Oops! (Even the Pros Do It)

Scott Kelby wrote a candid post about forgetting to put a memory card into the camera.

Here comes the light! I could see we were literally just minutes from that great light, and RC was still circling for a parking spot. So, I thought I’d crank off a few shots to kind of dial in the basic exposure and composition before the “magic light” hit because I’d only have a few minutes (and I was hoping RC would even get to see it). I went to push the shutter button and it wouldn’t fire. I looked at my LCD info window on the top of my camera and it said, “E” (no memory card). I had taken it out in my hotel room and forgot to put it back in for this shoot.

Now, this type of thing happens to me in more instances than I’d care to admit, but luckily Matt was five feet from with with a backpack full of gear, so I asked Matt if I could borrow a memory card. Matt had that frozen look on his face, and he said, “Oh no—-I don’t have an empty card. In fact, I only have the card in the camera, and it’s full of shots of my niece’s confirmation from this morning, and I haven’t backed them up yet, so I can’t shoot either.” So, there we were, Matt trying to free up a few empty shots by deleting and editing in the camera, and me looking on without a card altogether.

Matt and I were standing there futzing with all of this as we watched the magic light come and go without even firing a single frame. RC came up a few minutes later, and in true RC fashion—he had two empty cards for Matt and I, and within a few minutes there we were; three guys, shooting one of the world’s most recognizable skylines, with totally average “whatever” light, and we came away with the same average “whatever” shots that the tourists standing beside us probably got.

From the Pixelated Image Blog http://www.pixelatedimage.com/blog/

Ever been in a situation where you’ve accidentally left your digital film at home? Ever run out in the middle of a shoot that went longer than planned? If you’re a Canon shooter, the battery pack for all the recent DLSRs has a secret hiding place. Until now you’ve needed to know the secret handshake and had to join a club, but those days are no longer.

If you’re comfortable putting the spare door somewhere else, this spot on the Canon battery grips is an ideal place for an extra CF card.