Photography / Spain

Water Trekking And Shooting Analogue

Water Trekking and shooting with a disposable camera

I run a low-tech photography operation here.

Shooting film doesn’t require the constant acquisition of fancy equipment that digital does. One of my favorite cameras to shoot with is basically a plastic box. Another one was a gift pulled from a friend’s basement. My images aren’t about gloss and perfection; they are about feelings, ambience, and memory.

When I traveled in the Girones region of Spain, I had the opportunity to try water trekking with Aventura Girona. I wasn’t totally sure what water trekking would entail, but I knew that my super-not-waterproof analogue cameras were probably not joining me on that adventure.

But it’s okay, because this low-tech photographer had a low tech solution.

A waterproof disposable camera.

Water Trekking and shooting with a disposable camera

I’d had one sitting on my shelf for months, waiting for the right opportunity to use it. Disposable cameras are as simple as they come; you don’t have to worry about aperture or ISO or shutter speed. Just point and shoot and hope for the best. I used one briefly when I went to Aruba in 2012, which was perfect for documenting the silly faces my kid cousins made underwater.

Water Trekking and shooting with a disposable camera

The camera also comes with an elastic band, which turned out to be more useful than I could have anticipated. Water trekking involved getting majorly suited up, with layers of thick and tight wetsuits, special socks under our regular sneakers, and helmets. Looking like a group of uncomfortable aliens, we climbed through a gorge with a gently gurgling brook that quickly became deeper and more slippery. I attached the camera to my wrist with the elastic, and never took it off as I waded through the water—to take pictures, I just held my wrist up and hit the shutter. The disposable camera’s viewfinder doesn’t exactly correspond with the lens anyway, so I figured I wasn’t really losing any control over the framing.

Water Trekking and shooting with a disposable camera

The images are casual and silly, underexposed and progressively blurrier as splashes of water make themselves at home on the lens. They are not fancy go-pro shots. But I prefer them. These images capture the glorious feeling of walking through water.

Water Trekking and shooting with a disposable camera

Thanks to Visit Costa Brava for my trip in the Girones region. Opinions remain my own, naturally.

1 Comment

  • walker
    October 14, 2015 at 12:56 PM

    hit your blog by chance and the post’s title made me curios 🙂
    best,

    Reply

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