As a photographer I can think of dozens perhaps hundreds of times that I found myself without my camera with a great shot staring me in the face. When I think back on all the times I missed a photo I can't help but think how it would have turned out. And there are certain moments that stick out vividly in my mind.

So let's play a game. The what if game...

What was the perfect shot you never got? It doesn't matter how you didn't get it: whether you couldn't focus in time, you were switching lenses, pressed the shutter button too early or too late, there are a thousand possibilities. But tell me about them. Tell me what the shot was, why it was so perfect, and why it proved impossible to capture for you.

My own story is a tragedy in the making. I was driving up to my college apartment for the night to pick up a few last things before going on a last minute trip to Arizona. I was near to exhaustion from running around and I wasn't planning on doing anything that evening but packing up what I needed. I told myself that I wouldn't need my camera on such a short trip. Its almost painful to think back on that now.
I had just had my car serviced earlier that week when it had nearly died a horrible breath and as I was driving north on the interstate it begins too die again. I manage to get it started once again about twenty minutes and many little naughty words later and adding a special cursed for the evil sinister bastard who created the Ford Taurus I managed to find a service station. But this wasn't just any service station. It was one that serviced vehicles before you turned them into rental cars just outside the airport.
Now the service station wasn't very interesting. It looked like any other car repair place. They fixed the damage the last car repair place had created and charged my battery and filled me up on fluids all for free with some pretty good conversation to boot.
The photo that I missed was what was waiting for me outside. Just before I went into to talk to the car repairmen I looked out at my surroundings. The moon was just rising on the horizon and was huge! If this wasn't enough the sun was just setting on the opposite side of the horizon and the whole sky was a brilliant pink. But it doesn't end their folks, on top of this idyllic scene as I watched a jet took off right in front of me the tip of its wings just perfectly splitting the moon in half as it took off. It was perfect, the colors, the shapes, the framing. Simply a photographers dream.

And I had left my camera sitting on the floor of my bedroom at my parents house after telling myself there was no reason to bring it with me. I watched jets take off and through the sight of the moon three or four times [not as magical as the first but still beautiful] just enough times to depress myself before going inside to learn about the fate of my car.

These are the moments that we live for as photographers and these are the moments that we [maybe just I] will always remember as the photo that got away.

So tell me your what if story. What is the photo that got away from you that just grinds your gears and gives you that itch you can't scratch and which drives you to be an even better photographer?