Left my monopod at a wedding over the weekend.. fml.

[Peter Rush]

Originally Posted by Adrian Tan

Something that's saved me more than once is a habit of doing a walk around a room, looking to see if I've left anything, before departing the site.

I played guitar in bands for many years and that habit has stuck with me - however with a band it's just one location, unlike a wedding!

[Nicholas de Kock]

I feel your pain James. I did the same not so long ago, was packing my car after filming two weddings back to back & simply forgot to pack it, it was right next to my car. Sucks! What a waste of money!

[Charles Newcomb]

A few years ago I drove off with my sound bag still sitting on the roof of the car. I didn't discover it until I got home. I wound up losing three wireless mics, two shotguns, two Tascam recorders, numerous cables, connectors and data cards. I had to replace everything.

[Paul R Johnson]

My best one was getting a phone call from the police very late at night.
"Hello Sir, Have you lost anything?"
"er, no...."
"Sure, Sir? ......."
"Sorry? I don't understand?"
"How about something expensive and bright yellow?"

It hit me. I'd been to get fuel, and trying to find the log book I record my fuel in, I removed the pelicase to get the book, and stood it on the roof of my van. After filling up, I drove off down the road, in a busy part of the town, late at night, and didn't even realise what the little odd noise I heard was. Some people handed it in to the Police - and as it had my phone number and name on it, they called.

I went to pick it up - and they'd Googled the contents, realised how much I just forgot about and made my life hell (nicely) when I went to collect it.

Stupid, very stupid. Pelicases are pretty tough bits of kit - hardly a dent and the camera perfectly undamaged.

[James Manford]

Phew ... thank god people handed it in. Close call. And i'm fairly sure the insurance company wouldn't be happy if you had to put in a claim !

[Warren Kawamoto]

Shame on me. In all the years I've been shooting, I've forgotten my expensive Sachtler tripod at venues 3 times! The problem was that I assumed my assistant packed it up. I once forgot a folding movie screen in the corner. Luckily I always managed to get it back. All of my equipment has a label with my name and number on it. Thankfully, people in Hawaii are usually honest, and the venue staff knows the crew.

A couple of times I've found lenses, caps, tripods, or flashes left behind at the church. I take them to the reception and give them back to a very grateful photographer.

[Adrian Tan]

Just for fun, here's a list of some bits and pieces I sometimes lose/break on weddings:

-- lens caps
-- rubber bands for Rode VMPs
-- screws that connect Rode VMPs to hot shoe mount
-- feet for Cinevate slider
-- clips for lav mics
-- wind shields for lav mics
-- neck strap on Zacuto Z-finder often breaks
-- screws from different parts of tripod

Actually, thinking about that list, I don't think it's very long at all, which I think is testament to the durability of the gear I have, since I'm rubbish at taking good care of it.

[James Palanza]

Well after reading through these replies I can see I'm not alone! Yeah it was a real bummer.. got my replacement one last week, of course they discontinued the model so I had to get the newer version. Ah try and not make the same mistake again!

[Travis Wilber]

My buddy was shooting with me and left his backpack at the church (he jumped on the trolly after the wedding and I didn't know his stuff was still there). In it was his laptop, wallet, passport, pretty much everything. We didn't figure it out til the end of the reception and he had a flight to the middle east for a documentary the next day and we couldn't get in touch with anyone at the church. The church was in the middle of a neighborhood, so at 1am we broke into it thru a open window, set off an alarm, got the bag and took off. Left a message for the church but never heard back.

Another wedding I left my 35 1.4 lens at the church and it was the only fast lens' I had for the reception night. So I made my 2nd camera guy drive the 45 mins back to go get it.

Few batter charger's here and there, some I got back.

[Rob Cantwell]

i have always had a check list, everything goes on it and i have two columns for each session, one for before i leave for the location the other for when we're finished, even though i have a partner helping, I eyeball everything and pack it myself.
So far so good (fingers crossed )

:-)

[Bruce Dempsey]

2 manfrotto tripods with 501 heads left in a parking lot but good news, got a call (dumb me didn't even realize they were missing. That was years ago. Now I pack the car and go back inside and have a look around

Another time I was an hour or so out of town on my way to a gig when with a start, realized I'd left the camera bag in my living room