Top Five Things not to do in Digital Photography

I was lucky enough to spend two months this summer living in Paris, France.  It was a bit of a creative reboot, to take time out from work and do the things I love i.e. photography.  Where better to take photos than the home of both the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre?  Alas, in my two months I think I managed to do almost everything you shouldn’t do in photography, and cursed myself every time. Warning – this is a bit of a techy photography post, but the stories are so sad/pathetic/amusing, you may have fun laughing/sympathising with me anyway. The the worst is last – scroll straight down to 1. if you just want the juiciest/saddest story.  It still makes me almost cry.

5. Don’t check your battery before a shoot 
One very hot day we went to the Gare de Lyon to buy train tickets.  It was around 33oC, it was sweaty, yet still I lugged my heavy camera along to take shots of the interiors.  I got there and…. the camera wouldn’t turn on. It took me a few minutes to realise that there was simply no battery in the camera, I had left it on the charger.  We were out and about for a couple more hours and I dejectedly carted my camera dangling over my shoulder, even though I had realised it was as useful to me as a bicycle is to a fish.  :(
I learnt: Before you go shooting, always turn your camera on to check the charge level of the battery.  If possible, own two batteries and when you put one in the charger, immediately put a fresh one in the camera.  It’s good to have options!

4. Don’t check your ISO/white balance/exposure mode/shutter release mode/exposure compensation before a shoot
Example 1: I lugged my tripod and shot many photos early one morning.  I wondered why the shutter speeds seemed a little short compared to my other shoots, but it was too early for my brain to process.  Later I realised I was shooting on 3200 ISO, when I meant to shoot on 200 ISO.  Result – lots of ugly grain on my photos.  Doh!

Example 2: When I first got a digital SLR (Nikon D70) four years ago, we took a trip to Italy.  I adjusted the exposure compensation to a -1 exposure sometime during that trip.  It stayed that way for the next year until I learnt enough about the camera to notice and change it.  Hence a year’s worth of underexposed photos.  Double doh!

Example 3: My fancy camera (Nikon D300) which is far smarter than me… has a dial that allows you to switch between taking single photos, shoot continuously, shoot on self timer etc.  As I haven’t bought a remote release yet (needed a good food/wine budget for Paris!), I’ve been shooting long exposure night shots on a 2 second delay so when I press the shutter, the vibration doesn’t affect the photo.  After such a night session, I went shooting the next day.  I thought my camera was broken.  I would push the shutter and it was very slow in responding.  Sometimes I would have moved the camera away before the shutter released… until I realised I was shooting in the daytime, on a 2 second release.  Camera not broken, but my brain is.  Triple doh – I have more stories, but you get the idea!

I learnt: Always check all your presets before a shoot.  All of them.  ISO, colour balance, exposure mode and yes… shutter release mode.  Some things you can recover from.  If you are shooting in RAW you can change the white balance in software – but if you shoot JPEGyou will have to degrade the image in software to fix the white balance.  Always, always check all your presets before a shoot.  If it is an early morning shoot, check your presets the night before.  Always, always (are you listening self?).

3. Scratch your image monitor cover
I bought (leased!) a few lenses before we left for Paris, and was lugging them everywhere in case I had the urge.  We climbed the Pantheon and looked out over the expansive view.  Yay, I lugged my long lens with me – time to change!  I gently put my camera on the stone ledge with the image monitor down so I could twist off one lens to replace with the next.  I gingerly completed the operation and continued shooting.  I swapped between lenses a couple more times, taking photos of Montmarte, the Eiffel, the Seine etc.  You guessed it, later when previewing my shots I realised that the stone ledge had scratched the heck out of the plastic cover over my image monitor.  Thank goodness it is cheaper to replace that the actual monitor itself!
I learnt: Be gentle with everything about your camera, not just your lenses. 

2. Crack your LCD Control panel
How did I manage this, less than two weeks after getting a brand new, very expensive camera?  The quick release plate on my tripod flew off when being removed and hit my LCD.  Crack.  I haven’t fixed it yet and am still paranoid that moisture will get into the LCD, but I am scared to ask Nikon how much it will cost!
I learnt: uh – keep your camera away from flying objects?  This was truly a freak accident, and if I did it again I don’t know that the result would be different, unlike the other points above.  But it still sucked.

1. Don’t get dust on your image sensor when… you are about to shoot a truly historic, awe inspiring location that you travelled from Canada to Paris and then drove five hours (on the non-toll highways) to see.
OMG.  This was the worst photographic moment of my life.  We drove to Mont Saint Michel, a monastry on the north coast of France that is on a tiny island.  It rises up out of the sea like something from a sci-fi fantasy movie; the drama, beauty and intrigue are just amazing.

There I was, poised with my tripod and camera, waiting for the sun to set so I could shoot the stunning night shots I was picturing in my head… when I realised my test shots had dust on them.  Not just a tiny speck, but big nasty chunks.  Many of them.  There were blobs around my beautiful Mont Saint Michael! 

What not to do next: I opened my camera to try to blow manually or wave a tissue inside (no proper cleaning materials with me on the highway, just Kleenex).  Made it worse.  I asked another photographer with a tripod for a blower brush – he barely spoke English and didn’t seem to posses what I mimed at him.  My hubby ran back to the hotel and returned with my back up camera, which I swapped to.  But by then the light was gone. 

After appealing to the hotel receptionist to find us a specialist Nikon store close by… the next day, we drove an hour to a large town to try to get cleaning stuff.  Our first visit to the Nikon store using the French/English phrase book was unsuccessful – they said it would send the camera away for a week.  Hands off!  After studying the phrase book further and we returned with renewed ideas for communication.  60 euros later… we had some special swabs and fluid (ironically made in Canada). 

Cleaning your image sensor is scary if you have never done this, and there was a learning curve using the right ratio of fluid on the swabs.  But I was successful enough to take photos the next night (we had fortunately planned for two nights).  Sigh of relief.  Mission accomplished.
I learnt: Either don’t, or if you must; be very careful when changing lenses outside (especially on the side of a highway).  Dust will get in and ruin your photos.  Also, buy cleaning stuff in North America before you go to Europe and carry it religiously. 
I also learnt: If it is the shoot of a lifetime, allow two nights.  Oh goody, I did!  (Paranoid project management planning runs in my blood.)

Conclusion: Looking at this list – it all seems so obvious.  You may be laughing at me right now!  But still, I had to do each dumb thing to learn.  Sigh.  But I am a better person (and photographer now).  So glad I could share.