Best photo you've never taken?

Dr Gaspar

Dr Gaspar

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May 11, 2011
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A few probably, but... a few weeks ago, I was walking by my city's cathedral with my camera, and suddenly the church bell rang. Many birds flew by, I turned around and there was this guys standing with a huge mirror, reflecting the birds and the cathedral.

Pointed my camera, shot... with the lens cap on.


Of course maybe that could have been a not-so-good photo, but I will always wonder what could have happened.

Lens caps.. gotta hate those.
 
I have been known to photograph the backside of a lens cap or two. Here is some of my latest work:

L1004785-2.jpg
 
Thank you all. The shot I was going for was bigfoot high fiving Elvis at a secret Biggie Smalls / Tupac concert two weeks ago. Damn cap...
 
smiling gecko said:
ummm...the one of roy orbison at the cellar club (underground downtown houston) in '68. :D
Click to expand...

Dude! I played there in about 1970! What a dive!

Anyway, seriously, one of the best photos I haven't taken: I was taking pics of cloud formations with my DSLR hooked up to my old Century 500mm f/5.6 lens when I suddenly saw a small airliner, most likely a Boeing 737, exit one cloud, fly across a small clear space and then enter another cloud. This all happened within the field of view of my 500mm lens, so it was pretty far away, and I didn't even hear the jet. By the time I could have reacted to what I'd seen, the image was long gone. A very rare opportunity and I missed it, although in retrospect I tell myself that, in order for it to have been most effective, I would have had to have been shooting a video. Maybe a still showing the airliner emerging from the first cloud would be good, but that would be about it, I suppose.
 
I cannot be specific but I do recall that late last year I went to Hong Kong for a holiday, staying in Kowloon. If you know Kowloon you will know that Mong Kok, where I was staying, is a seething mass of humanity. It is a street shooters heaven.

But this was a blokes trip and I was travelling with a pal, who I know to be impatient, and as this was not specifically a photo trip instead of taking my Nikon DSLR I just took a Canon G11. The G11 takes brilliant shots, but what I had not counted on was that it is quite slooooooooooooooow to focus and fire. I reckon I missed about a zillion street shots.

While my reflexes where quite ok and I saw many good shots, by the time the camera responded, the image I actually captured missed the decisive moment. Things move much to fast in Mong Kok to shoot with anything that does not have a near instantaneous response time. I got some good street shots though - more by good luck than good management.

Oh I should confess, I had my M8 with me too but here my reflexes and focussing speed let ME down. Some great scenery shots though.
 
I miss what I think would be a great photo all the time. However, I don't stress it. If you kill yourself over what you miss you'll get disillusioned too easily.
 
Many years ago my wife and I attended a Bruce Springsteen concert at the old open air Canadian National Exhibition Stadium here in Toronto.
Of course no cameras allowed so I didn't bother to try and smuggle one in.
We sat in the stands facing south, and when the sun set, the stadium lights were turned on. As they slowly came up to full power, everyone sitting in seats on the grass, and across from us in the stands on the south side was bathed in an orange glow and had backlit halos around their heads. Simultaneously, a Full Moon rose into the south sky over the top of the stands across from us.
It was a stunning wide angle shot that would have made the center spread in Life magazine, and I watched it unfold without a camera.
Then the lights came up to full power, the halos disappeared, the moon rose out of "frame" and the magic was gone. It was absolutely the best photo I never took, and I nearly cried.
 
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rbsinto said:
Not so.
I saved it in my head, and view it on my internal Neuro- viewer whenever I desire.
Click to expand...

That's the whole point of personal photos, to just refresh those old memories. People seem to forget that untill its too late. A small album of only a handful of images is great thing to dig out 20,30,40 or more years after the event just to kick start those old memories. An aide to a virtual retrospective of ones life.
 
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