Succeeding in any art form usually involves a bit of trial and error and in this video, I share a few of my landscape photography failures.
Breakthrough Photography has been very kind in supporting my photography and lucky for me Breakthrough make some of the best filters currently on the market. For more info be sure to check out Breakthrough at
All music for each of my videos can be found at www.epidemicsound.com
The following list of gear is by no means conclusive and varies depending on the outing that I’m on. The links that follow each of the items are affiliate links that will take you to Amazon or subsequent supplier who I am affiliated with. As an affiliate I make a small 3% – 8% commission for any item purchased.
Nikon D850
Nikon 16-35mm f4 lens
Nikon 14-24mm f2.8 lens
Nikon 24-120mm f/4.0
Nikon 70-200mm f/4.0
Nikon 200mm micro f/4.0
Nikon 80-400mm f/4.5-5.6D ED
Universal Tripod L Bracket
Breakthrough X4 Circular Polarizer
Breakthrough X4 10 Stop ND
Breakthrough X4 Dark Circular Polarizer
Breakthrough X4 2 stop 100 x 150 GND Filter
Breakthrough Center-Pinch Lens Cap
Breakthrough Step up Ring
Breakthrough Universal Arca Plate
Breakthrough X4 3 stop Reverse Hard Edge 100 x 150 GND Filter
Neewer LCD Timer Shutter Release for Nikon
Rycote Micro Windjammer fuzzy noise reducers for mic
Black Fur Microphone Windscreen for Lapel Lavier Mic
SOL Bivvy Sac for emergencies
Think Tank Card Holder
Petzl Tikka Headlamp (small)
Petzl Nao Headlamp (Large)
Manfrotto Tripod Snowshoes
Mammut Trion Pro Pack
DJI Crystal Sky 5.5 inch Monitor
DJI Mavic Pro
DJI Inspire 1 Pro w/X5 camera
Lowepro DroneGuard Pro Inspired Pack
Gitzo Backpacking Tripod
Gitzo Main Tripod
K & F Concept Tripod TC2534
Kirk Enterprises BH-1 Ballhead
Kirk Enterprises BH-3 Ballhead
Slik Sprint Pro II Tripod
Sony RX100MKIII Camera
Zoom H1 Handy Recorder
Rode smartLav+
Rode SC3 3.5mm TRRS to TRS Adaptor
Rode VideoMicro Compact On-Camera Microphone
Patagonia Yellow Lightweight Houdini Jacket
multimat Proforce Evazote Extreme Foam Mat, Gold, 9.5mm/X-Large
Frontiersman Bear Spray with Belt Holster
Snow Peak Titanium Spork
Pixel TW-283 DC0 Wireless Shutter Release for Nikon
DJI Mavic Pro Filters – Cinema Series – Vivid Collection
Petzl Spatha Knife
Big Agnes – Helinox – Chair One
MSR XGK Stove
Marmot Scree Pant
Black Diamond Firstlight Tent
Black Diamond Firstlight Tent Vestibule
Lenspen
Okay everyone now is the time to fess up and share your tales of woe in the comments below. Here is another good one for you. I once flew into a wilderness area at great expense only to find that I had only brought one half depleted battery for my camera. Luckily my friend Jeremy who flew in with me was using the same camera at the time and was kind enough to lend me a spare, close call there. Lol.
Thank you for sharing your fail I am a furniture maker. My successes don’t make me a good future maker. My failures do!
Just yesterday I left my OIS button on while taking some water fall shots. I was only at the site for 15 minutes so I was rushing to capture the images that I had in my head. Well all of images were soft when I got home. Luckily the falls is only 90 minutes away and we weren't there just to take photos of the falls but lesson learned.
Really great video .
Hey Adam,
Did you know there is a very similar tree on a stump sitting in matheson lake?? (Vancouver Island) it might not be as picturesque as the one at Ferry Lake. But if you haven't seen it yet, it's worth a look
Great video, really nice to see that everything doesn't always work out even for the pros. Makes me feel better about my own efforts. My biggest mistake was not buying a camera until recently 😀
I'm ashamed to admit it but when you said your Lr catalog was full of crap it made me feel better about my crap-filled Lr catalog. Then I noticed that your failures looked strikingly similar to my successes. Doh! Great video though. I don't think I've ever seen so many consistently good images in a YouTube video before.
Those extra spare batteries I must carry with me for a long shoot, where did I put them? I've looked in my car, office, house. I simply can't find them. They are somewhere and I refuse to buy another set because that's when they'll turn up. Any my favorite tripod, where did I last leave it? In the car trunk? Oh and my prime lens, that was left on my other desk. And my polarizer and ND filters, was that in the other backpack or the beltpack? Don't even think about the macro lens because I haven't used that in ages.
I just had the same problem with my IS and being new to all this I had no idea what was going on, now I do! Thanks for that top tip.
I’ve done quite alot of auroraphotography and I always focus with liveview on the back of my camera at location. You just need to find a bright star to focus on. Please have a look at my instagram @erikjphoto
The great Ansel Adams, shot more than 40,000 negatives, and the really good images he made are about 100. So, if Ansel Adams screwed up so many times, who are we to do better than he did?
I really liked this this one. I have made all those mistakes myself. It's great you put it out there for everyone.
Failures are just as important as success and it's good to review them from time to time. And indeed while I be been taking photographs for years, indeed when I focus on one thing I might forget something else basic. Including always checking my camera settings in case I did not reset my settings after taking a special shot.
so worst things i have done were forgot to focus from front to back and left the sd card at home …never rammed anyone with my vehicle though …poor Gavin hahaha
Very informative video, Adam. New subscriber here.
So I'm not the only one. Great video. More please, just love facts.
Adam, the closing image of your your amazing YouTube posts shows http://www.adamgibbs.com as one of your two websites. What is confusing me is that http://www.adamgibbsphoto.com is the web site showing your 2019 workshops. Are you planning to migrate all of the content to adamgibbsphoto.com. ? Regards Bob
Fascinating stuff.
Always love your videos Adam. Great work again, helpful stuff and some staggeringly beautiful shots in there.
Earlier, this past Sunday, hiked to a mountain at 4:30am (can't drive) and then hiked up it, was stressing out over that I would miss sunrise planning to eat at the top after taking my photographs. Ended up getting hypothermia, only a glimpse of the gorgeous sunrise (cloud inversion as well) and mountain rescue.
Lesson learnt: don't hike up a mountain when you only had two pots of instant noodles for dinner the night before and a KitKat for breakfast! Maybe also don't hike with a prism finder… Use a waist level finder instead!
Thank you for this "uplifting" video!!!
Loved this video. The mistake that used to plague me was not turning off the vibration reduction, just as you said. I haven't done it for a while, but for a while there, I wanted to hit myself with a rock. I would be at these great places, take a nice image and then discover after a while what I had done. Nice to know I'm not the only one.
Great tips thank you for making the video.
I completely related to this video Adam. Both filming and photography. Though I'm not quite the serial offender that you are with the VR/IS switch though!
Hi Adam, I love the reading glasses. Would you share them with me. I want to be cool too haha. Love your work also!
Thanks for the video. I'm really hard on myself when I make basic mistakes. It's good to hear I'm not the only one who forgets to check the image stabilisation button. So frustrating.
Great video – I have definitely done the IS switch mistake a lot! Another is extending my tripod centre column too far with my 70-200 lens and never quite controlling movement properly. I am slowly learning to try and avoid extending the centre column unless absolutely necessary, and then only with a wider angle lens.
I don’t know how well you remember your geography of England, but we once drove from Central Lancashire to Snake Pass in Derbyshire for an autumnal sunrise. When we got there I opened my bag to find out there wasn’t a single lens there. We went for a drive round and had a nice lunch in a pub.
We returned the next day, fully lensed up, to the most beautiful misty sunrise ever. I got 3 prints from that day which I'm pleased with for my level. Maybe things happen for a reason.
I don’t do much night photography and I learnt something today.
My 70-200 is the worst for me forgetting about the IS as I also use it for birds in flight.
Yours 'fails' would end up in my best shots folder.
Thanks for the video Adam, not many post the images they are not best pleased with.
That rock is closer pronounced to "Kvitserkur" with a K. I have a "fail story coming up probably in the first part of the new year 😉
Great video Adam. Here’s one. Driving home from Jasper, just passed Castle Mountain, there is a range that runs from Mt. Ishbel to Mt. Cory. I’m tired and just want to get home. It’s a crystal blue sky, ZERO haze, the sun was about 10 minutes from setting and I round the bend to see the full moon at 50 degrees in perfect position over said range. I slowed a little but kept driving and didn’t stop 😩. I’ve planned future trips to try and line up the elements as they were that eve but likely will never see that scene again.
Hey, on a happy note I picked up your calendar from Coop this week. Now I get to enjoy your photos through the year!
Ha, I make the image stabilizer button mistake all the time too! So glad to hear a pro complain about the same thing.
This is my favorite vlog so far. Seeing so many of your best images was wonderful. And every mistake you made, I too make. That damn VR button. Argh!
one has too learn from ones fails 😀
thanks for sharing all this beautiful content with us!
really enjoyed watching this
Superb video Adam, I tried to work out recently what my success rate was of 'keepers' and I think it's about 1% maybe less, I still hoard all the RAW files from the fails though for some reason. I have a few where my dog as managed to photobomb an image in the woods and I've not realised until I get back, normally on a part that's difficult to clone haha.
Good stuff here. Thanks. I'm a bit hard on myself when it comes to making mistakes or when I get poor light on trips. Feels like time wasted and opportunities missed. I forget that it's part of the learning process but it's still a hard pill to swallow. Keep the videos coming! To share my last big mistake…i was at Mount Rainier, placed my tripod with camera down without totalling securing the ball head, as I was shedding a layer I realize the oversite as the layer is over my head and the camera is slowly tilting downward throwing itself off balance…it fell just a short distance but just enough to dent the circ polarizer so it wouldn't turn OR unscrew to come off. I wrestled with it for about 45 minutes but finally got it off.
Great video Adam, good to see it's not just us mere mortals that screw up. My biggest one is increasing or decreasing the ISO. I get so fixated about low ISO ie 100 that I forget I can increase it to get a better image. Thanks for sharing!!
I have never heard of the IS searching for vibration, and thereby producing a fuzzy shot on a tripod. Does Canon know about this?
Thanks Adam.
Thank you Adam, to be honest this video made me so much more respectful of your work! Your honesty is rare.
I keep throwing cameras into rivers that's my mistake of choice . I have done all these regularly too hello from a fello scatterbrain .
Thank you for an informative video! I never knew about the infinity focusing, and I also always forget to turn off IS on a tripod. Sometimes I remember and do it on my long lens, but I never bother to dig through the menu to turn off the whole cameras IS.