To ensure the minimum of distraction I only took the camera and my 50mm prime lens. As I was in a bit of a hurry after work I just took the camera and left the case and associate gubbins back at home.
I took some potentially great photo's of both children and adults. The 50mm lens is great for this sort of in close portrait work. You have to work a bit harder to get the right distance, but because you are not zooming in and out, you concentrate on framing more. Not only that but the larger maximum aperture means that it works well indoors and you get lots of great bokeh(I love that word)
However I would love to share with you some of these photos so you can see what I mean, unfortunately there is just one small problem
I forgot to put a memory card in the camera.....
It's such a newbie mistake I can't believe i did it. It was largely down to being in a hurry. After copying photos from last night I did not replace the card in the camera. And my spare card was in the camera case which I did not take to save time and weight
This is not the 1st time this has happened to me. Unfortunately the no memory card signal in the Sony is not at all obvious until you preview your photos and to all intents and purposes the camera works. If only there was a option to make it more obvious, such as the camera not taking photos with a large message in the viewfinder saying IDIOT!!
However this is by no means my worst disaster like this.
Let me take you to the days of film when I went on my one and only long sea voyage up to the Arctic circle on the Royal fleet auxiliary vessel Olna. We sailed for 6 weeks outside Murmansk and watched the pride of the Russian nuclear fleet sail by, while Sea Kings took off and tried to ping them to test their sonar absorption capabilities.
Because I wasn't sure whether I would be allowed to take a camera on board(actually no one cared), instead of taking my SLR, I took a my wife's compact. During the 6 week voyage I saw once in a lifetime sights.
There was Beluga whales basking, a peregrine off course and resting on our masts. Russian submarines by the score including the largest ever built, the Typhoon class. At one point most the Russian navy sailed past us and we passed the Admiral Kutnetsov aircraft carrier (with I seem to remember just a truck and a dog on board).
We were buzzed by Migs, A Nimrod did an air drop. At one point two Russian maritime aircraft did a number of low level passes firing flares. All the time the Sea kings were taking off into the Arctic sunset and I watched as divers recovered a Russian underwater sonar sensor for later analysis. Being an oiler the Olna also did refuelling to HMS Sheffield firing the lines over.
All the time I took photo's. But you will have to take this on my word, because when I got my camera back and took the film out to get it developed, I found the film had not even wound onto the camera spool. So for 6 weeks I had been firing blanks, so to say.
It still hurts when I think of it. In comparison today's faux pas is just a minor irritation in comparison.
Anyway here is today's lesson.
Before you take your camera out always check the basics such as
- Clean the Lens and carry a lens cloth
- Check battery power and carry a spare
- Make sure the memory card is in place and you have a spare.
You have to take my word for how brilliant the photos were however :(
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