The Near Miss Thread

Alright, we've all taken 'em--those shots that would be realllly good if you would have done one thing different. The subject is outta focus, half in the frame, whatever. I thought It'd be interested to see everyone's near misses and the stories behind them. I'll post two to get us started.
The first one I was out walking in ann arbor in a park last year, en route to taking a feature photo. Fortunately the camera was on when this bird (a hawk is it?) flew by. Unfortunately, the autofocus decided to focus on the trees.
The second one I took just yesterday at the zoo. I was hoping to get a rather surreal photo of a shark that was seemingly "flying" (the zoo has a sky painted on the ceiling) but the shark was moving too much and there was too little light to get a nice clear photo.

I like this thread! Unfortunately, I'm not able to look through my library at the moment. Hope this thread is still around when I get home and have time to poke around for that near-miss shot I'm sure I have!

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Originally Posted by mikehulsebus

Alright, we've all taken 'em--those shots that would be realllly good if you would have done one thing different. The subject is outta focus, half in the frame, whatever. I thought It'd be interested to see everyone's near misses and the stories behind them. I'll post two to get us started.
The first one I was out walking in ann arbor in a park last year, en route to taking a feature photo. Fortunately the camera was on when this bird (a hawk is it?) flew by. Unfortunately, the autofocus decided to focus on the trees.
The second one I took just yesterday at the zoo. I was hoping to get a rather surreal photo of a shark that was seemingly "flying" (the zoo has a sky painted on the ceiling) but the shark was moving too much and there was too little light to get a nice clear photo.

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We all have a bucket full of these, I bet. At least I do.

I was hoping to get this heron a little lower and above the rear of the boat. Time lag on my Canon S30 can ve VERY frustrating. :(

Photo taken just east of Moorhead City, NC.

THIS THREAD WOULD BE 1000 POSTS LONG......if I uploaded every hawk I missed slightly ;)

btw... your hawk is a redtailed hawk ;)

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Originally Posted by Chunk

We all have a bucket full of these, I bet. At least I do.

I was hoping to get this heron a little lower and above the rear of the boat. Time lag on my Canon S30 can ve VERY frustrating. :(

Photo taken just east of Moorhead City, NC.

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If you crop the heron out of the shot it makes for a nice shot any way.

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Originally Posted by MaxPower

If you crop the heron out of the shot it makes for a nice shot any way.

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Thanks Max. It was a beautiful morning. Just before that shot I was accumulating some other near misses trying to get a decent shot of this egret. The boat from the other pic is on the right.

I couldn't wait to get home and post some "almost" pictures after I read this thread at work this morning. Here are a few pics from my vacation last week in Northern Wisconsin. There is something about the headless duck that I still like, even tho I missed what I was trying to get. I sat and watched this eagle get ready to take flight for a while, and wouldn't you know, the second I look away... well, I did managed to get a decent shot or two of it, but I also managed to get what you see here, and a couple of shots of the trees with nothing else...

If you want to check out some more of my vacation shots, go to http://webpages.charter.net/mjs1973

This is a page that I just thru together. The only editing that I did was to use auto levels on a few of the pictures in the first row on the landscapes page, and I did crop down one picture of an eagle in flight.

Was browsing through my photos with my newly installed picasa program (which i really like by the way) and saw this one--just had to add this one in, though the white balance, focus, and exposure combined make this a little more than a "near" miss.

Thanks on the red tailed hawk info; finally I'll be able to call it something other than "a bird"

great thread by the way...I'll seach thru my archives for the near misses...should take about ten seconds ;)

PJ better get another server to handle all of my misses!

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Originally Posted by mikehulsebus

Alright, we've all taken 'em--those shots that would be realllly good if you would have done one thing different. The subject is outta focus, half in the frame, whatever. I thought It'd be interested to see everyone's near misses and the stories behind them. I'll post two to get us started.
The first one I was out walking in ann arbor in a park last year, en route to taking a feature photo. Fortunately the camera was on when this bird (a hawk is it?) flew by. Unfortunately, the autofocus decided to focus on the trees.
The second one I took just yesterday at the zoo. I was hoping to get a rather surreal photo of a shark that was seemingly "flying" (the zoo has a sky painted on the ceiling) but the shark was moving too much and there was too little light to get a nice clear photo.

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One of the tightest closeups I got from an airshow. OOF, cut his nose off, too dark, dust on the scan, and to add insult to injury, I had dust scratch up a bunch of the photo's from this airshow. Prime example of what not-to-do!

Also cut the tail off of an AV-8B Harrier. I was in a prime position to catch him, but...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Chunk

We all have a bucket full of these, I bet. At least I do.

I was hoping to get this heron a little lower and above the rear of the boat. Time lag on my Canon S30 can ve VERY frustrating. :(

Photo taken just east of Moorhead City, NC.

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What brought you to Carteret County? Any chance you'll be coming this way again? If so, drop me a line and we'll see if we can get together.

BTW, it's spelled Morehead. ;-)

Here is a near miss all around. The photographer (me) missed the exposure, shutter speed and framing, the batter missed the ball and grounds keeper totally missed marking the third base line straight.

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Originally Posted by Speed

What brought you to Carteret County? Any chance you'll be coming this way again? If so, drop me a line and we'll see if we can get together.

BTW, it's spelled Morehead. ;-)

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Last spring I stopped to see a friend who was at that time pastor of the Smyrna Baptist church and enjoyed a day or so exploring. I've enjoyed coastal communities since being in the navy from '68 to '80 and was happy to explore your area. Not real good motorcyling but I love those working boats. I may get around there again but no plans right now. Rabbi moved away from there and spent a year as chaplain at Chapel Hill's hospital and has now found a job doing the same at some other hospital inland.

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Originally Posted by Chunk

Last spring I stopped to see a friend who was at that time pastor of the Smyrna Baptist church and enjoyed a day or so exploring. I've enjoyed coastal communities since being in the navy from '68 to '80 and was happy to explore your area. Not real good motorcyling but I love those working boats. I may get around there again but no plans right now. Rabbi moved away from there and spent a year as chaplain at Chapel Hill's hospital and has now found a job doing the same at some other hospital inland.

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I was hoping you'd be coming this way again. At least you got some great shots of your time here!

here ya go...my kids the hardest subjects

and the worst shot ever! a ship(that was DOCKED) only took one brain cell to this one..LOL

good thread

My near miss. F-18F.

I think I posted this one not too long ago...but hey, it fits the thread.

By the way, Tim, that is an awesome shot even if it is a "near miss".

Ray

This one comes to mind, I find I delete a lot of my near misses, so lots of them I can't think of right now. In the first one I loved it but I zoomed it in on the lcd and noticed the focus was way off. Luckily I had him do it again and nailed the exposure. He probably did this 10 times for me to get it perfect, but I knew it was an awesome shot as soon as I saw the potential.

On the one of the guy in the woods, I would love it, except for when I put it next to my film pictures from that day I noticed my white balance must have been horribly off, because all my digital shots from that day are very orange.

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Originally Posted by adamsti

My near miss. F-18F.

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Awesome catch! OK, you timing was awesome!

BTDT!