Dumb and Dumber

Hey Everyone,

I have always thought it takes a special kind of intelligence (read lack of) to get into underwater photography! And while most of us struggle to have a couple of brain cells to rub together, amongst the 1000 or so Wetpixelites we might get enough together to get our combined IQ into treble figures.

This post is inspired by me unpacking my housing this morning and realising that my "cunning" space saving plan to store the (damp) handles inside my housing means that it will probably be steaming up forever more! Actually it is fine - but it could not have been.

Anyway I have not seen a post about silly mistakes recently so I thought it was a good chance to share our "slips" and hopefully learn from each others mistakes.

Alex

p.s. I have lots more to add - but I'll let some others get going first!

In a rush to get to my first dive for the day, and I wanted to change lenses on my D60. I popped the housing open, changed the lens, put it all back together and ran for the boat. Tried to take a test shot once I was in the water only to realize that I'd left the lens cap on. Next dive, opened it up, took the lens cap off, glanced through the viewfinder, rolled in, this time only to realize in my hurry to put the camera back together I'd bumped the lens from Autofocus to Manual Focus...

I forgot to put my memory card back in. The S2 lets you shoot photos without a card in "Test shooting" mode. Guess which mode I was in...

Cheers

James

Left the lens cap on a Nikonos V I was using at the time. Did a whole night dive in Sipadan taking some great macro shots with a framer. A whole roll of film was used!

Forgot to flood the external mouted wide-angle lens so bueautiful shots of an air pocket. DOH!

Oh here's another one: Forgot to connect the internal hot-shoe connector to the camera before closing up the housing and jumping in. Whoops!

Another eff-up: Accidentally setting the camera to ISO 1600 while in Grand Cayman. Didn't notice till after a day's diving.

Cheers

James

Once had the camera out of te housing for the evenings liveaboard fashion show. Changed all kinds of settings on the camera for the festivities.

Next morning, back to diving. First shot - click - nothing happens. No wait! - suddenly the stobes flash! In fact, exactly 10 seconds after I depressed the shutter. Oh Jeez, the last shot last night was a group shot with myself included so I set the shutter delay. Duh. No way to fix this in the housing at 80 ft mate,

Talk about significant shutter lag! But it was an interesting dive trying to get the timing right for a 10 second delay!

Ok, I think I deserve first prize so far...

Last trip, I jumped in without my fins... first time ever. I realized my goof before I hit the water. (No problem, a helpful crewman threw them down to me.) As I prepared to submerge, I discovered my strobes weren't working. ("How is this possible?", I asked myself, "I JUST changed the batteries!?!" I swam to the stern and reboarded the boat, and while I stood there dripping wet, the same helpful crewman assisted me in sorting out the polarities on the batteries (yes, they had been put in backwards!) OK - all set to go! I stepped up to the gate, and just as I jumped, I realized something was AGAIN missing. Yes, - TWICE on the SAME dive! I had jumped in without fins...

Does this put me in "first" place?

Great topic!!!

Last day trip. Jumped in and realized I hadn't put on the super-eye in the Ike Housing for my S2. Thought I would just settle for using the camera's viewfinder. Gave up and swam back to the boat after a miserable frustrating 10 minutes. Completed the dive WITH the super-eye and 2000 psi.

First day trip with my new drysuit. Flooded the drysuit after forgetting to flatten the neck seal. When I came back on the boat, the suit had filled with water up to my waist. Felt very stupid in front of all the other "wetsuit" divers.

On my honeymoon in Belize 4 years ago while shooting with a MMII. Placed the rig into a cold rinse bucket on the first day after it was sitting in the sun on the 15 min ride back to the resort. Cracked the strobe wide open. Felt really dumb.

Dive smart!

John

Just remembered another one...

On one of my first night dives in Cozumel a few years ago, rented a light and a Reefmaster camera (first time with a camera UW). Attached one to each wrist using lanyards. Jumped in the water only to realize that not just one but both were very positively buoyant! My wife still abuses me for the acrobatics I went through every time I wanted to switch from one to the other, or when I had to let the light go to adjust buoyancy, etc.

Once had the camera out of te housing for the evenings liveaboard fashion show. Changed all kinds of settings on the camera for the festivities.

 

Next morning, back to diving. First shot - click - nothing happens. No wait! -  suddenly the stobes flash! In fact,  exactly 10 seconds after I depressed the shutter. Oh Jeez, the last shot last night was a group shot with myself included so I set the shutter delay. Duh. No way to fix this in the housing at 80 ft mate,

 

Talk about significant shutter lag! But it was an interesting dive  trying to get the timing right for a 10 second delay!

 

Ok, I think I deserve first prize so far...

Good one. This is only slightly worst than some consumer digicams.

My worst diving blunder was turning the tank on to check the fill and then turned it off. Forgot to turn it back on before jumping in. Had enough air to get to 60' feet. Good thing my buddy was within easy reach.

Herb,

How heavy do you dive?

60' on two (2) breaths?

That's about all you get from the hoses.

I had a buddy of mine turning off my air in the pool so now I know you can reach back and turn it back on.

Remember this the next time you jump in without your air on :-)

Vlad

Herb,

 

How heavy do you dive?

60' on two (2) breaths?

That's about all you get from the hoses.

 

I had a buddy of mine turning off my air in the pool so now I know you can reach back and turn it back on.

 

Remember this the next time you jump in without your air on :-)

 

Vlad

This was in my pre-camera era. Roll in and head straight for the bottom. In cold water in a wetsuit, once you start descenting you can drop pretty quickly.

I've since mastered how to turned on my air in the water. They really should teach that in open water training. Put left hand on the bottom of the tank and pull up. Reach back with the right for the valve.

ctually we do teach that in our classes Herb. A good simple task to learn and try.

We would even turn it into a annoying game amoungst the DM's by turning each others air off in the pool and waiting for the reaction. Mine generally was a single finger motioning to the relevant party. Followed by performing the task as you explain.

This list is amazingly tame to me - in fact, I may have done all of the above:

Lens cap on - at least 3 times

camera in auto ISO - once

lens in manual mode - once

camera in self-timer mode - once

camera in anti-shock shutter delay mode - once

didn't connect hot shoe adapter - once

Air valve just barely open - once... didn't notice until I tried to chase a turtle!

I'm sure there are dozens of other stupid things I've done. Including tossing my rig in the rinse bucket with one strobe cap missing.

I recently bought a weight-integrated BC primarily to end my habit of jumping in sans weight belt.

Now if I could just get fins-integrated feet.

This list is amazingly tame to me - in fact, I may have done all of the above:

Lens cap on - at least 3 times

camera in auto ISO - once

lens in manual mode - once

camera in self-timer mode - once

camera in anti-shock shutter delay mode - once

didn't connect hot shoe adapter - once

Air valve just barely open - once... didn't notice until I tried to chase a turtle!

 

I'm sure there are dozens of other stupid things I've done.  Including tossing my rig in the rinse bucket with one strobe cap missing.

Just a matter of statistics. I think you do more dives than all of us combined.

Maybe so - I was content being the most clueless of the clueless!

this relates to a mate of mine and it was an absolute ripper.

Diving off a liveaboard we reached the bottom in 25m when he started pointing to his Nexus housing with his F80... well he would have pointed to his F80 if it was in there!!!

He had left it on the boat after changing films on previous dive...

He will never ever live that one down...

I had an awesome night dive earlier this year in PNG where I took pics of harlequin ghost pipefish and flambouyant cuttlefish and when checking them later they were all out of foucs. I forgot to press the 'macro' button...