When bad things happen to good shots!

[AdamFlx3204]

They're the photos that NEVER make it to prime time, the shots that would have been calendar material had something not gone horribly wrong!

And they happen to nearly any Transit Photographer trying to go the extra distance for an extra special shot. Sometimes, it's a seemingly little thing like a blown destination sign that takes an otherwise flawless photo and reduces it down to "B-list" material. Other times, the shot composition simply does not pan out the way it was intended, either through miscalculations or more commonly, due to external interference.

This post will be a place to comiserate, to show off the shots that you had high hopes for, only to see it crumble as the scene unfolded itself. It will be a place to hopefully laugh off the images that won't be gracing any calendars, but could have if only things had manifested differently.

I'll start it out with a shot taken this afternoon. I saw 9010 head north on the #61 line and elected to try a more "experimental" composition as a shot when it returned south. I found a VERY orange autumn tree, and thought that the blue and green colors would contrast well with it, using a cut off side facing composition taken from the right. In order to do this, I had to position myself in a spot where I could see the bus approaching, then hustle down to a shooting spot on the sidewalk of a side street out of view to get the image of the passing bus and colorful tree.

Up until this time, the side street had seen very little traffic, so I hoped the odds would be in my favor of getting an unobstructed shot. A bit past 520pm, I spotted the bus rolling over the ridge in the distance and headed to my spot to get the shot. Mere moments later, I heard a distinct noise of tires against the pavement behind me, and thought "oh gawd, it's going to fail." My optimistic side hoped that the bus would appear before whatever this was would enter the frame.

In the end, it was a tie, and tie meant failure, as a USPS minivan breezed its tail right into my frame just as the bus hit the perfect spot. I remember shouting something to the effect of "Bastard Cliff Claven MF" and stormed off. The shot was completely ruined.

[Nabinut]

I nearly had the same thing happen to me almost two months ago. Staked out a shot on Caton Avenue just North of Wilkens where a trestle and part of St. Agnes could be seen. Waited 15 minutes for 5030 to show up on the 16. My mistake was posting in front of a small street which for some reason a Big Rig could travel through no problem:

[Cinatas]

I nearly had the same thing happen to me almost two months ago. Staked out a shot on Caton Avenue just North of Wilkens where a trestle and part of St. Agnes could be seen. Waited 15 minutes for 5030 to show up on the 16. My mistake was posting in front of a small street which for some reason a Big Rig could travel through no problem:

You can salvage this shot by cropping the left side of the frame, say the leaning metal pole and everything to the left of it. So the end result looks like this:

That's a damned good shot!

Adam's unfortunately was too far gone to save; however, creative cropping might yield a good avatar or signature:


Please forgive me for using your images but I commandeered your shots only to illustrate that sometimes good can come from bad.

[JimD]

The ‘one that got away’ that still bugs me to this day took place on a cold but sunny Christmas Eve 1999. I remember the date because I was in Boston to visit family, I wouldn’t have been in town on that day except for the fact that Christmas Day was on a Saturday and therefore I had finished work on the 23rd, and the bus in question was assigned to the weekdays-only Fellsway Garage. I was doing last minute shopping and some busfanning on the side with my son, and we found ourselves in the Stoneham area. We knew that an inbound route 132 bus to Wellington station was due to leave soon and as we passed the Redstone Plaza shopping center that is the terminus for this route, we spotted recently repainted 1985 GMC RTS #8506 laying over. The sun was bad for that particular shot, but it was perfect for a photo of a southbound bus passing the old buildings in Stoneham Square a mile or so to the south. We proceeded to that location and set up next to a side street and waited. Traffic on this particular side street was minimal, and the stop sign placement and general layout of the intersection should have ensured that any car which might show up would not block the shot.

Should have.

You know what’s coming next. The bus appears and has a green light to proceed straight through the square without stopping. A pickup truck comes down the side street at the same time, except the idiot driving it has no intention whatsoever of stopping – he’s going to do a patented Boston-driver ‘Make-it-look-like-a-rolling-stop-but-keep-going-through-the intersection’. Except, of course, his plan is foiled by the large city bus that is barreling down the street. The pickup screeches to a stop halfway into his right turn, completely obliterating any chance of capturing my carefully planned image of the bus. The photographer utters several words out loud that should not be uttered in front of 7-year-old kids.

I’ve had that type of scenario happen to me too many times over the years to count, but that particular one still annoys me to this day.

Jim

[Nabinut]

Jim, you've basically described the worst pet peeve any transit photographer has (outside of police harassment). There are shots that i never taken that happens just like that. New buses & old buses are the worst scenarios to lose a shot under. The ones that get me are the people. Sometimes you set up a photo in a light pedistrian area, the bus comes and a runner or person just pops up out of nowhere, the kind that almost wants to make you give up but yet you push on, seeking better opportunties and perhaps best luck

[Huios1]

Persistence prevails against the resistance.
Indecision clouds the vision.
A good attitude is the adversary of adversity.

"Show 'em what your workin' with..."-Mystikal

[Cinatas]

Junk Shots are more important than acceptable ones because they teach us what NOT to do and what to do better. I will share my junk shots for analysis.



For once in a blue moon, a motorist actually stopped her/his car far enough back to not block the side of the bus. That, combined with the pristine light, makes this an epic failure. For some reason, my camera didn't focus properly and I composed the shot with the sign in the way.


Here's a perfect example of how to shoot yourself in the foot. All you have to do is set your camers's focus to manual, forget to change it back, and go out shooting! It's so easy, a caveman can do it!


In the past it was thought that maggots spontaneously appeared on meat. Today, traffic spontaneously appears in transit shots.


This is 9510 on the 54. It would've been a great shot had this stooge not blundered into my frame.


This was supposed to be a shot of a Nova classic, but this missing-link looking MF popped up from the stone age and ruined it.

[Huios1]

Great post! Your photo captions were awesome. Good examples of the bad that occurs between the good. I've had plenty of epic failures too, and I'm sure you and Adam recall most of them. (Remember 3532, Adam?) Later on, the incidents often seem ridiculous or hilarious.
This is an awesome thread.

[Cinatas]

This is an example of wanting a shot so bad I made the attempt regardless of being ill-prepared. I had a 1/2 second shutter speed, no tripod or anything to set my camera on, and I didn't crouch down for a more stable position. I didn't want to use a flash, and this is the result. I also note that it was a rush shot. Since the 27 has no layover at Rogers, I had scant seconds to get a shot off. No shot at all would've been better. 11-12-08


Another rush shot. For this one I was out of position, and had to rush to the closest acceptable spot to compose my shot. I got there same time as the bus; I aimed and fired faster than my camera could auto-focus, and this is the result. All things considered the shot isn't all that bad at this size or smaller. But at larger sizes, one can see that the front of the bus is out of focus. This was Big Ralph operating 8-21-08.


This is one of those shots where my camera's auto-focus was confused about what to focus on, and it settled on something that was not my subject. The entire image is out of foucus which creates a mystery because while I have auto focus active, my camera won't fire unless/until something's in focus. Taken minutes before the Big Ralph picture above, 8-21-08.


Mere fractions of a second before I depressed the shutter release button, this mealy-mouth retard decides he sees something of interest and leans into my frame. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to see him pummeled and bitten by an enraged, adult male, eastern lowland gorilla.

[BigRalph9864]

I finally got a chance to see this pic of me driving 06008. It looks good to me dude. I remember seeing you turn around just as I came past you and I was thinking to myself "maybe I should have slowed down so they could get a better shot...", nevertheless it still looks great to me.
I really miss driving the bus now....

[GP90]

Until today I am upset with this one...it was nearly perfect, until that van came in the way.




This is a good example of how bad I used to be at photography. You can see all sorts of things wrong with it. In my defense, however, this bus was zooming by and I wanted to get a shot before it was too late, and I barely got it but it was a bad shot anyways.

[Nabinut]

This is called Too Fast, I'm furious:

[AdamFlx3204]

I'm not sure which is more frustrating, when the things you can't control ruin your shot, or when the things you CAN control (and SHOULD HAVE CONTROLLED) ruin your shot.

Having blocked out the entire day, I went out mid-morning to ramble 'round the hood to try to get the absolute best Spring shots I could on a gorgeous shooting day. I elected to start out with the Casio compact and it served me well on nearly every shot. By about 1245pm, I had wandered my way to Charles and 33rd. Since I could remember that s/b 11's tend to pass Bedford on the weekend at :20 and :50, it seemed my timing was perfect to get a Canton bound bus, and in short time, I had found the PERFECT set up spot on the Service Drive!

Two colors of tree blooms, a hint of the Homewood Mansion in the backdrop and blue sky, non interfering auto and pedestrian traffic and near perfect light. It seemed like it would be like taking candy from a baby. As I took in the scene, it dawned on me that the Canon SLR might be a better choice to get the best out of this fantastic opportunity.

Just as I decided this and began to make the switch, I saw the bus come into view just over 2 blocks away. I'd wanted to try a Polarizer on this shot, so I had to hastily snatch it out and fasten it to the lens. I had the camera up and ready with just seconds to spare. A little quick re-composition, and I managed to get off three burst shots. It seemed I had scored a winner. I gave them a cursory review on the spot for composition, and decided the middle one was the best since it had people while keeping the bus prominent enough.

Having exhausted the 11 opportunity for the next half hour, I elected to work my way up to University Parkway and try my luck with the 22 since the sunlight was nearly at a perfect South arc to offset the diagonal parkway. Just as I spot out a shot, and go to frame it, I take note of the shutter reading of "40." Seems in my hasty switch, my careless arse HAD THE CAMERA IN #&%@*! SHUTTER PRIORITY MODE FOR 1/40 OF A SECOND!

Upon checking in more depth, my stellar new "prize shot" had been taken at 1/40 of a second at f/18! DAMMIT!!!

and while at small scale, the photo looks ideal:


The closer you go to 1:1, the more the dreaded blur is revealed. Add to that the sharpness decrease from using too small an aperture, and it goes from Hall of Fame to Hall of Shame!

[Huios1]

It's not as bad as a Hall of Shame. Maybe the Hall of "Mildly Disappointing"

[AdamFlx3204]

It's not as bad as a Hall of Shame. Maybe the Hall of "Mildly Disappointing"

Well maybe "Hall of Shame" is a bit overstated, but I'd say "Mildly Disappointing" is about as understated.

I would consider my last shot of the day to be "Mildly Disappointing."

I was heading home from Cold Spring Light Rail, and was able to determine that a #33 would soon be heading westbound past me. I wanted to end the day on a high note, and when I came to Grandview Avenue, I realized I had a good a shot as I'd get of it prior to meeting it. I took care to shift my position slightly to the left to compress the visual clutter of the street poles into a single break between the flowering tree and the path the bus would take.

I staged at this location for about 3 to 5 changes of the light before it made its appearance. Until this time, cross traffic on Grandview from the Poly-Western complex had been very minimal, and the few cars that had come past quickly dispersed onto Cold Spring.

Then came Rockin' Barb in her Mustang, just in time.



The shot is by no means "ruined" but the shot as I envisioned it was to consist primarily of the tree and the bus. I could deal with the parked cars sitting dicreetly in back but the vivid red car butting into the midst of the scene is just distracting as hell to me when I look at the shot. The flow of the shot is disrupted. Shameful: hardly, but definitely disappointing.