Basil Loc: New Mexico

I've only done this once, but it was a pisser! I drove almost an hour to get to a dark sky area to take Milkyway shots only to discover I didn't have any memory cards! Luckily there was a small town nearby with a small store that had some SD cards. Mind you they were not super good SD cards, but for what I was shooting they sufficed.

Another time, I drove 11 hours to Goblin State Park, Utah, also to shoot the Milky Way. I had intended to take my iOptron Sky Guider Pro and track the Milky way, then take the foreground separately and do a composite.

About 5 hours into my trip, I was talking to a friend on my iPhone and telling him that I was planning to use my Sky Guider Pro to track the stars, and that's when it hit me - "oh crap, did I put the tracker in the back of my SUV?"

I pulled over and went back to check and sure enough, I had left it sitting on the kitchen counter back home. As I was packing up my gear, I got distracted with something and forgot to put the tracker in the car, thinking I had already done it.

The trip wasn't a total disaster as I just ended up shooting about 25 shots using the NPF rule to avoid star trails and then used Starry Landscape Stacker when I got home. The images came out ok, but I still wish I'd had my tracker.

gwilliams6

You are welcome, Cheers and best to you.

CreativeFotos Loc: USA

I'm constantly locking my focus area by mistake, then curse at my camera until I realize to unlock it.

mundy-F2 Loc: Chicago suburban area

Changing from an SLR to a rangefinder camera and leaving the lens cap on.
Mundy

RonDavis Loc: Chicago, IL

Many years ago, I was on a Paris vacation with a new (my first pocket digital) camera. I was so excited about everything, I hadn’t finished reading the user manual and didn’t fully understand the camera’s settings/commands/vocabulary/terminology. I was just happily shooting away! So while doing the back-screen review of all the “great” (IMHO) shots taken during the first day, I hit “delete” thinking it would take me out of the “review/play” mode and back to the shooting screen. Yikes, they were ALL gonners! Fortunately this only happened once…..but it was unfortunate that I only saw those “great“ deleted frames once.

JimH123 Loc: Morgan Hill, CA

You can recover deleted photos. There are (were) numerous tools available to do this (even many years ago). But first, you have to stop using that memory card until they are recovered. Once deleted, the space used by those pictures is made available for reuse.

RonDavis Loc: Chicago, IL

Thanks Jim....good to know, but this beginners mistake won't every happen again (he said hopefully...) (This memorable incident was so long ago that the card has been discarded/disappeared and the camera has been on mothballs gracefully replaced several times..... )

Johnnyt Loc: keizer Oregon

I have a good one! It wasn’t actually a camera mistake but a hot mistake. It happened when I was a child. Years ago in the film age of 620, 120 film.
One day when I was walking my neighborhoodI ran into a problem! I happened to have a size (I think) D battery a couple of keys and a flashbulb. It was one of the big ones(I think).Well everything was in my pants pocket, I was walking and I felt a sharp pain in my pocket! I was only a block away from home so ran home and found that the bulb had flashed in my pocket and burnt my skin. I was surprised that It wasn’t too burned! I was glad that it was on the outer part of my leg and didn’t burn any sensitive parts. Anyway it was stupid and I learned something about batteries. Make sure that if and when you store them or dispose of them they are placed with + and - poles together so each battery has the - terminals on one end like - next battery - and other end +,+ and the other end is the -,- and secured so they cannot short out and insulate then. Enough of this!
-

National Park

I have forgotten to take with me a memory card, a battery, and last but certainly not least, the camera!

rgrenaderphoto Loc: Hollywood, CA

Just this week, I changed ISO on my Fuji XT-4, and forgot to push the lock button. I moved it without noticing and ruined about 10 shots. Doh!