The Online Photographer

Disclaimers first:

—Disclaimer No. 1: Many of my readers are very experienced photographers and/or not airheads like me, so you have long since worked out these issues for yourself and don't need any further input and yep, I know that.

—Disclaimer No. 2: Many of my readers are professionals or former professionals and are by nature detail-oriented and highly energetic and have orderly minds and a gift for organization, and, again, have got this down pat.

So no offense.

I read many decades ago that habits are very helpful when you're working at repetitive tasks. My original intro into writing about photography was as a darkroom expert; I read voraciously from then-current as well as historical sources of knowledge and designed and ran my own experiments at the Corcoran School, routinely working in the school darkrooms until the wee hours and then walking the two miles home to Georgetown every night*. I discovered early on that I had a tendency to daydream while working, so I established very strict habits so that when I "came to" in the darkroom after my mind had been a million miles away, I would know exactly where I was in the process and what I had done and not done already. 

I've done the same with camera-carrying. I have habits: always keep the camera in the same place in the car; always put the camera in plain sight on the table in a restaurant, and never leave the table without taking the camera; if I have to put the camera somewhere out of sight, like on the floor next to my chair, always have the strap of the camera or case looped around a part of my body; if I have to have my hands free while I'm carrying the camera, always sling it from my shoulder instead of setting it down. Etc.

That last one was no doubt the precept I violated in Cambridge. Although I wasn't aware of it, I'm surprised at myself. My only excuse was that I had been preparing for a visit to my mother, and I had been emotional for days and, frankly, fearful about the prospect. I handled it much better than I thought I would, as it turned out, but I was dreading it in advance. Her body has long outlasted her mind. Although she wasn't formally diagnosed until 2013, I first saw her dementia symptoms in 2011, and my brother says he saw signs a year earlier than that. God, fate, whatever you want to call it, however you want to understand it, has been exceptionally cruel to her.

Another thing I've noticed is something that I learned during my Leica experiment (I photographed with a metered M6 for two years, and, later, an M4 for another year, guessing exposure settings), and that James Coleman spoke of on Tuesday: "As someone who hardly goes anywhere without one, I've found constantly carrying a camera makes me less likely to forget it as I've grown accustomed to their weight on my shoulder. The times when I've almost lost it were always after I'd gone without it for a spell." That's right. During my Leica years, I did what David Vestal said he did: "Put my camera on in the morning and took it off at night, like my shirt." Carrying a camera only intermittently actually increases the chances you will lose it, because not having it on you feels normal. 

Anyway, I'm surprised at myself. My systems broke down. Re Farhiz Karanjawala's lovely Japan story, I also never set my wallet down anywhere, and I always check twice that my credit card is back in my wallet after paying for a meal. And yet I still leave it behind about once a year. I had to laugh when Farhiz said, "Both wife and daughter were in agreement that this was the last trip they’re letting me do on my own." With no wife or daughter, though, I'm hanging out there in the world alone, so habits remain my hope. 

May you have good light**—and never lose your camera! 

Mike

*I learned self-defensive walking, too: keep your shoulders squared and your head held high, always be alert and looking around, and stride briskly and with purpose. It probably helped that I was 6'2" and worked out three times a week back then, but that or luck kept me from getting mugged on any of those late nights, except for the last period of my alcoholism when I was stumbling around D.C. in the dead of night dead drunk. 

**I believe Brett Weston's salutation at the end of his letters was "Good light and good negs, Brett."

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Featured Comments from:

Albert Smith: "I've traveled the world for decades and never lost a camera in my possession. I use a sort of long strap and wear the camera Bandolier style off my left shoulder onto my right hip. I can swing it up quickly for a shot, slide it to mid-chest in crowds or pull down on the strap to place the camera slightly behind me if I need to do a two-hand function in front of me. Of particularly high value for me in this regard is the recently popular rope-style straps that can be manipulated many ways without twisting awkwardly like the old flat straps. Rope straps can also be made into a wrist strap with some looping but with the ability to instantly be returned to the full length when needed. Even if I have a bag of lenses, the camera is carried outside cross body. When you feel naked without a camera you will be less likely to walk away from it."

Maggie Osterberg: "I always carry my Leicas like Albert—bandolier style, over my left shoulder, lens out, lens cap off. I've never lost a camera that way, and have been able to get shots quickly. That said, I spent an hour looking for my driver's license this morning. It was in the pocket of my pajamas. Which I am wearing. So, no judgment from me!"

David Elesh: "Like Albert Smith, I carry my camera bandolier style. But for a very different reason: while traveling in the Far East, I was advised to always use bandolier style because it discourages thieves on motor scooters and motorcycles from grabbing it as they pass. Having seen someone carrying his camera over his shoulder lose it this way and end up in the street as well, I have ever after carried it bandolier style."

Nick: "Your story brought back two not-so-great recent memories for me. The first one was earlier this year when I got out of a cab in downtown Guadalajara, fresh off the plane from Chicago, and realized that my wallet (with my passport) had fallen out inside the car I just watched drive away. I literally dropped everything (figuring my wife would guard it) and took off running in the direction the car had gone. I was 50 at the time, and while I'm not in terrible shape, I'm not in great shape, either. That said, I caught up to the car a block and a half later where it was stopped at a light. I got back my wallet right there. My dignity and my blood oxygen levels were restored to me much more slowly. On a less happy note, on a recent flight home from London, I left my unnecessarily expensive (but sonically very satisfying) noise-cancelling wireless headphones in the seatback pocket of the plane and didn't realize until the next day. Color me surprised that they never got turned in to the lost and found...."

Tom R. Halfhill: "Last year I absent-mindedly left my recent-model Apple iPhone in a men's restroom at Singapore's huge Changi airport. Half an hour later I realized it was missing. I frantically returned to the restroom and found my phone sitting exactly where I left it."

Edward Taylor: "One trick that I have used is to clip my car keys to my camera strap. If I forget my camera then I also forget my car keys. You can't get far without your car keys."