Here's one that still makes me cry when I think about it. Nikon users take special heed!
Back in 86, I was scrambling to get what I could of the MILW in the area before the big SOO takeover. MILW ran only a couple of through freights down here, so opportunities were scarce. Well, on one bitterly cold but severely sunny winter day, a northbound MILW was getting ready to go, and I noticed that it was one of the units that had the Hiawatha herald on the nose. Positively giddy with delight, I drove across town to set up for a shot of him coming across the Wabash river bridge, where the light would be perfect. In setting up the shot, I changed lenses a time or two, just like I always do. Well, at some point, the meter coupling latch on the FM camera body became disengaged ... rendering the meter reading completely bogus. Somehow, not realizing that the meter was totally whacked out, I got what I thought at the time was a correct exposure. (That was back in the days before I could set an exposure without using a meter.) I got the slides back and they were incredibly underexposed ... beyond any hope of use. I never saw another live Hiawatha MILW unit again ... and very few MILWs of any sort before they all got the infamous "bandit" treatment. I did the exact same shot later with a SOO unit on the point, but it's just not as nice. (www.railcenter.com/bkyard/latta/soocrwa.jpg) The only thing I could ever figure was that I was wearing heavy gloves at the time when I changed lenses ... and there is a TINY little button that causes the pin on the camera body to flip up out of the way, disengaging the meter's coupling to the aperture ring. I must have hit it with my fingers and not noticed because of the gloves. I still have that slide, and it's surely the most tragic "once in a lifetime" shot I ever screwed up. Now I'm wondering if I can get a scan off of it ... stay tuned, maybe I can resurrect it after 12 years of shame! I'd like to meet the Nikon engineer that decided that little button needed to be there ... and kick his, um, button. Scott Scott Withrow Terre Haute, Indiana (more or less) www.railcenter.com -> SPORRS: 'Serious Photographers Of Railroad Related Subjects' -> Web Site: http://www.anet-stl.com/acphotog/sporrs/ -> Message © 1998 SPORRS® - All Rights Reserved
