Yet Another Tale of Photography Mishaps


The cover photo for this blog entry and the pictures below almost didn't happen. I mean, clearly it happened. The weather and the trees hadn't been cooperating up to this point in the year. The leaves weren't turning fast enough and I hadn't been able to get a decently partially cloudy yet sunny day to get some fall pics. It just so happened at 4:55pm I looked out and decided I would give it a shot. I decided that the River Bluffs area of Highbanks Metro Park was close enough even though it closes at 5:30pm. My camera bag is a go-bag of sorts -- I make sure to keep the batteries charged and a memory card at the ready in the camera at all times. I ran out of my apartment and got there around 5:15. I was somewhat frustrated that the rush hour traffic had put me in a position to try to get what I could before the Park Rangers kicked me out in 15 mins. Little did I know that I had NO IDEA what frustration was!


A little bit of background.... I'm the same person that left a camera in the back of an Uber in a different country so it be no surprise that I went on vacation in 2014 to San Francisco, CA and got all the way to the Golden Gate Bridge on a tour bus before I realized that I didn't have an SD card in my camera and set back the whole vacation by having to redo the tour the next day. I mean... who flies all the way to SFO and doesn't get pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge? That's as blasphemous of going to the Louvre and skipping the Mona Lisa. You just don't do it. I say all of that to say that I haven't been without my share of self inflicted photography pain. This time it wasn't my fault. I swear to you... I didn't do it.


Now that we've established that I'm somewhat of a klutz but completely innocent here, let's get back to my quick fall outing... I spent about 20 mins at Highbanks (if the rangers aren't there to kick you out, my motto is keep shooting). I periodically checked the preview pics to adjust my iso and shutter speed as it was a really bright day. I can say with all certainty that all of the images were on the camera when I headed home. I plugged the SD card and reader into my iPad and fired up the file browser to discover that the folder for the day's photos was empty. NOTHING was there. Not a single image. I knew I was hallucinating so I tried it on my MacBook with the same result. For a moment, I really thought that this was San Francisco repeating itself because an a6000 will let you fire the shutter without a memory card inserted. If you don't see the "no card" message flashing, it will let you shoot all day. "I didn't miss that message did I?" "NOOOOO. Couldn't have!" "Or did I?" I knew I wasn't crazy so I did quick Google search and came across software named Disk Drill. I had to pay for the software and I wasn't happy about it but I was ultimately able to use the software to recover the 250 photos I took in those 20 mins. Take a look at some of the edited photos below. I'm truly thankful that Disk Drill was able to save the day. I can't imagine if this had been an actual paid gig. I will be reaching out to Lexar about this 1TB memory card that may be malfunctioning ( it is more than half full and I'm very proud of myself for that).


Until next time,


The Soaring Phoenix