This isn’t really frustrating, it’s just sad.
When I was little (<6), I lived in an old neighborhood with small, old-timey houses and lots of nature right in the middle of downtown. I remember my dad taking the older of my two younger brothers and I almost every summer evening to the cicada-tree about fifteen minutes’ walk from our house. We stroll down to there in the fading light, and climb all over and around the tree to find cicadas. Our dad, obviously taller, would pick a higher cicada from the tree if he saw one, and bring it down for us to hold and observe. Even then, I had a great passion for nature, and loved to stare at the insects. It was one of the highlights of my childhood. Recently, I was driving by, and I looked in the direction of the cicada-tree, hoping to see it.
It was gone. All those wonderful memories 
I was on a nature trip in France, wanting to do close ups of all the unfamiliar arthropods and flora. But…before departing the U.S. my plane was delayed so I switched to another plane with the assurance my luggage would be transferred. Nope. My battery charger was in it, along with the extra battery. I was fortunate that my roommate loaned me her new iPhone, but I could have done so much better with my Canon. My luggage didn’t find me until I got home.
Wow, that must have been tough! Going on a trip for the purpose of using your camera…and then you can’t use your camera. And welcome to the community!
About 5 days ago I had my first real face to face with a ocelot sitting in a tree. I had a macro lens on, and know it doesnt do distance so hurried to change to the kit lens I carry when night macroing, which the ocelot waited for. But then when I pointed up, I couldnt focus through blur. There was lens fog on the back glass. Then the cat climbed down and disapered into the bush. It was wet and humid, so was a good chance of that happening, and my macro can focus to infinity, so I should have just got a mediocre infinity shot at least, before changing.
Oh wow, what an experience - and then no photo! I feel with you. I would at least make a casual observation for my own record.
Not the same as a photo of course, but you can always draw it and upload it.
Some of us are…um…challenged artists? I know I am!! Mine would probably look like a lumpy fluffy pillow with a head!
Yeah, I looked closer in that lens later (Its not one I use often, just as a low weight swap for non macro, when macroing). I noticed the inner glass was foggy. So was no chance really with that lense. Open up in direct light, seems to have evaporated it.
By I have a “dont trust my own eyes approach to things” no evidence, is no evidence. Kind of like when I had a great spotted kiwi cross my path in the Paparoas when I went to the toilet at 3am. I know I saw it, but its not trustable. Just a self skeptic of sorts.
I could, but thats definitly not in my skill range. Maybe I will get lucky again one day.
I was on day 2 of an epic two-and-a-half-week camping road trip, and like one drop of rain water somehow managed to land right on the edge of my camera’s battery compartment, and that was it. No more camera.
The closest place to even get someone to look at it (although it probably was doomed) was 7 hours in the wrong direction. To make matters worse, none of the photos I took that day were even remotely worth it. They were all blurry and badly lighted.
Thankfully, the park office at my next stop was willing to accept a package for me, so I only lost two and a half days of photos. But, I never did get a photo of an actual raven, despite seeing dozens in those first few days. And, so much for the money I saved by camping instead of staying in hotels!
And, on the way back, at the end of the trip, I lost my lens hood. 
…I now have a waterproof cover and a waterproof bag for my (new) camera.
Maybe that’s a good thing. Then you hopefully wouldn’t feel so bad about the loss. Losing some amazing photos that way would be horrible!!
Oh, but I didn’t lose the photos! The memory card was fine, in fact I’m still using it. All of the replaceable parts were fine. 
Oh, that’s good to hear! Even the battery? Just the camera was ruined?
Yeah, JUST the camera. Actually, you saved JUST the other stuff??
Well, I suppose I can be optimistic: so far, the one story by ursaw is the only one about frustration that there weren’t any organisms to observe.
Then again, maybe that’s just selection bias: we only choose to go where there are organisms.
I’ve been lucky enough that everywhere I go I find animal life; I went to drop items off for our state fair and removed a paper wasp from the building, befriended a lovely differential grasshopper, and saw a monarch, which I so far have only one observation of (All because I didn’t bring my camera)
I’ve had similar happen. Frustrating.
So we made an early start (again) to visit the Pantanal down the Transpantaneira Road. Just outside Poconé we saw this amazing Giant Anteater crossing the road. Parking the car and grabbing our cameras, this animal was sooo high on our “most wanted” list. Suddenly out of nowhere two dogs appeared (probably from a nearby ranch) and spooked the Giant anteater, it rushed in the thicket beside the road. All the way to Port Jofre and back we hoped for another encounter with this magnificent animal but, alas, that didn’t happen.
Thats rough, my camera took quite a bit of rain tonight, but luckily as of last year I have a camera that should be able to take a certain ammount. That lens I mentioned above, not so much. But the body, and the lens I use mostly. Seems okay, though I try to be somewhat cautious.
not inat specifically but my phone camera is frustrating; it has a pretty decent macro but it WILL NOT focus if i zoom in with the zoom feature, so i have to take pictures of tiny bugs kind of far away (the 1.0 magnification from a couple inches away) which results in, when i crop, a 50-50 chance of a well focused picture. i don’t know unless i go check the picture and zoom in, because it’s too small to see if it focused before zooming. if i try to zoom before taking the pic it does a weird auto-enhance thing that muddles the quality, so i’m left just snapping 5-6 pics of every bug and then having to do a bunch of editing when i get home even though i’m using my cellphone. to make matters worse my phone screen does not get particularly bright during the daytime so if i’m in direct sunlight i just wont be able to see if my pictures are good until i get home :’) it has resulted in some missed opportunities for observing cool bugs that will haunt me for years to come