Missed opportunities

[bulevardi]

I need to learn how to calm down a bit or get less frustrated in situations with "missed moments" or opportunities.

Moments when you're on the road driving a vehicle and seeing wonderful landscapes.
This morning I saw a nice sunrise with lots of fog down the hills, very beautiful.
But I couldn't put the car aside the road to get out and take time for a picture, too much commute traffic.
I felt sad I couldn't capture them to share to others.

It happens a lot when I'm in the car and someone else is driving and I see something funny happening around or a nice building. Can't just get the driver to stop so I can take a photo.

I've experienced so much missed opportunities already. I could have made a nice album of them... well actually not 🙁

I guess you all get in such a situation once.
How do you cope with this?

 

[raydm6]

I know the feeling. Sometimes I feel - being behind the wheel - offers great vantage points. Then, when I pull over and get out, the feeling is kind of gone.

I don’t let it bother me too much anymore and just enjoy the journey.

 

[p.giannakis]

Well, 35+ years on I still remember a missed opportunity - last day of my holidays I had run out of film when following a sudden downpour, the trees in the nearby forest seemed to be glimmering in the sun. On reflection, I don't know if I would have turned it into any good picture but I still remember that sinking feeling. I also remember a guy, downtown London, high on drugs, with his white underwear only, trying to look like he was crucified on a traffic light. Missed the shot - I had my F5 on self timer, by the time I figured it out it was too late.

Nowadays I get frustrated when it happens but I tend to forget it rather quickly.

 

[bulevardi]

Well, 35+ years on I still remember a missed opportunity -
...the trees in the nearby forest seemed to be glimmering in the sun. On reflection, I don't know if I would have turned it into any good picture but I still remember that ...

"...that big steel flying saucer above our house! Until this day I still think I saw a UFO that day."

I really thought your story would go this direction 😉
Next year I'll be in London for a couple of days, I hope to catch the underwear man for you!

 

[Archiver]

I try to minimize this by having a camera in my hand or within reach most of the time. Something with quick response is always good, like a compact camera from within the last 10 years, or a mirrorless camera like the Panasonic GX85 or GM1. Something small and unobtrusive but capable of decent quality.

It's difficult to say how many images I've missed over the years, most of them are fleeting scenes of people's expressions that come and go as fast as a hand clap. It used to be infuriating, especially with the slower cameras of the early 2000s, but as time and technology have moved forward, these instances are less and less, and are now the responsibility of my own speed of perception and reaction. If I miss it, I just let it go now.

 

[boojum]

Two from my Army time in France. Driving from Fontainebleau to Orleans. It was morning and there was a luminescent light on the left lighting a field and farm buildings, it just glowed. I had a camera. But I did not stop. That was in '63 and I still wish I had shot it. The preceding winter we had an ice storm and driving into La Ferte-Alais the trees and wires shone in the lights an especially wonderful way the early morning. No camera. Overgaard is right, always wear a camera, and if you have a shot take it. ;o)

 

[Bolo Kukus]

All the amazing scenes I blunder into by happenstance, vanish - usually by walking away, on two or four legs or in a few instances no legs at all - while I'm taking out my camera and frantically trying to adjust it for the picture.

The story of my (photography) life...

 

[lynnb]

This has happened quite often to me while driving. Usually impractical to pull over to get the picture. I just mentally file it under “the fish that got away”, and tell myself to make the most of opportunities when I can. I remember walking at the beach one day and seeing a great picture, and lamenting not having a camera. A few minutes later I realised I was carrying my iPhone!

 

[Timmyjoe]

Had one of those about twenty years ago, was driving the family car back from Portland Oregon to Chicago Illinois. Driving east thru the Columbia River Gorge as the sun was coming up. The sun beam shown thru the gorge with the cliffs on both sides and glowed on the mist/fog coming up off the river. It was breathtaking, but as I was on Interstate 94 in traffic, with no camera handy, I just had to take it in mentally.

It did get burned onto my internal hard drive though, as I can plainly recall that image, crystal clear, all these years later.

Best,
-Tim

 

[Leon C]

This has happened quite often to me while driving. Usually impractical to pull over to get the picture. I just mentally file it under “the fish that got away”, and tell myself to make the most of opportunities when I can. I remember walking at the beach one day and seeing a great picture, and lamenting not having a camera. A few minutes later I realised I was carrying my iPhone!

I'm similar, doesn't really bother me anymore, I just take a mental note, if the situation is repeatable, I might go back and try again, there's always more opportunities around the corner.

I do have a camera in the car though at all times so reduces the chance to miss certain chances.

 

[Torvik]

I have these missed opportunities quite often. Be it due to lack of proper gear or any kind of pressure.
A friend of mine once gave me an advice on missed photographic opportunities. Sometimes the pictures you see but cannot make are just for your heart to see. This helped me to enjoy this picture instead of being angry about a missed opportunity.

 

[ChrisPlatt]

"The things you see when you haven't got your gun." is an old saw that applies.
I try to always carry a good pocket 35mm camera. Others have their iPhones.

Sometimes the results are disappointing, but by trying at least you'll find out.
Or would you rather it remain the greatest photo you never took?

Chris

 

[Bolo Kukus]

Had one of those about twenty years ago, was driving the family car back from Portland Oregon to Chicago Illinois. Driving east thru the Columbia River Gorge as the sun was coming up. The sun beam shown thru the gorge with the cliffs on both sides and glowed on the mist/fog coming up off the river. It was breathtaking, but as I was on Interstate 94 in traffic, with no camera handy, I just had to take it in mentally.

It did get burned onto my internal hard drive though, as I can plainly recall that image, crystal clear, all these years later.

Best,
-Tim

You and Jorvik (#11) and HCB have that in common. In Cartier-Bresson's biography (by Pierre Assouline, 2005) there are one or two mentions of his 'mentally' taking photographs which he kept in his head. So you share space with distinguished company, yes!!

What I did learn from this well-researched and written book, was that if you wander around long enough with your camera in hand, things will surely happen all around you. The trick is to notice them in time and be ready to photograph them.

 

[bulevardi]

It was morning and there was a luminescent light on the left lighting a field and farm buildings, it just glowed.

I heard there were a lot of reported UFO's those days.

 

[bulevardi]

This has happened quite often to me while driving. Usually impractical to pull over to get the picture. I just mentally file it under “the fish that got away”, and

I seldom see fish flying by driving a car, but.... you could say while sailing a boat...

I remember walking at the beach one day and seeing a great ....

Ok, yes, you have an argument here. 🙂

 

[bulevardi]

"Sometimes the pictures you see but cannot make are just for your heart to see."
This helped me to enjoy this picture instead of being angry about a missed opportunity.

That's a helpful expression for me! Thanks!

 

[boojum]

I heard there were a lot of reported UFO's those days.

I was pure rural, a regular roadside French farm, fields stretching behind the barn as I passed and all aglow. I can still see it almost as well as that day in '63. It was an impressive lesson on light. And color.

 

[jrm27]

I've definitely been there.. but I've also actively decided to not take a photo before, and just experience the moment. Knowing I have thousands of "moments" on RAW files and tucked away in shoe boxes that I'll probably forget I have, has helped me be just sit and "see." Sure, some of them I wish I could go back for, but hopefully there are more to come along 😉

I think that knowing that no matter how I shoot it, I'm not a good enough photographer to be able to make that beautiful mountain vista look as big and impressive as it actually is frees me up sometimes to just look at the view!

 

[Godfrey]

I need to learn how to calm down a bit or get less frustrated in situations with "missed moments" or opportunities.

Moments when you're on the road driving a vehicle and seeing wonderful landscapes.
This morning I saw a nice sunrise with lots of fog down the hills, very beautiful.
But I couldn't put the car aside the road to get out and take time for a picture, too much commute traffic.
I felt sad I couldn't capture them to share to others.

It happens a lot when I'm in the car and someone else is driving and I see something funny happening around or a nice building. Can't just get the driver to stop so I can take a photo.

I've experienced so much missed opportunities already. I could have made a nice album of them... well actually not 🙁

I guess you all get in such a situation once.
How do you cope with this?

I tend to think of these "missed opportunities" this way:

There are an infinite number of incredible photo opportunities. Keep your eyes open, work hard at it, and you might make a few of them into photos. If you miss some number of them, say 100 for the sake of a number, infinity minus 100 is still infinity. So just keep working at it.

G

 

[Pioneer]

I need to learn how to calm down a bit or get less frustrated in situations with "missed moments" or opportunities.

Moments when you're on the road driving a vehicle and seeing wonderful landscapes.
This morning I saw a nice sunrise with lots of fog down the hills, very beautiful.
But I couldn't put the car aside the road to get out and take time for a picture, too much commute traffic.
I felt sad I couldn't capture them to share to others.

It happens a lot when I'm in the car and someone else is driving and I see something funny happening around or a nice building. Can't just get the driver to stop so I can take a photo.

I've experienced so much missed opportunities already. I could have made a nice album of them... well actually not 🙁

I guess you all get in such a situation once.
How do you cope with this?

In situations like yours I have a notepad I keep in my pocket so I can write some notes regarding the situation. Once in awhile I take time to return to "the scene of the crime" to see if I can capture something similar at a later date. I get ideas from those situations and It has worked to return to those spots a few times so I keep doing it. 😀