Sod's law of photography

[Grumby]

"The one shot you can't repeat will always be out of focus"

Or at least, that's how it always works out for me!

Today, I was at the Sydney Half Marathon trying to get a shot of my wife's brother and one of her work colleagues (they were just running - I was doing the hard work ) I should point out that though I crave a DSLR, at the moment I only have a crummy P&S to play with...

So anyway, I found a great place to stand where I had a view down the road and could see runners about 10 seconds before they got to my chosen photo spot; I found someone in the crowd opposite me to use for pre-focus and exposure lock, then held that and spun back round to find the runner, panned with them as they ran past my chosen point, and 'click'. I took about 20 practice shots - they all came out really well. Then finally, there was Steve heading towards me - 10 seconds away... I raised the camera to my pre-focus spot and... it switched itself off. Aaaarrrgghhh! I quickly switched it back on - but had now lost my zoom, so had to reset that, and by the time I'd done all that, he was right there there in front of me - no time to pre-focus - just press the button and hope for the best.

Pretty much the same thing happened near the finish line when I was watching out for my wife's colleague David. I had everything lined up, finger on the button holding it half-way down to keep the exposure and focus locked - saw him coming... and my finger raised slightly as I was moving the camera and lost the focus and exposure - so I ended up with another very average 'snap' rather than a photo that compared with the dozen or so practice shots I took.

In the bright sunshine, and on a 2.5" screen, the results didn't look so bad, but this evening - looking at them on the PC - OH DEAR - what a disappointment! So I now have 30 or so crystal clear and pretty well composed shots of complete strangers, and 2 blurred ones of the people I set out to get pictures of. Oh well, only another year to wait, before I can try again...

[BryanC]

You can show them the pictures and say, "Everyone else ran in focus, why couldn't you?"......But seriously, don't get discouraged. Sometimes, it's from experiences like these that we learn. Keep at it!

[Grumby]

LOL - nice excuse. Must remember that for future reference!

[Doug Pardee]

Mike Johnston has noted:

I have often compared photography to fishing. I think it's the best metaphor for the type of photography I do, and the type I like: you educate, prepare and equip yourself as best you can, and train by practicing, but, in the end, what you catch still depends on luck, chance, fate, and whim. One element of the eternal lore of fishing is the one that got away…

(http://theonlinephotographer.blogspo...-got-away.html)

By the way, I had a similar situation about ten years ago. I missed the photo of my wife graduating summa cum laude because just as she walked onto the stage the camera shut itself off, and the digicam that we were using back then took about 15 seconds to turn on because it always ran a full test of the flash memory card.