Bad Days

I had a bad day on Thursday. I started writing three different posts, and each one, despite dogged labor, had to be mercy-killed.

Nothing else was going right, either. I went to Best Buy to get three different things and came away with none of them. Struck out...strike one, two, three.

Does that ever happen to you? It happens to me with a camera sometimes. You just know there was a picture there, and you worked it but you weren't quite sure you got it, and when you saw what you got you just really, really wanted it to be something...but it was just not quite there. It's those oh-so-close ones that make you mad.

My Dad used to like to make French-style omelettes, and he had a saying..."Sometimes you get an omelette, sometimes you get a mess of eggs."

Tomorrow's another day.

Mike

Original contents copyright 2013 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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Featured Comments from:

Animesh Ray: "For a scientist, most days are like that."

David Littlejohn: "From Will Rogers: If you find yourself in a hole, stop digging."

Comments

[Stan B.]

The oh-so-close ones really do hurt- particularly when you haven't had an oh-so-great one in oh-such-a-long time...

Your equipment good enough, your skills adequate(?), and with all the added toil and torment- nothin'.

You curse, you rest, you try again...

[Gerard Kingma]

The thing is, instead of those three columns you killed off, we got this one, which is personal, instantly recognisable, sad and lighthearted at the same time, and most of all, thoroughly human. Which is why I return to your blog daily. So no loss there.

[Ross]

This (existential?) novel is starting well--shades of Albert Camus, perhaps. Do continue...

[Neil, Worthing, UK]

I had a good day yesterday (my copy of Here, Far Away arrived). But a bad day today... I unpacked the book, and the pages are "wavy". By that I mean the page edges aren't flush with the covers. Is this normal for a new photo book? (It is the first new one I've bought) Will it improve?

[Ann]

I am having an awful day today. My trusty Hotmail account has been taken over by Outlook and I can't access it on one computer but can on my iPad...go figure. Have opened a Gmail account as a way of getting around this problem, but am having a hard time getting used to it--and didn't realise that they send you targeted ads. I got one for denture paste! I have all my own teeth so I am quite affronted. To top it off the iOS update on my iPad is also troubling me....the screen is too bright, all my photos look awful on the white background, and my subscriptions seem too lost.

So I do sympathise. I am going to spend the weekend reading an actual book. Improvement and all.

[Ann]

Apologies for all the typos!

[What typos? --Mike the Ed.]

[Michael Roche]

Mike it's life's little setbacks that makes us try harder and learn not to take things for granted and sometimes surprise ourselves with what we can achieve with a bit more effort,have a good one.

[Ranjit Grover]

Mike,
It happens all to often to almost every one, I guess.
I can narrate one of my worst cases.
Once, while traveling in a bus I spotted a large pond with buffaloes wallowing it, in a near by village.
The next day evening I went there intending to get a great picture.
I decided to go on my motor bike and wait for the buffaloes to appear.
I charged the battery of my canon G10 and started the motor bike and went off with the camera in my pants pocket.
Not far from home I realised that the motor bike had run out of petrol and it was then that I remembered that I had not taken any money with with me. I walked back home and got some money. Soon I reached the pond and there, the buffaloes were ready for me.
I pulled the camera out of my pocket, aimed and shot.
But nothing happened.
There was no battery in the camera. I had forgotten to put it back in the camera.
No petrol, no money, no battery.
But I still have that great picture in my mind.
One day I will get it.
Ranjit Grover, India

[Jordi P.]

Indeed. In those days sometimes it's better to be settled down.
But there are many kinds of bad days... Those of which nothing fits or works, and the ones you want to send everything and everyone to hell.

As of cameras... I've gotten printed a Kodachrome slide; Very exciting backlit, but the print is quite flat, thus boring and includes some ICE artifacts... It won't work at the moment. I retouched the scan and sent it to an online lab for a metallic print. Probably will need some trial and error and I know myself... I will end getting it printed on Fujiflex by a proper lab.
You were right! Being poor is more expensive. Should have gotten the "best" option at first.
SO now I've spent more and got a print of no use. That was on monday.

And then there are days that are perfect and inspirational.
That was the day I dropped film at the lab and went strolling around the city.

[Hugh Smith]

It seems the "stars" were misaligned this week, Mike. Our power went down (not unusual in Mexico). Our internet went down (no internet, no phones here). Then I bunged up my knee so I had difficulty walking to say the least. Mercy killed two articles myself.
So perhaps Friday and following will prove more productive.

[Speed]

The road to good writing is littered with discards.

The road from Best Buy is covered with disappointment. Amazon is your friend.

[Nigel]

This might, or might not, cheer you up:

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2013/09/best_buy_turnaround_profits_and_share_prices_are_up_but_the_store_s_no_good.html

[What? Slate still exists?

Just kidding. --Mike]

[Robert Roaldi]

Lots of days are like that. That's mother nature telling you to relax, have some tea, and mull things over for a while. We're not machines. You know those A-personality types on the self-help youtube channels who tell you that you can be more efficient and more productive, blah, blah? Ignore that sh*t.

[Ed]

Well mike I'm trying to build this:

http://www.extremetech.com/electronics/137098-3d-printer-safari-maker-faire-ny

and I for every bleedin' component I try to go to the local electronics store (I live in Venlo check it out yourself) and I'm talking about things as basic as connectors of the Molex variety (you find on every bleedin' motherboard) and I get a "Hub ich neat" < try translating that Google :)....almost every time. But hey I searched the site of a big electronics warehouse for hours until I found a BKL connector I needed. The female 4-pole connector which you find on every bleedin' power supply was called, wait sit back, "the assesory to the male connector"....I think that Germaine Greer has some work to do in Germany. Now I'm waiting on the delivery of 20 2 poles, 20 3 poles and 20 4 poles and 300 crimp connectors + 1 crimpplyer, to be send from a dark place in southern Germany (far, far away so to speak).

Greets, Ed.

[Mike Plews]

In my personal work the good stuff comes in spurts. A few years back I was up in RMNP trying to get a nice aspen shot. Yellow everywhere and I just couldn't pull it together.
On my way back to the parking lot I ran into another photographer wearing the same expression as me. "just can't make a frame today" he said in passing.
At least with digital you don't have to wait for the yellow box of Kodachromes to come back from Chicago to get confirmation of your bad day.
Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug. Just put some Mose Allison on the stereo and remember it's good to be alive.

[Sven W]

"each one ... had to be mercy-killed"

That's Nature's way of saying you're a great editor.

[Dennis]

I've had a few of the oh so close ones. I'm not sure which is worse: the ones that could have been great if something had been a little different or shot a little differently ... or the ones that would have been great if, after a wonderful morning out shooting, there had been film in the camera.

[Kurt Kramer]

Does that ever happen to me? Oh no, never.

[Cmans]

This nexus of negative events is very interesting. Happened to me also. But there is a catch. I exited my front door as I do every work day, but today looking East there was a magnificent picture of the sun's rays radiating golden literal rays through breaks in the clouds. It was if God (I know, I know) had printed a postcard this morning in the sky for all to see, (or at least for me to see). I hemmed and hawed and actually ran back up and down the stairs twice to get my camera, but since my wife and I were running a little late, two times I thought "not enough time" and went back outside to sit in the car and wait for her. Then I thought "we only go around once", so damn the clock, I ran back upstairs to get the camera and I ended up snapping three shots. Dropped my wife off at the train station, then pop! My car's engine developed a bad miss. I simmered the whole day about the ignition parts I had purchased two years ago that broke as the warranty expired. After work I ended up fixing the car with some purchased parts and some I had pack-ratted in the trunk and was proud of myself. Then I got a chance to look at the pics I took. Wonderfull. Made my day. The sight of that little orange orb appearing over the roof of those houses and the orange reflections against the edges of the clouds and the golden yellow rays squeezing betwen the clouds erased (almost) all of the bad karma I accumulated today. I am thankful I took the time to take those pics.

[Andrea B.]

On these kinds of days I manage to get a paper cut when opening bills, to whomp the rear tire against the curb when making a right turn and to lose a soft contact lens down the drain when removing them. This all in spite of the fact that I have been opening bills, making right turns and wearing contact lens for about 40 years now. As Scarlet once said....

This day, however, my Caponigro-Caponigro print arrived. Wonderful! Thank you for giving us the opportunity to acquire and enjoy this.

[Craig Williams]

I had to look up styles of omelette. First french, which to me is an omelette, then american omelette to see what the difference was. I never knew there were different types and now know never to order an omelette in America because i'll be upset its over cooked.