Wandered into the General Motors building with a model and fellow photog, found some nice scenic area to shoot in. Not 10mins after we get started, a security guard slowly walks up and says" What are you guys doing in here?" I told him we were doing some portfolio type photography, he told us politely that he didn't know how we got in and that we were'nt supposed to be there. He wanted make sure that we didn't wander into a restricted area, then he escorted us out.I felt like an ass because I didn't check with anyone, just wandered in, found a nice location and started shooting.

first shoot I ever did...fell about 5 feet off of a parking garage wall. Better than falling the 20 ft. on the other side tho...i did manage not to get hurt, except for a few minor scrapes and breaking one of my new shoes. to the photographer's credit, he felt really bad about it...although I'm not sure what he was thinking in the first place

Let's see...

In General:
Fell out of a moving vehicle, forgot to strap myself in...
Fell out of a boat, same reason...
While showing a model what pose I wanted, in doing so, smacked the client in the nose and broke it with my camera!  Major blood, paramedics, just bad for business...
On a Calendar shoot in Jamaica, helping a model across a footbridge, she freaked, grabbed me, I start to fall, she survives for the moment, until I throw her the camera as I'm falling, in catching the camera, she falls too... we plunged 20 feet into the water. Model, camera, and me, with a pocket full of shot film from earlier in the day...

Film:
No film in camera...
No film period! Forgot to buy...
No batteries, forgot to buy...
Didn't rewind the film all the way, opened camera...
Didn't rewind the film all the way, re-used the film for double exposure...
Didn't check 300 f2.8 rental lens prior to use, had mega cracked rear element.  Was a sunday, had to shoot the Poster with $80 70-210 f5.6-f16 K-Mart piece of shit Lens!  Told the client the softness around the edges is Exactly what I was going for so that everyone's eye would focus towards the center and they could see the Whole image...they agreed!!!  It's the Hawaiian Tropic 'Support Our Troops' one on my port...

Digital:
Camera set to 1.2 Mega Pixel
Camera set to soft focus
Camera white ballance set to Auto
Camera flash set to Auto

I was doing a gig for a client who had come up with her own models.  The guy I was shooting had never modeled before.  The light was fairly strong, so I was using a very high shutter speed.  I don't even recall how fast.  Anyway, I wasn't used to speeds that high and after rattling off about 20 shots I remember thinking "Man, this thing sure does rewind fast!  So fast I can't even hear it rewinding.  So silent it's like it isn't even rewinding at all.  Like I... like I don't even... have... any film... inside of it..."

Because my client was literally looking right over my shoulder, I couldn't just up and load it, so I continued clicking the shutter button as if everything was fine and after rough 35 "shots" I went over to my camera bag to "reload."  Then we really got going.

Afterwards my client was like "That was great how you took the time to get him warmed up.  Too bad that first roll will be pretty much a throwaway; all the good stuff came after."

I smiled and said with supreme confidence, "Oh, no big deal.  When I shoot someone for the first time, I sometimes leave my camera unloaded without even telling them.  It lets them get warmed up and takes the edge off and..."

I was hiking up the Glacier Point trail in Yosemite about 5:00AM eating GORP when I ran into a bear.  I was so interested in getting the camera up to my eye before he ran off that it wasn't til he had gotten out of sight I realized that had I been upwind of the bear, he probably would have gone for my food!

Hiked up Zion Canyon along the Virgin river towards the Narrows without paying attention to the sign that said flash flood warning!  Made it there in ankle deep water, almost didn't make it back in water that was shoulder high!  Lost 4 rolls of film and a telephoto lens.

While photographing model rocket launches, I managed to set a camera strap on fire!

I was photographing a large spider web in a field where resistivity testing was being done.  I discovered why you shouldn't take a leak within 50' of the power stakes.  400V with 5Kw AC power being pumped into the ground from 2 poles 100 meters apart leaves enough energy to made me wish I hadn't done that!

In a hot air balloon over Albuquerque using a 21mm lens to view below, I almost forgot to warn the pilot about the balloon coming up fast!

There were others, but these were the most memorable.

realizing that the strobe in port A was outputting 3 stops lower than the strobe in port B because I didn't plug A fully into the powerpack was pretty embarassing.

Yeah... OK... I've made a few small blunders in my day (one on the webpage link below), but none can compare to the fuckups made by some brides and grooms on the 'Wedding Bloopers' link here:  http://www.pzstudios.4t.com

I was at a home shoot with a new client. was using hot lamps (500w) with reflectors and no diffusion screens. The lamps that I used were getting close to the end of thier usable life, the light started flickering, but thought it was the flash misfiring.

One of the lamps exploded (sounded likea gun shot), showered my new client with hot glass, wich didn't hurt her, but melted the backdrop I was using at the time.

The "pop" was heard by a neighbor of my client, and they called the police reporting "SHOTS FIRED!". The police showed up with guns drawn, and kicked in the door to my clients apartment.

We were shooting some implied shots at the time, and with the lights, camera and the state of undress that my client was in, I had a whole lot of explaining to do to the police.

As well as having to deal with them going through all of my equipment, and my clients apartment looking for the supposed gun.....