Olympic Photographer Leaves Lens Cap On

We've all left our lens caps on before but it usually takes a split second to look through the viewfinder and figure out what the problem is. This Olympic photographer took a little bit longer to figure out that his lens cap was the reason for his blank images. Unluckily for him, these embarrassing 12 seconds were broadcast to the world.

Lee Morris's picture

Lee Morris is a professional photographer based in Charleston SC, and is the co-owner of Fstoppers.com

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54 Comments

Haha I saw this last night on TV and immediately noticed the guy in the back fumbling with his camera and wondering why it wasn't shooting. Thank you to whomever recorded this :)

I think at the end he was gonna shoot it with his live view screen.

I saw the original too.  Also liked the guy with the 1Dx spraying and praying the women's gymnastics team.  Sounded like a machine gun and he was only standing 5 feet in front of them after a performance...

I gotta be honest.. I'm getting tired of all these posts knocking Olympic photogs.. Between here and borrow lenses.. Are we really that jealous of other people's success that we get joy out of seeing them screw up? Yes, I took part in ripping on the guy with the bad photos.. That was just bad.. But this.. Seriously.. You've never in your life left the lens cap on.. People need to get off their high horses and rejoice with people in their success instead of sitting back and say "oh I could do it better"... Clearly you couldn't do it better, because you aren't there, you are at home, shooting babies for $25 and making fun of those who are actually getting noticed..

We wonder why the world is a terrible place.. It's because of stuff like this.. Instead of saying "wow, look at that guy, he gets to shoot the Olympics" we sit back and nit pick the tiny mistake that we've probably all made at some point

 WELL SAID Chris.

I don't think this is that serious of a post. If it were me forgetting to take my lens cap off I would have posted it as well and laughed at myself. We HAVE ALL made this mistake before and we all will again, what's the big deal in pointing that out and having a chuckle?  

Well said Lee.

Well said Chris, Brian, Lee and Tam

 well said rob

Well said Tim.

hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahaah these replies are funnier than the actual post

Well said Relzlife. 

 well haha'd

well said everybody

well said indeed

well well well ... now that's a deep subject!!!

 Cascade is funny so I will write something to. ;)

I too believe so, well said Roman

well said Peter

well said Jessy

Well said Andy

-------------

Shit, forgot to take my lens cap off before I typed..

Well at list you learned from your mistake Kid :P 

Well said (in order of appearance):Chris, Brian, Lee, Tam, robsydor, Tim, Andrew, Relzlife, Shane, wayneleone, Peter, John, JASON, Roman, Pat, Jessy, Andy, Kunal and Kid x2

Agreed Lee. Get over yourself Burke. It's good to see even professionals at the Olympics make a mistake. It's good to have a laugh and realize everyones human.

agreed

agreed Josh

I agree Chris, Josh, & Tim.. :)

I've left my lens cap on many a times. Even if you totaled them all up it still wouldn't be as long as 12 seconds. I have also had non-photographer laugh at me when it was left on.

My wife has a crush on Gordon Ramsey and watches Hell's Kitchen. When the chiefs are past the half way point in the series and they screw up he usually says something like "at this stage in the competition you shouldn't be making  these kinds of mistakes". Only with more force and maybe some bleeps.

 At least he was using a DSLR where he noticed the problem.  I still shoot from time to time on an old film rangefinder and live in constant fear of forgetting to take the lens cap off.  For you youngins, you can do that with a rangefinder and never know until you develop the roll.

I make my living from photography I and I still think it's pretty damn funny. I see where your coming from but seriously... lighten up man this is the sort of stuff most people follow fstoppers for.

Yup,Chris nailed it.

Hey, I happen to know he modded the lens cap for pinhole photography. You guys are just haters. ;-)

This did make me laugh. The photogs face said it all, 'Fuck sake...'.

yeah his boss won't be happy lol

"these embarrassing 12 seconds " How do you know it was embarrassing for him? Maybe that was funny for him. I don´t consider any mistakes as embarrassing. We all are people and we aren´t perfect. And those who pretend to be perfect are stupid.

What makes it so funny is because all of us have done that at one time or another.

well said Jonh Paul Summers

He was trying to "turn on" live view, then he realized it was actually ON, but the lens cap was on too. If you think about this, may be while swapping cameras quickly, it can happen easily. I don't believe he was embarassed, at all :) 

Well said Luca.

Yup...  Done it a million times and counting...

I have forgotten the lenscap, but at most I realize it about half a second after trying to take the first shot. This looks like a beginner who borrowed his first DSLR and can't for his life realize what's wrong. That's funny!

Well, I have a Nikon D700 and it quietly murmurs to me that the lens cap is still on.....Im sure other cameras dont have that feature...

Nice to see good old LOCOG have blocked the video. I guess they are maximising their commercial interests again. 

isn't nice to have such an open and inclusive LONDON 2012 OLYMPICS GAMES (and any other banned copyrighted words)  

This is the benefit of a D4 - Push the ISO and you don't have to remove the Lenscap

i can´t see the video.. the olympic commite has removed it.....

what a great world we live in....  

Crap ehh.. I was looking forward to seeing it too.

At least he wasn't using a rangefinder, that would've been awkward.

Video removed... That is just ridiculous :-/

new video was uploaded:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lt5wO3-eXCg

This happens all the time with me. But i use viewfinder, and notice it immediately.

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