A Pictorial Guide to avoiding Camera Loss

Have you lost your camera recently? Mislaid it somewhere in a national park? Left it in a taxi? Dropped it in the gorilla pit? Anyone can be a victim of the thoughtlessness and/or sleepiness that can lead to Camera Loss.

‘How can I prevent Camera Loss?’ I hear you ask, wishing I’d get to the point. Well, you can’t prevent cameras from getting lost, but you can do something so your camera can be found very soon after it has vanished.

All you have to do is take some photos – which you never delete from your camera – so when someone finds your camera at the bottom of the gorilla pit they are able to locate you and return the lost property to its rightful owner.

To illustrate just how you can safeguard your camera from the crippling effects of Camera Loss, here are the pics that I always keep on my camera.

Hello

You-Must-Have-Found-My-Came

thankyou

Unless

But-I'll-Assume

I-Probably

Like-on-a-Train

Or-At-The-Post-Office

Or-In-My-Dog

Well-Probably

I-don't-even

Nothing

Anyway,-Thanks

We-Have-Such

One-Time

Bath

Sorry

Anyways-Can-you-email

I-Will-Be-Relived

And-Will-Probably-Hug

Unless-You-Have-Personal

Or-You-Are-Remembering

In-Which-Case

OK-Go-Email-Me

And-I-Will-Go-Wait

247 thoughts on “A Pictorial Guide to avoiding Camera Loss”

  1. Very funny, and absolutely clever. To those cynics who insist on disparaging this or who seem to believe that “no one would ever return a camera,” (yes, reality-check, I’m looking at you), you might want to reconsider your worldview, since I routinely return lost objects and have on several occasions had lost objects returned to me. You might also want to check your karma, and your sense of basic human decency.

    As for @Tess- Wow. You might want to up the dosage on your Metamucil. I’m guessing you’re someone who hasn’t received a phone call from the kids or grandkids in a long time (gee, I wonder why?) and have decided to take your unhappiness out on those who are younger than you. The reason he’s doing this instead of “taking a picture of his business cards” (which are, in the 21st century, completely wasteful landfill-fillers and forest-defoliators) is because anybody with even a minimal understanding of human psychology (yep, that’s what my very adult degree is in) realizes that a personal appeal and sense of humor will increase a person’s chances of being helped tenfold over a completely impersonal set of factual information. It’s one thing to be sour, but the human impulse to spread one’s dissatisfaction around continues to appall me.

    Andrew: I hope, should you ever decide to upgrade your camera, you will leave this one out to see if someone returns it. I’m sure we all want to know whether this is successful or not- I have a feeling it will be.

  2. LOL!

    Although if you hadn’t already posted your bath picture and you lost your camera and you get an email that says

    “Hi, I have a picture of you in the bath. How much will you give me to NOT share the contents of this camera with the rest of the world?”

    it would most probably be me. 😀

  3. Great idea. The only hard part is deleting all pictures except the one with the address. On mine, it’s easier to delete them all and then copy the address picture back to the camera.

  4. soooo funny 😆 funny – ‘unless you have personal space issues’ (issues as in Kath n Kim Issues :))

  5. That’s actually a good idea. My Canon DSLRs have my contact info embedded into all the exif but how many people would be able to find that?

    BTW, how many emails have you received from people claiming to have found your camera since you posted this? 😉

  6. “I’ll probably hug you out of gratefulness… unless you have personal space issues.” That was hilarious! Has this actually worked before when/if you lost your camera?

  7. Oh my goodness, I loved it. I will have to do that, something is always happening to my camera. Not losing it, but I have had one stolen, and one ruined by a small child. Thank you. It was a great start to my day.

  8. Oh, this entertained me, my roommate, and soon my entire floor.

    Well done, love the hilarious expressions and the “respectful distance” part. Plus, the shower-cap and duckie were priceless.

  9. I lost my cameras THREE times last year (dropped it in a river, lost in airport, then our house got robbed and 3 of my cameras were stolen)

    I should have seen this when I lost the first one, tough luck but wouldn’t be helpful unless a fish comes and brought it back.

    Funny, extremely funny. Great one.

  10. I just apologized to the love of my life that I found the man I want to marry (unless you are already taken of course). And to those who say it wont work, I say blasphemy! Too adorable you and that camera not to want to return it to you.

  11. Seriously the greatest idea ever. But perhaps even more importantly you are so cute. If I wasn’t already very married I’d want to marry you.
    I know… get in line!
    Thanks for the really terrific idea though! I’m going to check out the rest of your blog now.

  12. My friend just sent this to me after learning that I lost my camera. It made me laugh and not feel so sad anymore. Thanks! By the way, when I get my new camera I am going to do this just in case.

  13. Dear Grammar Nazi,
    It takes a smart man to communicate with anyone at any level, you might find you have some trouble with this.

    Dear Andrew, I think you a are very funny man, I love your work!

    ANYWAYS!!!!!!!! Cheers, always FLEJ!!! xxx

    Ps, Glitter Berry is sooooo right you do have a cute smile.

  14. You are too clever for words…or is that pictures? Anyway, love the idea, and it sure made me smile.

  15. Now if i was to find a camera that was worth about 8,000 dollars i am not sure i would return it, i dont care about your pictures, now think about it.

  16. Similar to the Dymo, I stick a return mail sticker (which has my phone number) on the bottom of my camera and other similar things. I protect it with a piece of “Magic” tape. I had someone call about a pair of prescription glasses. And it’s help retrieve things left behind in hotels.

    I also try to put a text file with contact info on my SD cards. But as someone already pointed out, if (when) you reformat the card after downloading all the photos, you delete whatever’s on the card. But then many of us are just filing the cards when done as they’ve become cheap enough, at least if we don’t take thousands of photos.

    But I love the humor of the idea presented. It will nudge the finder to do the right thing. Offering a reward or 15 seconds of fame on your blog may help too. But humor’s the best.

  17. This author claims that after dropping 200 wallets, he had an 88% return rate (w/ contents intact) if the wallet contained a photo of a baby. You’re cute Andrew, but I’d suggest you beg, borrow or steal an infant to improve your odds.

  18. I was referred here from another site, so I’m not a fan, as the majority of commenters here appear to be, and I didn’t quite react the way they did. My immediate thoughts were more along the lines of, “If I found a camera, and it had pictures like these on it, I wouldn’t return it and give the owner another chance to repeat the performance.”

    Sorry. Not trying to be negative here. Just trying to express a point of view you might want to consider, and can use. After all, how likely is the person who finds your camera to already be a fan?

    I’ve done a similar thing, but it is short and to the point, and doesn’t involve any cutesiness. We’d have to conduct an experiment to determine which approach is more effective. My experience indicates that it’s generally best to be direct.

  19. I just took a photo of my business card and I leave it as the first frame in the hope that someone finding the camera will get in touch

  20. Awesome. But I wish I discovered this post and it was the post was from from the person that found it, and not you.

    If I found it, I’d post all the photos and talk about what a genius you are. Then i’d steal the idea.

    🙂

    Rock on.

  21. hilarious… but someone have to wipe of the coffee from my monitor now. The best thing so far this year…. i hope you got your camera back.

  22. Please oh please, if someone stole it, let them make one of these in return explaining how they’re holding the camera hostage, or at least never giving it back because the camera grew tired of Andrew and having to watch him take baths (among other things), without ever feeling sufficiently appreciated in return. 😀

  23. LoL 😀 you made me smile so much with your photos, awesome idea, and I really love your sense of humor but hun..your bathtub needs some serious washing with chlorine hehehe Hugiesss :*

  24. hey hehehe good idea just lov it!!!!! u may not have your camera back …but i’m sure that u make some friends and had a good laugh about it!!!!!congrats from Brazil!!!!!

  25. Haaaa, this is circulating all around the internet, and for good reason.

    You’re super awesome man.

  26. Andrew, I will be round with my scrubbing brush after seeing your bath pic……those tiles look filthy!….;)..you naughty boy!

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