday and we had to split our day in parts for diving (no camera with me, because you can't leave it in the car while you are diving - it will be gone, when you come out of the water) and other times for photographing.

Of course when we were diving, I saw an Osprey, feeding on beautiful coloured fish, sitting in eye level on an accumulation of palm leaves. Sure - no camera; but I took the small digicam out of the underwater housing and tried the slow approach.... No problem with the Osprey. I was able to get really close to him, about 15 m distance and watch him eating the fish for a long time.
Looking at the images on the digicam, they were only good for the trash. I forgot how to use the screen and was looking through the viewfinder, but something went wrong with the AF....

The next days I went to the same place a hundreds of times, but did never see the feeding Osprey again....

My husband was a kind of angry, because he could not understand, that it is great to SEE things like that, but it is MUCH BETTER to make images, when you see it...... But you guys know the difference!

[Chris Ober]

Awwww, 10 ft is just a baby! :)

There was this one time on the beach, Angelina Jolie was walking right toward me...oh wait wrong forum.. :) :)



Hmmmmm lets see....

Re-shoot pictures or risk possible death role with a 10'+ gator...:eek:

I think you made the right choice Jim!:D

Steve

[Charlie VanTassel]

While Diving off of the Coronado Islands near San Diego I came upon a migration of Bat Rays. Hundreds of Bat Rays were swimming wingtip to wingtip in formation through an underwater canyon. Crystal clear water.... my camera back at the dock in the car. The only upside is that it was one of my first dates with my current wife and we saw it together.

[Bruce Murden]

My wife and I took the dogs out for a drive to take them walking around the schoolgrounds in town near sunset one evening. She didn't like it when I was busy photographing in the yard when the dogs decided it was time for their walk. This night, however, there were some beautiful and unique cloud formations in the southeast: It was the still-very-well-organized remnants of a hurricane in Michigan. (I think it was Katrina, but I can't recall for certain and came up blank when I was searching for it.) The cloud bank was lit up in gorgeous reds & purples, and had a well defined leading edge. And I didn't have a camera because I had decided not to push my luck on a week when I had bothered my wife a little too much with my photography. I should have gone back for once-in-a-lifetime shots of a hurricane in Michigan!

[Roman Kurywczak]

Old school........film days...AE1......My wife and I are in Hawaii..........spectacular shots all around me...........taking pictures of sights and just stunning landscapes...............realize i haven't changed film in a while.........check the counter........image #44.......thought film broke off the spool.........worse..........no film in the camera!
PS to digital shooters........... If you have to ask what a film spool is........you're too young for an explanation! Goggle it!

[Joerg Rockenberger]

Too many missed opportunities to remember all. The most memorable is the one from this afternoon...

I was getting out of my car at a Starbucks and immediately noticed some weird screaming in the adjacent trees. Spotted a scrub jay jumping from branch to branch and occasionally diving to the ground but always aborting it halfway.
Well, on the ground sits a Cooper's or Sharp-Shinned Hawk with what looks like another Scrub jay in its talons. Still alive... Less than 20 feet away... Unobstructed view... The hawk calmly observing me...

My camera? At home. I had left home to run some errands but also to stop by a local refuge to check out the general status. But for some reasons I decided to leave the camera at home because shooting in the afternoon at this spot is usually not very good... Darn!

JR

[Andy MacDougall]

I take my camera to work with me every day and usually wherever I go on day trips at the weekend...........

The in-laws are coming for a month today (from uk to oz) so things to do, camera left at home, so on saturday I missed shots of Gouldian finches (google them) and then, at the Land Fill site of all places we sat in the car less for a couple of minutes than 6 feet away from a Nankeen Kestrel perched on the 10 kmh speed limit sign ! perfect portrait that would have made.

My wife says just enjoy the moment but it would've been nice to have captured it for eternity.

At least I got say to her "dear, THAT'S why I ALWAYS take my camera with me wherever I go !!!" lol !

Andy