That lady at the local camera swap who ruined my roll and taught me a lesson

I was at the City Wide Camera Swap in Denver back in April. This older woman, Hazel, was selling a bunch of old film gear. I was bragging about my new-to-me Olympus OM-1 and how I shot a whole roll of Portra 400 without even metering. She just looked at me and said 'sounds like you wasted $12 on film and processing.' She was right. I got back 36 shots of pure garbage. Overexposed, underexposed, all over the place. Now I actually test my light meter with a known good roll before I trust it. Has anyone else had their pride dented by a stranger at a show?

2 comments

2 Comments

ryan_coleman212d ago

Honestly that's a solid life lesson right there, and it's one that applies way beyond just cameras. Tbh most people need someone to check their ego early on or they just keep making the same mistakes with more expensive gear. Ngl I'd rather have a grumpy stranger save me $80 in ruined rolls than learn that lesson on a wedding shoot or something.

richard_ramirez2d agoMost Upvoted

You said "most people need someone to check their ego early on" and that got me thinking. What counts as EARLY enough though? Because I see people in my line of work who been at it for YEARS and still can't take a simple piece of advice without getting defensive. Is there actually a cutoff point where someone is too far gone to learn? Like if you been doing something wrong for a decade and some stranger corrects you in public, does that even stick or does it just make you double down? I honestly wonder how many people actually CHANGE after getting called out versus just getting better at hiding their mistakes.