I decided I would go up to Coney Island last Monday to photograph the beach, amusements and surroundings before things shut down after Labor Day. I got up early and arrived there before 9am. The lifeguards don’t show up until 10 and the amusement park opens at 11, so it was pretty quiet for a while.

I brought my Plaubel Makina 6 X 7 rangefinder which is a great travel camera when you’re taking the train and subway. It’s also perfect for this type of outing and I went through two rolls of film by the time I was done around noon.

I enjoy going to Coney Island to photograph, but also the experience of getting there and just hanging out, and this time was no different. Monday was chosen because the weather report looked promising after several days of rain.  Uncharacteristically the weathermen got it right and it turned out to be a great day to make pictures!

The sun was out and the sky was blue. I was happily walking around and when I strolled by a spot where there was a fountain built into the sand spraying mist in my path. Good time to put on the lens cap. From there I decided to check out the long stretch of boardwalk that extends out into the water. Perfect day for fishing too, so it was lined with people and their poles propped up against the guardrails waiting for something to happen. There were a good collection of people that morning so I decided to wait and see if something interesting might happen.

Soon enough a boy about 10 years old caught what had to be the smallest sea bass on record, not much bigger than size of the sinker attached to the end of his line. Nevertheless he was very proud and was willing along with his brothers and sisters to be memorialized with the trophy catch.  I happily made the picture and walked back to the main part of the boardwalk several minutes away, then looked at my camera and @#$@#$%^&@#$%!!

I left the lens cap on when I made the picture #@$%^&*@#$%^!

I hadn’t made a boneheaded mistake like that in years but chose to do it for probably the best picture of the day! Things like this bother me a lot and it took me a long time to walk it off. It’s funny … or sad … depending on how you look at it, but I still remember that image a week later. Oh well. Hopefully I won’t make that mistake again, but these kind of things can happen. You just have to push on. The good news is that I didn’t let that blunder ruin my day.  I got a few other good images elsewhere along the boardwalk, the beach and the amusement park, and despite my stupid mistake I had a wonderful time!

Every outing is an experience. And sometimes writing about it helps make it complete.

While I lost that photograph I will always have a fond memory of what I saw.

Stay well,

Michael