Water Trekking And Shooting Analogue

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.

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.

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.

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.

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