machia Loc: NJ

Did any of you ever see a shot that was a shot of a lifetime but didn’t have your camera with you?
April 1988 I’m driving up from Newark’s East side up to Broad Street. Broad and Market Street in the 1920’s and 1930’s was the busiest intersection in the world, and after the 1967 riots, much of Newark lay in ruins. The downtown area struggled to recover in the 1970’s and into the 1980’s. In the mid 1980’s a real estate developer had the idea of building the tallest building in the world right off Broad Street, right where the Prudential Center stands today. But first he started to improve the surrounding area by fixing sidewalks, and on the corner of Lafayette and Broad he had a marble globe mounted on a marble pedestal, and carved into the marble was;
“Broad Street, Avenue of the World”
Under the huge marble pedestal and globe lay a homeless man on a piece of cardboard.
No camera that day.

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

Cant tell if they'd be the shot of the lifetime as they were not captured but I had plenty of "WOW that would be a nice picture" moment pass me by. Sometimes even when i have a camera with me.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

I was out in the North woods of Pennsylvania and in a clearing I came across Sasquatch, Lock Ness, and the abominable snowman, and Alien all sitting around a camp fire, and DAMN, no camera.

St.Mary's

Now today you would have your smart phone with you and .........

pumakat

LOL!!!

2Wheeler

Were they roasting weenies or marshmallows?

danhughes Loc: Champaign, Illinois

The day I was there, Amelia Earhart, Jimmy Hoffa, and Judge Crater were there too.

Beenthere

CRAP!

rook2c4 Loc: Philadelphia, PA USA

With me it's more like, "will this make a good photo?"... by the time I have concluded that it indeed would and I pull the camera up to my face, it's already too late and I missed the opportunity.

johfoley

Sorry if I am diverging from the original subject but I love one of the recent Progressive Insurance commercials. The one where Flo is talking to the "large furry character" and calls him "Bigfoot". He responds "What did you call me?" "My name is Darryl". Kind of makes Flo look like a doofus. Kills me.

machia Loc: NJ

Lol !!!!!

ecunnar

I always carry a Canon point and shoot camera in my car just in case, plus there's always a cell phone camera for an emergency photo.

JD750 Loc: SoCal

But you recorded that in your minds eye and you described it perfectly 32 years later. No camera recording media is that good.

I have had it happen. I suspect we all have that happen. I try to do what you did. Record it in my minds eye and write about it to my friends.

Wallen Loc: Middle Earth

That also happens to me once in a while. Other reasons include overheated sensor, dead battery, full memory, cold weather malfunction, memory card malfunction, some people wont allow their pictures taken & many places/events where pictures are not allowed.

Sometimes what i see is not whats in the frame, so i never really took the good photo, but rather i created it from the vision in my mind. -as in this link
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-619677-1.html

Uuglypher Loc: South Dakota (East River)

IMO this is a common mindset to which aviD photographers are prone. The idea that if not photographed, the potential significance of the image is fa “forever lost” image. True, the physical image can’t be made, but the real miracle is that the significance of the scene can be captured by the sentient mind and described with language. Many of the significant “images” common to large masses of mankind were never “captured” ...but are vivid images nonetheless:
a man on a cross....
The Red Sea parted....
“Oh say can you see, by the dawn’s early light ....?
... and innumerable images forever able to be brought to mind by recall of favorite poems:

...that “road in the wood” and the “other taken” that “made all the difference”

“...dashing thru the snow in a one-horse open Shay, through the fields we go....”

... stopping by a wood on a snowy evening...”

“When the rooster crows at the break of dawn; look out the window....”

“ She tied him to her kitchen chair... and cut his hair... and from his lips she drew the Halelujia...”

That “never healed wound” of “loss of one dear to the heart...”

and to those entranced by the zen poems of haiku the classic ones of Basho and Issa and others draw forth amazingly vivid images..

So are a camera’s images the only ones of cultural significance?

IMO the development and refined use of language is the ultimate image generator, bar none!

Dave