Items lost in the field

[John_SD]

Well, **bleep**, I "lost" a circular polarizing filter in the field yesterday morning. What's worse is that I wasted an hour of good eary-morning light by the lakeside retracing my steps trying to find it, to no avail. It was a 67mm Tiffen, the first polarizing filter I bought for my Canon 18-135 STM lens. Inexpensive, but better than you might think, and certainly better than nothing. Better than losing the B+W.

I believe I had it screwed in securely, but must have loosened it as I turned the filter here and there while shooting. 

I believe this is a first for me. I consoled myself by recalling a conversation I had with a guy once who "lost" a ReallyRightStuff tripod. He was at the edge of the woods and had been shooting for a half-hour or so, and decided to take his camera off the tripod and go into the woods itself for a "couple minutes" to shoot there. When he returned about an hour later, the tripod was gone. I have a feeling he paid a bit more than $29.99 for that tripod LOL. But still...it sucks to lose items in the field. 

[RobertTheFat]

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@John_SD wrote:

Well, **bleep**, I "lost" a circular polarizing filter in the field yesterday morning. What's worse is that I wasted an hour of good eary-morning light by the lakeside retracing my steps trying to find it, to no avail. It was a 67mm Tiffen, the first polarizing filter I bought for my Canon 18-135 STM lens. Inexpensive, but better than you might think, and certainly better than nothing. Better than losing the B+W.

I believe I had it screwed in securely, but must have loosened it as I turned the filter here and there while shooting. 

I believe this is a first for me. I consoled myself by recalling a conversation I had with a guy once who "lost" a ReallyRightStuff tripod. He was at the edge of the woods and had been shooting for a half-hour or so, and decided to take his camera off the tripod and go into the woods itself for a "couple minutes" to shoot there. When he returned about an hour later, the tripod was gone. I have a feeling he paid a bit more than $29.99 for that tripod LOL. But still...it sucks to lose items in the field. 

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I feel your pain. A few years ago I apparently left the case for my 580EX-II on an excursion train somewhere in Pennsylvania. Oh, well (you'd think), so what? $5 or $10 buys a new one, and all is well. But no. Canon doesn't sell just the case, and the only Brand X replacement I could find was made for the older 580EX-I and is slightly too small. I bought it anyway, but it's less than completely satisfactory. I still use the flash occasionally, so I'm still a bit sore at Canon for their unwillingness to stock a replacement case.

The Red Sox won the World Series tonight, so I'm in a good mood. But your tale reminded me that good moods can be fleeting things.

[ebiggs1]

"...it sucks to lose items in the field."

Yes it does.  We all have been there. Both WS wins and lost gear! 

[Tronhard]

In terms of loss I have two stories to relate: one that turned out ok and one that didn't.

Back in 2011  I was off shooting for 5 weeks in the Alberta Rockies and on through BC.   It was a business+pleasure excursion and I had a full pack  with  3x Caon 60Ds, 17-55 L, 24-105L, 70-300L, plus the full set of filters, cleaners, spare batteries , laptop and spre hard disc, plus cards, and a good, light tripod.

Returning to NZ a series of delays caused my final travel time to be 26 hours, and in that time a security guy at Vancouver Airport dropped my padded camera holster and I only realized later that it shattered the 72mm dia CPL filter attached to the front of my 24-105.  Still, better to lose the filter than the front element I consoled my self when I realized on the plane.  By the time I left the shuttle at my home I was absolutely trashed.   I unloaded my main luggage and went indoors.  It was about 30 minutes later that I realized that I had left my camera pack with ALL that stuff on the shuttle!  I was the last off but heaven knew where the shuttle was then or who was on board by that time.  It took another hour of frantic calling to isolate the shuttle and to my immense relief the driver reported that it was still on board, it was only when I got it back with all items intact that I could really breathe again.

Earlier in my career I had in my car the a major part of my work taking transparencies over three years through NZ, Australia, Asia, the UK and Europe.  They were all of commercial quality and the second batch I was taking to an image bank in Vancouver.  Wanting to be ready for the early ferry from Vancouver Island to the mainland, I had packed the car already, and left it locked in the underground secure garage of my apartment building.   Next morning when I went out the car was gone, and the police eventually located it about 100km away with a smashed transmission (conveniently by a garage that just happened to have one), and with all of my slides burned.   The car thing was bad enough but the loss of all that work, and the memories that went along with them was devestating.   I really only got back into photography seriously when I went to digital and could back up my stuff.

[AndyMilnePhotog]

One time, I was hiking with my mom in Pennsylvania using a Panasonic Lumix FZ47 and I lost the lens hood out in the woods. Against all odds, I found it outside the trail in the grass.

Sometimes, I feel like I lost my lens caps on one of my Canon lenses, even though I put it in my pocket. As a precaution, I put my lens cap in my Lowepro Fastpack 200 aw II so it makes me feel at ease.

[Waddizzle]

I have lost stuff, too.  One time I was simply brain dead, and I am too embarrassed to say what I did.  It cost me $400.

[John_SD]

Well, I feel a little better knowing that I'm not the only guy to lose gear out in the field. Speaking of which, my new 67mm circular polarizer arrived yesterday from B&H, which I plan to make use of Sunday morning. Hopefully, I won't lose this one.

[RobertTheFat]

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@John_SD wrote:

Well, I feel a little better knowing that I'm not the only guy to lose gear out in the field. Speaking of which, my new 67mm circular polarizer arrived yesterday from B&H, which I plan to make use of Sunday morning. Hopefully, I won't lose this one.

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You're lucky you can still use the polarizer. Polarizers have been rendered nearly useless in New England, because the sun almost never shines.

[ebiggs1]

"Polarizers have been rendered nearly useless in New England, almost everywhere because of Photoshop."

Now Bob before you hit the panic button, I did keep "nearly" in your statement.

[RobertTheFat]

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@ebiggs1 wrote:

"Polarizers have been rendered nearly useless in New England, almost everywhere because of Photoshop."

Now Bob before you hit the panic button, I did keep "nearly" in your statement.

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And of course what you're prodding me to point out is that polarizers can do at least one thing that Photoshop can't do: remove reflections from bodies of water. PS can neutralize the reflection, but it can't show you what was hidden beneath the reflection.