I know. I shouldn’t be so hard on myself. But I feel that way.

I loaded up my camera with some Tri-x film all raring and ready to take it out hiking with me. We decided to go to the beautiful Upper Salmon River trail. I so love that place. It is a trail that takes the hiker along the salmon river through an old-growth cedar forest. The light was perfect. And this doesn’t happen very often here in Oregon. We mostly have to deal with soggy rain. But today was a gorgeous sunny day. The light was streaming through the forest canopy perfectly. I was stoked.

I snapped all sorts of fantastic shots, making sure I was looking at the forest in terms of light and dark (since I was using black and white film). I took great care in choosing my shots with this in mind. And I think I got some really good ones!

I got to the end of the roll and, strangely, it kept going. Well past the 24 frames the package promised. Something was wrong. Very wrong. I didn’t properly thread the film. It hadn’t loaded right. The fantastic photos I shot don’t exist.

I am so. fucking. bummed.

And to add frosting to this Cake Of Doom I tripped on the hike back to the car and completely and literally bit the dust. My knees are all bruised up, as is my ego.

sigh.