What's the best shot you never took?

I have three shots I missed. Three Great photographers.

The first one is Magnum photographer"The lady Matine Franck , the wife of H Cartier- Bressons . It was during during one of her Photo exhibition. in Paris. Photohttps://www.magnumphotos.com/photographer/martine-franck/ I had my camera in my bag and her photo book . I asked her Autograph and she did it Kindly. I really regret as she is not with us anymore. She has gone back to wehere she came from.

Next is The photographer Sebastião Salgado during her major Photo exhibition in Paris. I was talking to him but I never took my camera out.

The third one.... is Photo of a French photographer. I asked if I can take a photo he said yes but only one photo. Then he turned his back on me and I never had the photo. I know lot of French Photographers are very intimate and shy too face other photographers.

I missed again a photograph of edouard boubat photography . He signed his book for me during another exhibition. He is also gone back to the place where he came from . Great people in the world of photography.

​

 
In the 90s at an airshow at Quonset Point. I was on a boat. Over the water the planes had less restrictions compared to over land, they could fly much closer to you. Pretty sure I had an F5 with the 80-200 f2.8 on it. By luck we ended up anchoring right under one of the major flight paths for the Blue Angels. I shot several rolls of film but the sequence I remember most was an F18 doing a high G turn 90 degrees to the ground with condensation coming off the wings. The plane was pointed right at us and it being close enough that zoomed in I only had about 2/3s of the plane in the finder, it streaked right over us with this amazing shriek. Had the F5 on motor drive and just let it devour film as the plane was passing overhead. Just knew I had at least one great shot.

Two problems though....

First: later on I realized the camera had been set to a very wrong ISO so the film would have been many stops underexposed. I thought it was on DX but was set at like 3200 or something... totally my fault as I didn't check it ahead.

Second: being discouraged about the ISO I didn't get the film processed right away and somehow it ended up going missing.

For many years I tried to get the same shot again but was never able to be in quite the same position to capture a high G turn right above us and it seemed like later on they weren't flying as close to the water anymore.

Still bitter at my mistakes but never made them again.....
 
It was in the 1970’s and I remember it vividly to this day:

I was walking in Harvard Sq. in Cambridge and happened across a bearded, silvered, and disheveled street person - sleeping and strewn across an abandoned storefront doorway alcove.

He was lying on his right side: one leg over the other - in a semi-fetile position; his head, on his right arm - extended fully in a slight arc and used as a pillow, and his right hand, with a slightly bent wrist - like he didn’t give a hoot… …giving the “middle” finger.

That image is etched in my mind.

Maybe I can recreate in AI…
 
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I took a few trips to India a few times (in the 2007-2010 timeframe- mainly Mumbai/Pune/Maharashtra) for work. Unfortunately, I only had an inexpensive small sensor digital camera during that time. I recall I was shooting some oxen weaving their way through traffic, and one of my Indian colleagues commented (paraphrasing) "why o foreigners only shoot this type of thing"? Well I photographed what I saw, and tried to photograph what I saw as everyday life in India, but the comment did make me very aware that I came on these trips with biases and preconceptions. I did photograph nice things I saw also.

The missed photograph I have in mind is the following. We were leaving Mumbai, heading to Pune. I saw a HUGE sign advertising a clothing brand (Millionaire). It presented an image of an immaculately dressed Indian man wearing a very nice suit with "MILLIONAIRE" across the top. The sign it self had a single pole, at least 12' in diameter and rose maybe 30-50 feet into the air to be seen by the freeway traffic. The post itself was set in a dirt area, where a shanty town was built. Around the post were cracks in the drift where run-off water was channeled, and Indian children living tin that shanty town played. I did have a camera packed away in my computer bag in the back of the SUV we were in, and I debated trying to struggle to grab it, but I was pretty shot from the trip, and did not try.
 
Maybe the question isn't "best shot you never took" but something like the shot you most regret not taking.

I was on my honeymoon in San Francisco. My wife and I were having Irish coffees at the Buena Vista with a couple of friends. There was an older gentleman with a long grey beard sitting alone at the table next to us. He was looking out over the bay, deep in thought. Something about the look on his face—I will forever wonder what he was thinking. I had my DSLR in my bag but didn't want to intrude, and asking him permission to take his photo would have ruined the moment.
 
I was crossing the street (exactly here) just near the Sevres - Babylone station in Paris. It was early evening, but that time of year when golden hour feels like it lasts forever and the sun just toasts everything perfectly. Someone pulled up on a scooter, just right, and the sun washed over them, there was a pattern from foliage, reflection, who knows what else that caught my eye. I had my M240 with me, and I started to raise the camera, but then I realized that I had to MOVE or a car was going to hit me, and so I kept walking and that shot zipped off down the street away from me.

I still think about it at least twice a year.
 
There were times I wish I had a camera with me but even then I wouldn’t have had the right focal length anyway. Once on the corner of Broadway and Powell Streets in San Francisco a car making a turn stopped very briefly in front of me. It was an older sedan with three hippies. The front passenger was a topless woman and behind her In the back seat leaning forward was a guy juggling her breasts. If I only had a camera with a 21mm. Very Bruce Davidson moment.
 
AAlfano said:
Maybe the question isn't "best shot you never took" but something like the shot you most regret not taking.
...
Click to expand...
An interesting question might be "what's a great shot that you attempted to make but missed" ... That provokes a lot of thought and potential discussion: what do you consider a great shot, which of the ones in that category that you tried to make failed, why did they fail, et cetera. There are a lot of interesting stories possible in that, and it's instructive to others as it implies learning about what might constitute a great shot, what to do, and what not to do from the real personal experience of our mistakes. I could articulate several situations like that easily.

I could also tell the story of a great shot or two I made somewhat by accident, which are usually pretty interesting stories.

But the "best shot I never took" really is meaningless, to me anyway.

G
 
shawn said:
First: later on I realized the camera had been set to a very wrong ISO so the film would have been many stops underexposed. I thought it was on DX but was set at like 3200 or something... totally my fault as I didn't check it ahead.
Click to expand...
This is something that annoys me with the F5. All the modes controlled by the switch on the left (ISO, drive modes, self timer etc) can spin so easily from one setting to another when you press the lock button. At a frame rate of 8fps you can eat a lot of film if you are not careful.
 
p.giannakis said:
This is something that annoys me with the F5. All the modes controlled by the switch on the left (ISO, drive modes, self timer etc) can spin so easily from one setting to another when you press the lock button. At a frame rate of 8fps you can eat a lot of film if you are not careful.
Click to expand...
This was totally my fault. Normally I used the DX setting and assumed it was still that way. I had changed the setting (I think I had either pushed film or had bulk rolled film in the camera prior) and didn't check the ISO setting when I got out there as I was a little rushed due to taking longer to launch.

ISO isn't changed with the dial on the left.To change the ISO setting you have to open up the little magnetic flap, hold down the ISO button and then turn the command dial under the shutter. I never had issues with that changing on its own.
 
shawn said:
ISO isn't changed with the dial on the left.To change the ISO setting you have to open up the little magnetic flap, hold down the ISO button and then turn the command dial under the shutter. I never had issues with that changing on its own.
Click to expand...
You are right, I got confused with the F4.
 
I dropped the radiation fog part and got better results. I’ll share with anyone interested but I don’t want to clutter the thread with AI bs lol.
 
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