South Carolina Photography Guild

Having a checklist is always helpful when going to the grocery store, running errands, and yes, also in photography. I had a unique experience this last weekend which illustrates why having a checklist in photography - and probably in life - is a good idea. My wife and I went out of town to attend a wedding last weekend, and I seized the opportunity to deviate from the usual landscape, flora, urban photography I’ve been learning about to try my hand at wedding photography. So…I packed my meager gear together in a carry-on bag and headed up to New Jersey.

Before I left for the airport to head up, I did a mental check of all my inventory of gear:

• Camera - check!
• Lens #1 - check!
• Lens #2 - check!
• memory cards - check!
• Battery - check!
• Charger - check!

So we get up there to discover the hired photographer called in sick and sent in a replacement - a student at the local college - in his stead. Nice girl, and nice gear (2 10D’s with a fisheye on one and a 28-90 zoom on the other, two speedlights, batteries, and bag). But she didn’t have my 70-300 zoom! I saw the opportunity to take some shots that the photographer would never get and became a paparazzi! I left the wedding with probably close to 300 shots (and found I surpassed the photographer in total image count). While I did glance at my LCD, I tried not to chimp and saved most shots for review later - you never know which one will turn out to be a keeper. Everyone got that? Check!
During this whole time, the bar staff had instructions from the bride’s parents to never let a drink get empty (open bar obviously). After my Nth beer, I finally told the guy serving our table I was all set, and thanks for everything. So the reception ends, and as we’re leaving, a staff member runs out to me with the lens cap for one of my lenses. Clearly, I was not operating at 100%. Oh well, I had all my gear, right? Check! I tumbled into the rental car and a sober attendee got us back to the house safely.

The next morning we had to get up ungodly early to catch our flight, so I roll out of bed, strip the sheets and fold up the sofa before grabbing everything in sight and stumbling in a daze to the airport. I finally made my flight (spouse was on a different flight) after a cancellation and pulled a magazine out to read. I promptly fell asleep dropping my magazine on the floor in front of me. When I woke, the plane was landing in Charlotte. I picked the errant magazine up, tiredly stuffed it into the seat back in front of me, and started shaking my head awake. Now for the 3 hour drive home.

As we’re driving home, my wife decides to take a sneak peak at all the shots. She quickly sifts through all the shots on card #2, and asks me for card #1. I try to remember where I stuffed it in the bag and cannot, for the life of me, remember. The sinking feeling hits me like a wave - I did not do my checklist! My wife starts peppering me with questions, all of which I honestly must answer “I don’t remember”. So, we get on the phone and start calling everyone on the planet, the car rental company, the reception hall, the family of the house where we stayed - even the airline. Nothing doing. After a confirmation that the card was not at either the club or the car company and hesitant replies of “Sorry I can’t find it” my heart sinks lower, even briefly considering the other photog “found” the card. It’s gone now, right? Check! Resigned to learn from the experience, I go buy a new memory card, vowing to always use my checklist when I depart for and from any shoot.

There is a happy ending to this story though, as my wife’s friend roused us out of bed at 7am this morning with a phone call, announcing her mom found the card! (Apparently, it had fallen down underneath the couch when I went to fold it up - must have fallen out of my pants pocket when I heartily crashed at 2am!) It is en route today via FedEx, insured to the gills, with a tracking number. We also have two new permanent members on our Christmas card list!

So…did everyone enjoy that? Got it? Check!