I had a similar experience when my wife, youngest daughter and granddaughter were on vacation. I wanted to get a photo of the 4 of us on the front steps of the house we stayed in. But I wanted a full view of the house. My widest lens is 24 mm but with a crop sensor it makes it 38.4 mm. So I set it up on the driveway about 75 feet (23 meters) from the house. No matter how fast I ran I couldn't get back and climb the stairs to their level before the shutter tripped. We even let our granddaughter push the shutter button as my shutter release wound not work at that distance.