That "Oh Sh*t!!" Moment On A Gig

[Jake Shoots Birds]

I don't do a lot of shooting for other people, so normally when something goes wrong in the field any related panic has no real world consequences. Not so yesterday when I was fulfilling my end of a charity auction donation where I photographed a family during a 1-on-1 falconry encounter, something I'd done about a dozen times before only as a favor to the falconer for his website and for my own use.

As normal, I brought my R5 with 100-500mm for most of the shooting, as well as my R6 with a 24-105mm to get some video and group shots. I almost never shoot video with my R5. This explains my horror when I go to raise it to my eyes and see nothing but video-related iconography on the back panel. I quickly spin through the Mode dial and everything on there is video specific. I remember explicitly in that moment thinking to myself, "Don't let these people see you freaking out!!" I'm trying everything - looking in the menus, hitting the Q button, spinning dials, turning the camera on and off, and even popping the battery. Nothing fixes it. I DO NOT want to swap lenses and shoot the bird with my R6 but I'm thinking that's where I'm going to wind up. Before I do I take a deep breath and give the rear panel a close inspection. I don't remember if I was pressing anything else at the time, but I see something with Mode-Info and either a wheel or a finger, and wonder what the heck that is. Desperate, I hold the Mode button down and hit Info and suddenly everything is back to normal!! WHAT?!?!

I finish the shoot without incident (light was horrible - bright sun, low in the sky, and I had the choice of shooting into it or using it with everyone squinting), and then went off to meet my lunch date, who just happens to work for Canon. As we're eating I tell them the story and they chuckle. "If I had a dime for every time I got a panicked call from a pro on a shoot about that I'd be buying lunch", was their reply. The next mention was this thing called a manual, but I ignored that part knowing that I'd read it almost cover to cover once back in July, 2021.

So glad I didn't have to do the emergency adjustment, but I've decided that I need to take some time over the holidays to refresh my memory about all the stuff on this camera that I don't use, just in case. And then see if I can disable that Mode-Info "quick change". LOL

Anyone with similar horror stories?

 

[JoeTheSnowPlowGuy]

Close, but not as bad. I was one a corporate headshot job a month ago and before the job I asked if they wanted event photos. The answer was no. So like a dip I didn’t bring enough stuff to do events. Just a 50, 85, and 24-105 STM with a Godox 685… I had my big Nanlite that I use for headshots (I prefer constant light at ISO 400 over flash, looks great.) Anyways, of course I get asked to do events. That’s fine. I start working it, but my 24-105 is just not cutting it. I was still able to get great shots because the R6 Mark 2 is phenomenal with higher ISO settings and Lightroom Denoise is also fantastic, but using my 50 and 85 for most of it worked great. Here comes the rough part. “Can you get a group photo of 30 people on this dimly lit stage?” F. I only be my have one flash…. I get it set up off camera with a 3 ft soft box. I take a couple pics. No flash… WTH… Check the setting on the trigger, looks good… still nothing. Check the flash unit and it has gotten switched off receiver mode… ugh. I get it working after looking like a total amateur only to take a few shots and realize exactly what I initially thought- I need at least 2, maybe 3 flash units for this to look good. I say screw it, I put the aperture on f/8, shutter to like 1/160 and ISO to like 5000 and start ripping pics….. turns out they actually look baller in post. A touch of Denoise, WB adjustment, some FroPack work and they’re bangers. That experience was terrifying and also great for me. I’ve since decided to stop listening to all the DSLR holdovers about ISO and I’m comfortable shooting people up to 6400 (Sometimes 8000) and environmental settings up to 12800. The pics look great, the R6M2 is a baller and clients think they look awesome… what I think most people get wrong with higher ISO isn’t noise, it’s the white balance being off. Fix that and the pics look great. I’m about to deliver some shots from a T3 that I took at 3200 and 6400, and they look great too…

 

[Jake Shoots Birds]

Close, but not as bad...

I've long ago forgotten that time I was asked to capture my in-law's 50th wedding anniversary. I never shoot with flash (heck, I almost never shoot humans) so I made sure that everything worked before I went over. I had remote triggers, umbrellas, the works, all working perfectly. When it's time to do group photos I head outside to set up. Someone asks if they should get Mom and Dad, and everyone else to come out. "Gimme a sec and I'll tell you when I'm ready." Next thing I know I see 60 people filing out of the house into the spot in the back yard I'd picked ... and the triggers aren't working. In situations like this my language generally vacillates between sailor and angry Irishman (with the occasional curse in Russian), so this is not good for anyone involved, particularly since it's Florida in the summer and it's 85 degrees in the shade, hence the need for flash. I never got the second flash working and wound up doing a lot more in post than I wanted to.

So, between yesterday and this memory that you've just kicked up, I'm thinking that I'm done photographing humans for humans.

And btw, at the moment I cannot open my shots from yesterday in Photoshop from Lightroom. Seems the solution is to uninstall both, keeping the preferences, and reinstalling. I'm now laying odds on whether or not I need to relink all my 3d party apps and tools.

 

[Archibald]

Great scary stories! I never knew about getting the R5 into and out of movie mode. Will definitely have to remember that.

A year or so ago I was off to a location shoot with a fancy model, a one-on-one shoot. I brought my Godox AD200 (+ softbox & stand). The problem was, when I turned it on, the flash was in Multi mode. That's no good, it has to be in normal shooting mode. I was time-stressed with the model looking on, and there was NOTHING I could do to get it back to normal mode. I finally gave up and used an on-camera flash that I had packed as back-up.

Fortunately the pics turned out OK, but I sure felt stupid in that shoot.

Getting it off Multi is easy if you know how. Afterwards I taped the instructions to the body of the flash.

 

[Archibald]

I had another issue with flash too, and it involved movie mode as well.

I bought an El-cheapo on-camera flash off Amazon. I wanted to check it out for macro photography. I mounted it on my Canon 7D2 and it seemed to work OK, it was just a bit wimpy. The problem was I couldn't get it back off the camera. The locking pin wouldn't retract. But I had to get it off!!! I jiggled and coaxed, and finally shook and pummeled the rig, all to no avail. Finally I cut th flash off with a hacksaw, managing to avoid getting metal fines on the camera.

Afterwards the camera behaved really weird, but then I realized I had inadvertently switched it to movie mode.

I claimed a return and sent the flash pieces back to Amazon. They never complained and gave me a full refund.

 

[Dwardski]

Until recently, I used to shoot unsigned bands at small- to medium-sized venues. Not for profit, just to help the band's careers in some small way, as well as giving the venues a bit of publicity. Occasionally, and usually by accident, I've managed to shoot bigger bands.

On one occasion I happened upon an online discussion involving the then-bass player of the UK rock band Magnum. Some of you may have heard of them but, if not, they were massive in the UK in the 80's and 90's, and only slightly less so in the US. At the time of my "Oh Sh*t" moment, some 20 years later, they'd broken up and reformed and were still releasing decent albums but were playing the smaller venues. Anyway, it turns out that the bass player was also a photographer - and a Canon shooter to boot - and, in the discussion, he was complaining that the lighting in one particular venue was really bad As it just happened to be my favourite venue, I waded in to defend it (in a friendly way, of course!). Long story short, we exchanged quite a few emails after that and, eventually, I was invited to shoot their next gig at that venue, with all-areas access.

When I took my gear out before the start of the gig I realised to my horror that I'd left my backup body at home. Not to worry; the 5D that I had with me was utterly reliable; I'd used it for years without any problems. The opening act fired up and all went well. At least, until near the end of their set, when my 5D suffered from the dreaded "mirror failure" - basically, it fell off!

I never did get my Magnum shots and, although I did get to go backstage, I have no record of that whatsoever, as in those days I didn't have a mobile phone.

At least it wasn't a paying gig...