Reality Check!

Mary E, Tyler's Beach, Isle of Wight County, Virginia (click to enlarge)
X-T1, 10-24mm f/4 lens @ 13.8mm; 1/280th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

I had a reality check the other day.  I went out for the day to photograph.  When I reached the area of my destination I parked, threw my camera over my shoulder and walked away from the car. When I reached my destination a short distance away, I went to turn the camera ON and—the switch was already in the ON position.  The battery was dead, dead, dead!  Not good with a fully electronic camera!

The best I can reconstruct, evidently, is a few days before when I had uploaded images to Lightroom and subsequently reformatted the card, I forgot to turn the camera off. Foolishly, I did not check the camera before leaving the house as I normally do. (Normally, I always check my camera after photographing and reset all of my settings to my "base" settings, as I call them, as well as clean my gear and charge my batteries)  Also, I did not check the camera when taking it out of the car!  This blunder could have been a costly mistake in another circumstance.  Fortunately, I was able to quickly walk back to my vehicle and switch batteries.

Even after photographing over 45 years, it is not beyond me, or anyone else, to make stupid mistakes.

Lesson to be learned:  Develop a system to fully ensure your gear is always clean, ready and includes everything you need and then follow your procedure!

You know I'll never do this again.  Lesson learned.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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