The day you DON'T take your camera

Have you ever arrived at a dive shop and felt that Mr Murphy and is BIG book of laws was walking with you. Went for a dive on Monday 28 September and here is how Murphy and his laws worked on this day. Vicky was in the water waiting for her students to join her when up pops a little green turtle munching on a jelly fish.It was that close to Vicky that if she just lent forward she could have kissed it on the nose.Mr Murphy had place me at this point on the boat with NO CAMERA!!

So, my buddy and I got to the swim through and as we went under a little male Grey Nurse Shark swam over the top.Now, the Murphy law book states that on reaching the other side, shark will pose for a silhouette photo opportunity. IF YOU HAD A CAMERA!! It stopped, we stopped, it posed, I had NO CAMERA!!! Ok buddy, to the cave. Nothing in the cave.Phew!!lol.

Off we go and there it is, yep, Another law. Spanish Dancer milling around and not a care in the world and of course, NO CAMERA!! At this point I had pencil and slate in hand and was just explaining to mark what we were looking at when he tapped me on the shoulder, and as i looked up there it was. Less than 1 meter away from us was another little Green Turtle munching on a jelly fish slowly getting closer and closer and there, just out the corner of my eye was Mr Murphy and his waterproof copy of the rules saying "should have brought your camera". mmmmm!!

So we continue our swim for a while and we find another turtle resting in a nook. Me on one side and Mark on the other. Shuffle shuffle and turtle comes out of its nook and stops smack bang between us and says " so, wheres ya camera now,eh" "flash me with ya big light will ya" "now look at ya,NO CAMERA" lol.

So, as the dives went on Murphy and his law book came out many many more times.

But remember, Murphy's law states that if i had my camera, non of this would have happend.....

I have not yet experienced this thing you call a "No camera dive", but it doesn't sound like much fun!!!

What about a camera malfunction? I bumped my rig before a dive in Lembeh. Since my hot shoe can be somewhat temperamental, I thought, "Should I open it up and check? Nah, it'll be fine." Got down to 40 feet, tried a test shot - no strobes. Oh well, it'll be fine. 10 minutes later, cruising across the sand, MATING Blue Ring Octopi! Duh-oh!!

Now I always double check...

Phil

I have not yet experienced this thing you call a "No camera dive", but it doesn't sound like much fun!!!

i disagree

indeed it can be a bit frustrating - had a huge grouper in full breeding plumage within a couple feet without my camera last week(and they're usually very skiddish), but i wouldn't have been in that spot at that time had i been taking pics on the dive.

just remember that you had a spectacular dive.

Yap Yap Yap

totally agree here.....

Hi Guys, David from bali here

been watching this blog for a while but just join in now

before I take up UW photo

these sort of things I would pass with a "what's the big deal" snort

You know whats the worst thing?

being an instructor

many a times the most amazing thing is seen when you are teaching

few years a go i was towing 2 DSD couple in dropoff tulamben 'bout 3pm

you know what? a 6m whale shark swam by infront of us not 5min into the dive and in 3m of water!!!

complete with huge remoras escorting infront of him

the 2 DSDs stop and ask to go up

on surface I ask em whats wrong and they ask me if all da fishes down there are that big!

I don't know wheather to cry or laugh.....

so from then ownwards i carry a P & S, even while teaching

most of the time it just hang infront of my bc except for those unexpected moments

now I am upgrading to a SLR so I think these days are over

hmmmm, wonder if I should get another P & S ???

I friend of mine said 'if dont got it with a camera you didn't see it'

how true!!!

wish you'all safe in diving...

Had a housing once failing the dunk test in the rinse bucket. I re-greased everything, made sure it was all good and it was still flooding. Left the camera on the boat...here's the sequence of events

1. Get down to depth and immediately see my first ever shark underwater (well at least one close enough to photo!). He cruised right by me. Behind him about 5 meters was a huge stingray..just following the shark probably hoping for scraps. The shark circled but disappeared into the blue as I layed on the white sandy bottom. Almost on cue a bright yellow jawfish popped up right in front of my mask...as he watched the shark disappear he slowly turned and saw me inches from his little face...the expression was priceless. I swam a little further and came on a group of feeding Barracuda. One after the other they were darting down nailing fish. I then turned back toward the boat to start back. I got about halfway back and found the largest goliath grouper I've ever seen hanging out under a ledge. What's more is he pretty much let me get as close as I wanted.

During a surface interval at Anilao last year, a whale shark came into the bay. Amid the shouts of excitement, the boatman quickly started the boat and anyone who could, jump onboard. I was without my cam and only a mask swam close enough to touch the shark. Yes, unfortunately Murphy at work but it was a great brief encounter with a whale shark - my first encounter by the way.

Had a housing once failing the dunk test in the rinse bucket. I re-greased everything, made sure it was all good and it was still flooding. Left the camera on the boat...here's the sequence of events

 

1. Get down to depth and immediately see my first ever shark underwater (well at least one close enough to photo!). He cruised right by me. Behind him about 5 meters was a huge stingray..just following the shark probably hoping for scraps. The shark circled but disappeared into the blue as I layed on the white sandy bottom. Almost on cue a bright yellow jawfish popped up right in front of my mask...as he watched the shark disappear he slowly turned and saw me inches from his little face...the expression was priceless. I swam a little further and came on a group of feeding Barracuda. One after the other they were darting down nailing fish. I then turned back toward the boat to start back. I got about halfway back and found the largest goliath grouper I've ever seen hanging out under a ledge. What's more is he pretty much let me get as close as I wanted.

Aaah... but you would have certainly had trouble with the wrong lens if your camera was working!

Tim

Aaah... but you would have certainly had trouble with the wrong lens if your camera was working!

Yer Tim and what about leaving the lens cap on? as I recall we have _both_ been there!!!!! (and on the same trip).

Paul C

Yer Tim and what about leaving the lens cap on? as I recall we have _both_ been there!!!!! (and on the same trip).

 

Paul C

SSSSSssssssss.....

..... my specialty, however, is using a fibre-optic connection and not popping up the Nikon's own flash: I have been known to sneak back onto the boat, open the housing, pop the flash and jump back in...

Tim

Agreed.

2 weeks ago, was in North Corolina for a dive. 2 hrs off shore, giant leatherback sufaces about ~50 yds from the boat as we are parked and the turtle stays there for a long time. Clear water, turtle completely visible, head above the water. If I had my 18-200 VR with me, would have been a marvelous or at least a reasonable shot. But who carry's those for diving? Not me. I only had a Tokina 10-17 since the camera is in the housing for the dive. No point in taking the shot with that lens.

a 6m whale shark swam by infront of us not 5min into the dive and in 3m of water!!!

complete with huge remoras escorting infront of him

the 2 DSDs stop and ask to go up

on surface I ask em whats wrong and they ask me if all da fishes down there are that big!

I don't know wheather to cry or laugh.....

Thanks for sharing that David. Funniest thing I read all week. LMAO

Cheers,

Steve

Here's one....

Not so long ago I was on a red sea liveaboard...on our way back to Marsa Alam from a fabulous 5 day trip the Brothers islands etc. (I was the only one in my group that had a camera...and snapped just about everything I could in those five days).........we stopped in a bay to see a dugong....I had never seen a dugong before....I didnt think it would appear........ but it did....everyone made a mad dash to snorkel with said dugong....and were running like lunatics to get into a zodiac with snorkel gear....all the while calling to me...'get your camera Damo!!!....U cant miss this one Damo!!!!...Hurry up Damo!!!!!!..................so I dashed back to my cabin to get my rig..... to find the bloody door locked.... I banged on the door..figuring my dear friend/roomate was inside..'hey there's a dugong outside man....-dont you wanna see it???!!!' I called......A muffled reply from the far side of the door sounded like...'I'll be out in a minute'....... it took me that minute to realise that my erstwhile roomate was in the throes of sneakily 'getting it on' with another passenger ........while everyone else was getting in the water...the dirty oppertunistic sod!!!

How bloody dare he ruin my shoot with his carnal activities!!

so............... no camera........no snap of dugong for me.......a little bit of white lies,.....alot of blackmail....and a compulsory read of the gideon's bible.....and a memory that will bring a tear to my eye......priceless.....

Aaah... but you would have certainly had trouble with the wrong lens if your camera was working!

 

Tim

 

hehe...just did that in Bonaire. I had been looking for a shrimp I'd seen earlier in the week and must've spent two whole dives looking for that sucker. On the 3rd I found him and pulled my camera up to shoot and my heart raced as all I saw on the LCD was black. I began looking for a leak....then realized I'd left the lens cap on. My mask then flooded as I LOL@ my stupidity. Cool stuff.

this july i went down to beqa lagoon fiji to dive with aqua trek in hopes of diving with a tiger shark. i did 10 dives. on dive 9. the first dive of a two dive day on the boat the shutter button on my d90 popped off inside my housing. so as i go down for the final dive who decides to show up. of course a giant tiger shark. fortunately the d90 does shoot video and although i had never used that feature before i was all too happy to have it on that dive. never the less i still have no photos of tiger sharks and as a result am going to go on one of jim abernethys trips to tiger beach this christmas. guess it could be worse.

Another one: I deliberately left my camera on the boat when I took my 13-year old daughter in for her deepest ever dive (20+ m) at the east end of Grand Cayman this summer. We were joined by two hawksbill turtles that swam spirals around each other for twenty minutes....

Tim

So many great story's. Keep them coming. Thanxs to everyone who has added there story's. love reading them.

So many great story's. Keep them coming. Thanxs to everyone who has added there story's. love reading them.

There's one from September...

I planned my vacation really carefully this time, so when I end up in the Northern Aegean it would be great sunny weather a bit cooler water and lots of feeding creatures even in the shallows to take photos of.

The "baby/wife" factor sent us to an impossibly expensive place for the end of the season. To make the long story short - out of two weeks we had a total of 2 sunny days combined. I had to dive almost only at night when the wind dropped. The rest of the time I spent with a crosseyed Greek bartender with a nasty habit to sneak personal supplies of Bacardi and share them.

One of those nights I prepared for general macro of steady subjects with a 60mm on autofocus. An hour after I got in the water I noticed something like a plastic band floating in midwater. I dove past by it when I realized it's a creature I have never seen before in my life. A 2m or more long jelly-like creature composed of many separate segments, each pumping water. In the lower part of each of the segment there was an orange blob. I went completely nuts and spent more than an hour trying to take a decent photo of it. I never cursed so much during a dive that I didn't set up for WA. Being a freediver it was impossible to keep my depth in midwater (some 8-10m) in the darkness without any steady object for reference - I was either sinking or floating up. The creature was also constantly moving... The lens was on autofocus....

It took some 40 dives with dangerously short surface intervals to get ONE SINGLE goddamn shot before the creature went deep and I lost it.

Not what I wanted, but here is just a tiny segment of its 2m length...

Later with the help of a buddy at Flickr I identified the creature as freeswimming colonial salp tunicate (salpa maxima).

I've been diving for some 15 years... What if I have to wait 15 more to see such thing again!?

DARN MURPHY AND WA LENSES!

Ivan

great story!

I wont dive without a camera. The thought terrifies me - the second I hope into the water without a camera is when the blue whale shows up........

Cal

I've determined that most cameras are Eagle Ray repellants!