Topic: Good system saves the day...

[6cmsquare]

Geez... I was just packing up my 4x5 rig for a shoot I'm heading off to tomorrow morning. It is a shoot I've invested a lot of time setting up... A newly remolded fine dining restaurant that a friend of mine is the Chef at.  I had 5 film holders already loaded and numbered 1-10 in my case, so I loaded up 5 more, got out my china marking pencil and set to numbering the other ones 11-20. Just as I was getting them all stacked in the case, I noticed the first 5 were all unlocked, but silver-side out, which is my system to mean "Empty and ready to load" except I only number them once they are already loaded? (silver-side out, numbered and locked means loaded, black-side out, locked and exposure notes is exposed) -But I was POSITIVE I had loaded them last week?  So I headed into the closet and slid one open, and sure enough... 5 empty cassettes! -I had gotten ready to load them, flipped the dark slides, numbered them, and then probably got tied up doing some chore for my wife, or something for my 7 year old. (!?)
I can only imagine the rage I would have felt, getting home tomorrow night to develop the negs only to find out that shots 1-10 were empty cassettes!   

the morel to the story. Decide on a system, use the system, trust the system.   fhew....that was a close one.

Though maybe some of you might share some of your fool proof systems....

[Late Developer]

Sadly, I don't have fool-proof systems for photography. 

The one thing that keeps getting me is leaving the lens cap on when I'm shooting rangefinders.  I put it down to being an SLR guy - even with medium format (Hasselblad).  The Hasselblad has a fool-proof mechanism in that you can't take a shot with the dark slide in place.  With rangefinders, however, no amount of flashing LEDs warning me that the lens cap is still in situ seems to register with me as I do tend to get caught up in the moment when I have the viewfinder to my eye.  Most times I remember but, if I don't..........

[6cmsquare]

Sadly, I don't have fool-proof systems for photography. 

The one thing that keeps getting me is leaving the lens cap on when I'm shooting rangefinders.  I put it down to being an SLR guy - even with medium format (Hasselblad).  The Hasselblad has a fool-proof mechanism in that you can't take a shot with the dark slide in place.  With rangefinders, however, no amount of flashing LEDs warning me that the lens cap is still in situ seems to register with me as I do tend to get caught up in the moment when I have the viewfinder to my eye.  Most times I remember but, if I don't..........

I still do that when I'm out shooting my Mamiya Press camera, I even tied a big fluffy red piece of yarn to the handle of the dark slide, and still somehow forget to take it out. The best is when I'm using the wide angle lens with the additional cold-shoe viewfinder, -I spend my time composing in the wide-angle viewfinder, snap the photo, and then realize I forgot to check the focus....

[Francois]

What you really need is a big ribbon like they use on aircraft. And maybe tie it in some way to a part of the camera you need to handle so you are forced to remember to pull it out...

[Kai-san]

I've made a habit of leaving the lens cap at home when I go out shooting. To protect the lens I put lens hoods on almost all of my cameras / lenses. And I have started writing down in a notebook what cameras have film in them and what type. I've more than once opened a camera that was already loaded.....

[Terry]

I know a lot of people use the black-side-out-means-exposed system with holders.  I always found that counter-intuitive to my way of logic and too many times I made unintentional double exposures.  So I finally took a sharpie and wrote "exposed" on the silver (or white) part of each slide and I haven't been confused about which is which since.  I had thought of making up a stencil with the word "exposed" and spray painting it on one side of each slide; that's apparently how they did it in the old days.  I might still do that...

[Francois]

One thing's for sure, it would make it look super neat!

[John Robison]

You cannot make a foolproof system because fools are so ingenious.

[jharr]

Don't use spray paint for a stencil. Get a brayer or a small, low nap paint roller and do it right.

[6cmsquare]

I know a lot of people use the black-side-out-means-exposed system with holders.  I always found that counter-intuitive to my way of logic and too many times I made unintentional double exposures.  So I finally took a sharpie and wrote "exposed" on the silver (or white) part of each slide and I haven't been confused about which is which since.  I had thought of making up a stencil with the word "exposed" and spray painting it on one side of each slide; that's apparently how they did it in the old days.  I might still do that...

I like that idea, I write all my shooting notes on the dark slide white a china pencil, too- Maybe a stencil that says "EXPOSED" and a spot for fstop, shutter speed and filter No.  - I suppose just a steady hand and a white paint marker would be the easiest option...

[Francois]

Probably, but it wouldn't look half as cool.
The only thing is it has to be very thin paint as there is quite a bit of friction in the felt light traps...