Introducing… The Friday Flop

Posted on January 28, 2011

In an effort to blog more often, I’ve decided to try and do *something* on Fridays. At first, I thought I’d do a list of the week’s good & bad, but I think a lot of people do that and readers might not care. Then I thought maybe I’d do a Q&A session, but then I laughed heartily and remembered I’m no expert on… anything. Except maybe beagle/coonhound behavior.

So I’ve settled on The Friday Flop. Instead of showing you a beautiful landscape or adorable dog, I’m going to show you a picture that didn’t quite turn out as planned. Hopefully this will keep me blogging more. (Believe me, I have enough material to go on for YEARS.)

Now. Onward! The very first flop is from a trip to Ojai, which is a very scenic town surrounded by lush, green hills and ranch land. We were walking down the main drag when I spotted this guy sitting on his Harley on the side of the road. A small chihuahua was poking out of his jacket as he chain-smoked the day away, watching cars go by and people stare.

I HAD to get a shot of this! So I asked for his permission, he obliged (after telling me that his dog perches on his lap as he speeds down the highway *silent scream!*), and then – and only then – I realized that I had to stand in traffic to get the shot. I got two shots in the can before my husband grabbed me by the elbow and pulled me out of the way of an oncoming truck. (My hero!)

I was so excited to have met this guy and to have gotten the shot… until I looked at it in my camera and realized my focus was off. Like, completely off. I had the wrong focus point selected, so it was zoning in on… really, God only knows what when I was trying to focus on the dog. DAGNABBIT! I tried to clean it up in Photoshop, but no dice. It’s definitely A FLOP.

Moral: Always check your focus points before you take a shot, and always have a wingman on standby to pull you out of traffic.