Behind the Image: Serendipity in the Dominican Republic

Fate, Folly, and a Less-Than-Perfect Wave Profit the Perfect Shot
Canon A2 in EWA waterproof bag at f.8, exposed for 125/sec with a Canon 20-35mm f2.8 lens
By Skip Brown

To my continuing surprise and delight, many of my best shots are nothing like what I had planned, imagined, or even hoped for. I often go out looking for photos with a very specific shot in mind and then, by chance, a completely different image results. Stay open to the serendipitous, however, and the unexpected can be your best friend.

I was windsurfing in the Dominican Republic and had made plans to shoot photos with one of the local professional sailors. We were planning to sail side-by-side while I shot one-handed with my 35mm camera protected in a waterproof bag. On my way out to the reef, my gear slung over my shoulder, I hit a wave that caught the camera and ripped the carrying strap out of the waterproof housing. The camera and housing disappeared in a blink and were instantly gone! Desperately I jibed back around, expecting the worst. But, to my astonishment, I found the camera floating on the surface—it seems there was just enough air in the housing to provide positive buoyancy. I was lucky, but I still had a problem: The strap was gone and it was impossible to hold onto the camera one-handed, not to mention sailing a speeding windsurfer and shooting photos at the same time.

As I lay on the board, contemplating my fate, my sailing buddy came over to check out the situation. I started shooting from my floating position and yelled at him to make a few passes, coming closer each time. I banged off half a roll of film as he zoomed by and then he split to ride some waves. All the time I was drifting closer and closer to the wave impact zone and I needed to get out of there before I got crunched by some big waves. I managed to clench the camera in my teeth long enough to water-start my sailboard and get moving and then cradled the camera in my arm all the way back to shore. I think I only crashed once sailing back one-handed, but I did to get to land with my gear intact.

I wasn't too happy about almost losing my camera on what was surely a wasted photo session. But it was a refreshing surprise to find that I quite liked one of the resulting images. A quirky self-portrait of sorts that captures the absurdity of the day as I lay on my board, camera in hand and feet sticking into the air.

Skip Brown has been a freelance photographer for nearly 20 years. He combines his love of travel and the outdoors with a talent for action sports to create unique images. Skip is a Class V whitewater paddler, advanced rated hangglider pilot, and an avid boardsailor, surfer, mountain biker, and snowboarder. He lives in Cabin John, Maryland, near the Potomac River.
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