AARRGGHHHH!!! ALWAYS Have Your Camera With You!

DISCLAIMER: The above image is NOT for critique, it's a lousy iPhone shot to make a point!

How many times have we hedged and not grabbed our camera when heading to work or wherever else? Wednesday morning I had that urge and decided not to bother to grab my camera bag. That night while leaving work this immense sunset filled the sky, giving the snow that wonderful glow. I could have kicked myself 12x over while my 5D2, 16-35mm and Singh-Ray filter were sitting at home in my closet. I grabbed 6 iPhone images and stitched them together to get the mess you see above for a reference shot, but it doesn't do justice to what I saw. Let's just say that 40 billion apps are interesting on a phone, but it doesn't have quite the luminance range of a 5D Mark II.

SO, lesson learned... always take your camera!!

So true!! Too many missed opportunities have produced what I call a "passenger unfriendly" vehicle. Bags w/equipment, tripod, monopod, along w/cold weather clothing, etc.; Sorry, no room for you.
Recent conversation with friends comparing 'cameras' in phones and pixels, etc. ended when I mentioned that my phone is for calling and talking! Thanks for sharing.

Great advice Paul, and the image shows what was missed. I was just getting ready to change vans, and asking myself what do I need to take with me. I transfered two tripods, cameras, spotting scope, 4 lenses, prints of shots already taken so I can brag. Oh yea the mail I need to send and the bills I need to drop off (the only job my wife gave me today) That is why my van is like Bruce's, I do have room for one passenger in mine but only just that is why I have to take the other one. Now when someone asks are you taking your camera I can say Paul told me too. Thanks and I too wish you'd had a real camera this time.

Paul
Looks like it would have been a great shot. I noticed a while back that someone from the Colorado group mentioned an app for the iPhone that enhances your iPhone photos. Some of the examples were really outstanding. You might want to look into it.

Yesterday I had a similar problem on my way to shoot some waterfalls. As I reached the end of the driveway I noticed an Eagle sitting in the tree right in front of me. Of course, I didn’t have my birding lens on and the camera was packed in the back of the car.

I agree with Paul's OP, but have also learned that it is not possible to have the right lens on the right body available at all times to capture all that we might see along the road. In Paul's situation, it seems as though having the DSLR on board would've made the difference. In Phil's example, even if I had the proper gear onboard, I might not have been able to get it out of the bag, attach lenses and set the camera settings correctly for the conditions in time to 'get the image.'

While I am all for being prepared, I'm also not going to stress out about the shot that got away simply because I was keeping my gear safely secured in my backpack while on the road. There's always the next time and nobody can take away the experience itself.

There's always the next time

Very true. On to the next!

BTW Phil, I do have several photo enhancing apps for the iPhone including Photoshop Mobile, but it's basically the same as trying to paint with watercolor on toilet paper. I'm not a big cellphone-picture person, I just used it to document a missed opportunity. That image above is 6 images stitched together and enhanced in Photoshop CS4 and it's still TP, lol! If I did have my camera I would have had a 24-70mm on a Canon 5D2 plus my tripod which would have fared well with some stitching and blending even w/o a grad ND. And I would have ended up with a nice shot of the front of our facility which I probably would have done nothing with anyway!

This is one of the more amusing and true lessons about a camera!!

You know the answer to the oft asked question "what is the best camera?"

It's the one that you have with you!!

Your experience is going to force me into buying yet another camera. Of course it will be smaller and more compact but, no where near what my MkIII can produce yet better then a phone camera.

It is so interesting as to what trends can be spotted among the younger generation. They don't have watches (they use their cell phone) and the most used camera today is the cell phone!! Kodak missed the boat in more ways then one!

Joseph, you're right, and it's brewing a post I've been wanting to write for a while, on how this nation seems to embrace convenience over quality, and I'd hate to see that change photography the way it changed music (audiophiles cringe at the sound of an MP3, but look how convenient the format is, case in point).

So much emphasis is placed on a camera in a phone, reviewers will dog a phone for bad camera quality (ha! as if any of them are good!)... drives me nuts. It's like going in to buy a car and the salesman talks about how good the radio is, not the car's performance or efficiency. We now have a generation growing up that have cellphones in their hands while still in diapers, and the camera image quality they see is their "norm"... so will that decrease interest in the future for high-end image quality? Think I'm nuts? MP3s, ThankYouVeryMuch!

You are so right. I often had the "I wish I had brought a camera" dilemma. So, I went and got a Panny LX-3 and now I always have a camera. Since it fits in a pocket easy, I take it everywhere, every day.

Great little camera, even shoots RAW, and does really nice 12x18 prints. I'd go as far to say 12x18 from it looks better than 12x18 from a 35mm film camera. Perfect little backup.

Between the LX-3, and the Canon G-10 and S-90 there are some great little photographers pocket cameras now.

I keep eyeing a used G9 or G10... maybe I'd better git one! The LX-3 sounds intriguing too...

I keep eyeing a used G9 or G10... maybe I'd better git one! The LX-3 sounds intriguing too...

Yes, look at all three. My local Best Buy has the Canon s90. The G11 and the LX3 are a little harder to see locally. Check Flickr to see what people can do with them.

Really it might come down to lens

LX3 is 24-60 f/2.0
S90 is 28-105 f/2.0
G11 is 28-140 F/3.5??

Each one has advantages.

I went Panny LX3 as wider was better than longer to me, plus the lens is f/2 at 24 and f/2.8 at 60! Plus 720p video.