Who else has made this sort of Boo-boo?

In the middle of a informal party last night (that I volunteered to take photos), the camera stopped working. (The flash was still on--I did put in a set of freshly recharged batteries in it)--but the camera had no power at all. I stupidly tried to make the camera bag a little lighter by emptying everything before I left, but luckily I "found" one battery in the side pocket. That saved the day. (I used the camera a couple of days prior to this to take 1,200 plus photos and did not switch the batteries). p.s. I must have looked like I saw a ghost when this happened. People just looked at me and asked what was wrong. Gotta change the batteries, I said, knowing that I emptied the bag earlier.

Who else has done anything like this?

p.s. I did say to myself, "never again!" after I got it working.

ha yeah that reminds me. Once, I was asked to play my violin in church on St Patricks Day (the day when church is full of people!). So I was getting ready to play, I sat down near a warm radiator (bad idea!) but the radiator made the violin go out of tune, and when I went up, ready to play infront of everyone in the whole parish, I started to play. It screeched, I stopped. Then the priest practically anounced my name to everyone saying "ok, try again James" so I tried and screeched again, then I had to stop and the piano had to take over my big solo! I was soo embarassed, infront of everyone!!

This is an interesting case. I don't empty cases and bags anymore. A couple of times I forgot to bring film. Once I even forgot to bring a lens. I forget nearly everything I need to bring. The problem with not emptying camera cases is you end up with so much junk in them and you have to carry all that junk around. Not very pleasant when you do a 12km trek up hill.

I have never had this problem but here is a suggestion. I use only energizer rechargeable batteries. I have a charger at home that charges up to 8 batteries. I also have a portable one I take with me that charges 4. I plug that one in at the event and interchange them through out the night, never letting them drain down all the way, and this way I always have a freshly charged set of batteries.

We have not had that happen , We have several chargers and keep a load of batteries with us ,With 4 cameras, 4 flashes ,2 on camera , 2 off camera ,We need a lot of batteries. I have misplaced a 8-pack at a wedding ...;-)

told my self to grab my portfolio before leveing on a five hour drive, got everything else and no portfolio, luckily they never asked to see it and were satisfied with the other stuff I brought, "Never Again"

Maybe you should make a point of always keeping spare batteries in your car.

Never, lol

I've done this a million times before!

Hey, it happens. I always have a bunch of extra batteries when doing a gig, though. And, Liddybeff, I do have a package of AA's in the car :-) I have had batteries die during a shoot. In weddings, I always start with fresh, then change the ones in the flash right before the formals. The ones I remove we use here in the house until they die.

The worst thing I had happen during a wedding, I had a camera body freeze. At the time, I was film only, that body was loaded with B&W, so I continued shooting with the color only. Afterwards, I replaced the battery in the body, although it had a new battery in it to start, and it worked fine, So weird things happen sometimes.

doing things like that is pretty much a part of the human condition. i think it is called "murphy's law" : what ever can go wrong will go wrong at the most inoportune moment and infront of the most people possible.
happens to me frequently...infact just tonite i killed the battery in my camera at a gathering of artists and people at a gallery opening that i was shooting...what saved my butt on the deal is that it really was the last shot i was going to take and everything was closing down and everyone was leaving...(*whew!*) but that is the first time i have been that fortunate, i gotta start packing an extra battery...
before it was film or memory card, i finally got it through my thick head to carry plenty of film and an extra memory card or two

I shot a wedding for a friend a few years back. Charged up all my batteries which I hadn't used in months. The batteries indicated a full charge, but came up woefully short. These were Nimh batteries, not supposed to have a memory, but when they have been sitting for a while it seems they do.

I learned from that point forward to make sure batteries that have been sitting for a while are discharged, then charge them up, then discharge them again. Takes time though. I bought a flashlight with a high watt bulb and discharge the batteries that way.

Also, I always carry a few AA regular high capacity batteries just in case. That is why I will only buy a camera that uses regular batteries.

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Life is so simple, but we insist on making it complicated

Confucius
551 - 479 BC
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http://www.chinablix.com

Peace

Jim

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