Oh it saved, but the bag that the camera was sitting in got knocked over without me realizing it until I reviewed the footage later. And even before it fell over, it didn't really get everything but at least it was something. So after about 5 minutes of HALF-WAY half-way decent shoeplay (really it sucked because part of her feet got cropped out), I ended up with another 20 minutes of footage of.......
the floor........and her shadow. Great.
On the bright side, it was my wife. The catch is is that she
rarely shoeplays in public anymore (non-shoeplayable shoes lately) and has never been crazy about being filmed in public (she thinks people are watching — no one ever gives two shits about what we do since we're familiar faces most places we roam, but whatever. I don't push the issue. It'll happen again one day I guess). So I was pissed because this was one of those times where I was lucky enough to be able to "set and forget" my phone while she was feeling a bit more relaxed and shoeplaying naturally, just as she did when we first got together. Someone walked by and brushed my bag by accident and well...yeah. I thought it was far enough out of way but obviously not.
But worse than that, here's something that has hurt my soul for the past decade and some change. And these were some TRUE candid moments here....
In 2011, back when I was still somewhat into the sneaker and socks look, I had a phone that didn't capture video but it DID take decent (for the time) pics.
I was a regular at a large library out in the suburbs, who often would chill out with my sketch pad or lyric book inside one of their "quiet study rooms" (which on its door had a rule sign, the first or second of which was "shoes must be worn at all times" which very few ladies ever followed
). The first time I ever went in there, I saw a very young Native or Hispanic woman, long pretty hair pulled into two braids going down her back — she had her shoes off and on a day where my phone was completely dead
. GAH!! She had what looked to be authentic brown moccasins set off to the side, and she was wearing tan or beige socks of some sort. From then on I vowed to always charge my phone before I went.
So! One day I was chilling in this study room doing what I usually do, when I glance behind and I notice a slender young woman (again Hispanic or Native) had her shoes off; thin white socks that greatly showed off the shape of her slender and dainty feet! Phone locked into position: CLICK! Her feet were resting on the feet of her chair at first, sometimes she'd cross her ankles, other times she sat with her feet lifted and had her soles showing. I forget what else she did but it was GODLEN!
Another time I'd gotten a few nice shots of another woman maybe just a bit older than me (I was 23); she was a somewhat thick red-head with shoulder length and sleepy eyes. She was cute but I couldn't tell if her eyes were naturally like that or if she just needed a good nap or at the very least a cup of coffee. She was dressed in a teal v-neck shirt, tight'ish blue jeans and short-top mid-heel boots—or "booties". I didn't expect much from her at first, but at one point I glanced over at just the right time to catch her in the act of taking her shoes off, revealing that she was wearing baby-blue socks. Once again just like the first girl, thin socks that perfectly accentuated the shape of her feet and toes (a little more plump but still nicely shaped!)
. I think SHE might've been my favorite, second only to the girl who I was never able to film because of my dead phone. In both the latter cases I got lots of sole shots and great shots of their sock-clad heels. "Blue-sock girl" even had a few dark spots of her heels and bottoms of her toes but I can't remember for sure — I even vaguely recall there being a subtle but interesting smell in the air that day, which I can't say was there before she took her booties off (these were small rooms after all) I remember my heart was POUNDING.
So I got home, reviewed the pictures, everything was there. I transferred them from my phone to an external hard drive hooked up to my PC. Boom! Done. And see, I thought I was thinking ahead because just two years earlier I'd already lost a phone with some great shots from my old job that I never bothered to transfer to the computer (d'oh!), I also lost two different jump drives, once again with pics that I never transferred (a LOT of jumpdrives and SD cards of mine disappeared without a trace around this time). I was NOT gonna risk losing THESE. Those pictures were coming OFF of any small portable devices and going ONTO a device that rarely left the house. I just KNEW I had won this round.
Heh. Heheh. Heh.
They transferred successfully and all was well. Had many fun times with them at night after a couple cold ones — UNTIL one day the damn external HD stopped booting up. I tried several different things but could never get the damn thing to show up on mine or anyone elses computers. I attribute this to the fact that the AC socket on the drive became loose and thus ended up shorting something out. Often times it would power down if I accidentally brushed the power cable even a SMIDGEN.
I was DEVISTATED. Not only was this some of THEE best candid work I'd done up to that point (briefly toyed with the idea of opening my own candid clip store back then), but several songs that I'd recorded were on there too. I could not believe it. Something told me to backup both things onto my main harddrive, but I figured "Nah, this external thing IS the backup drive", and then one day it just decided it didn't wanna load anymore. It still powers up (I have the fucking right in front of me as we speak), but no hope of being detected by the computer. I've yet to send it to a data recovery service, because I've always seen the funds being better used for other things but I always maintain that one day I WILL get it recovered. Hopefully bitrot has not set in, because heaven only knows it's been stored in odd ways over the years, due to ignorance on my part. Fingers crossed.
Additionally: back then these library study rooms were built in a way that was PERECT if you liked taking rear shots: it had two long desk/table type things, each one sectioned off into three or four individual study "booths" for each person, and both sets of booths were facing opposite walls — in other words we had our backs turned to each other. When the wife and I visited that library in 2019, the study room(s) had been turned into one-on-one tutoring rooms and the "quiet study area" was move into a long table in the main public area ....the FUCK?! Ugh. I always kick myself for not going back up in there in 2011 when I got my first smartphone.
My apologies for the long post.
