Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Venus Bay outing for pipis

Here's the scoop. It is about a great catch, but not of pipis but of my camera falling into the water.

Last Sunday was a great day for pipi catching at Venus Bay. The water was not too cold and the mid-morning sun was not too hot. The pipis were large and plentiful at the low tide. I had to work fast as the tide was coming in quickly and the strong wind was creating waves about two feet high. I was getting myself increasingly wet; first at knee level and then at waist level.

Alas, pipi catching and photography do not go hand-in-hand (was that a pun?). I was carrying my little compact camera with me, kept in a pouch tied around my waist. The pouch got a little wet at first. Not a problem. Then I got a phone call. While scrambling to fish the phone out of the pouch, my camera fell out. It hit the water, but due to quick action I managed to save it from drowning... fully submerged, that is. But the damage was already done. The camera still turned on but behaved oddly.

As hoped for, after three days of drying out by itself, the camera is back to normal now. This will be the last time I am going pipi catching with a camera. Besides, the strong wind on that day was blowing up fine sand and it would have been a disaster had I brought my expensive lenses and DSLR with me. The sand would have easily gotten into the zoom lens where it protrudes. I have learned my lesson. Get a Go Pro instead.

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