I dropped my GoPro down a cenote

Unfortunately the title isn’t a metaphor. I literally dropped our recently acquired GoPro down a 160 foot (almost 50 metres) cenote here in Mexico.

This gorgeous cenote.

Courtesy of popsugar.com

 

So how did it play out?

Well… I put the camera in the pocket of my shorts. Then I jumped in.

The water was fresh but absolutely gorgeous. Sel and I jumped in together and both surfaced at the same time. Then she said, “It’s GoPro time!” with an excited look on her face.

I patted the pocket of my shorts. There was no bulge (I mean the camera… stay focused people). My heart sank. As quick and as heavy as the camera obviously had. The pressure of the water had pushed it out of my pocket and that little piece of technology sunk like a sack of potatoes to the bottom. On the plus side, the key to the storage locker stayed in my pocket which meant we saved 250 pesos! Hooray!

Days later and the camera is presumably still there as I type this. The memory card might still be in tact with precious photos of Sel and I. The good news? All the photos had been taken off the night before. I’m pedantic like that. However for some reason, I wasn’t pedantic about using a wrist strap (as suggested by Sel), or using the selfie/tripod stick that also had a wrist strap (as also suggested by Sel).

Needless to say, I was pissed. She was pissed. I swam straight for the steps, grabbed my towel and took off back to the top. She followed. What was a once in a lifetime experience had suddenly turned sour very quickly. And for what. A few photos? It didn’t take long to grab a photo of the same location off google (as I’ve done above), and although it doesn’t have Sel or my own cheesy grin front & centre, it’s more than enough to stir up the memory of the location and what we did there. After all, the majority of my travel photos are selfies or photos of Sel, so what’s the difference?

Sel wasn’t a big fan of my idea for this post. She simply repeats the words “wrist strap”, and she has a point. Had I used a wrist strap the other day, I wouldn’t have thought about this. But it did made me think. Had I left the camera in my bag and enjoyed the cenote for what it was, would that have been so bad? It’s not something I’d ever forget, photo or not.

Are we too reliant these days on capturing every moment possible, and from every angle? This is a hard one for me as I love my photography. When we go *anywhere* my first thought is usually around what sort of photos I can take. Sometimes from an artistic/photography point of view, sometimes for the sake of a travel memory, and sometimes even for the sake of sharing it on Instagram.

So we went swimming with turtles yesterday and it was unreal. We bought a cheap waterproof camera with real film. Remember those cameras? 20-something shots, where you have no idea what you’ve just taken. Sel used it while we snorkelled and to be honest I didn’t even care about not having a camera with me, and I’m not too worried about how those photos will come out when they eventually get processed. It was nice, and I was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t feel lost without my trigger finger snapping the shutter every few seconds.

 

So when does the need for photos become too much? I’d love to know what you all think.

By the way, we just bought another GoPro…