Picture of the Day: White Bay

White Bay, Jost Van Dyke
British Virgin Islands
11.26.2012 

White Bay & My New Camera

I have a new camera: a Canon PowerShot G15. If you've seen my post about my cameras you might be wondering why I needed a new point and shoot since I already had a Canon PowerShot G12. Well the operative word here is "had".

My journey to my new camera began while I was visiting my sister in the Virgin Islands at the end of November. As part of an excursion we made to the BVI we stopped at White Bay on the island of Jost Van Dyke. Jost Van Dyke is relaxed and relatively untouched with only a few hundred residents on the island. In fact the island has only had electricity since the nineteen nineties.

White Bay is gorgeous. The sand is pristine white and the beach is lined with low palm trees and sea grapes. There is one catch, however; there is no dock. It's a wet landing so in order to get to the beach you have to swim in from your boat.

My sister had been to White Bay several times and I had been once before as well so we both knew the drill. On a previous trip I had swum to shore with my old Canon Digital Rebel over my head so I didn't think much of swimming to shore with my smaller G12 over my head. Below is the last picture I took with my G12 from the boat before disaster struck. I zoomed in and got this shot of my sister swimming to shore with our clothes in a bag over her head with Soggy Dollar Bar in the background.

I got in the water and started swimming a backstroke with one arm and my camera over my head to keep it dry. I had two issues, however. First, all of the spots to moor that were close to shore were taken so our boat was pretty far out making for a fairly long swim. Secondly, soon after I got in the water a wave caught me and I swallowed a bunch of water. If I had been swimming with two arms it wouldn't have been a problem but with just one arm and trying to get my breath while coughing up the water I was struggling a bit. One of the staff from the boat had fins on and was towing people to shore with a buoy. She saw that I was having a tough time and towed me in the rest of the way in. I was embarrassed but happy for the help.

When I got to shore I was feeling really sick from the salt water I had swallowed so I tried to throw it up in the bathroom with no luck. I ended up grabbing a soda and sipping on it to settle my stomach. I tried turning on my camera at this point and found out it was dead. When the wave caught me it must have also gotten my camera which was a big bummer. Luckily the shop behind Soggy Dollar Bar had some disposable cameras for sale so I bought one and my sister and I took a walk along the beach. The pictures aren't the best quality but not bad for a disposable camera.

In the middle of the beach where we came to shore is the famous Soggy Dollar Bar. It got its name because due to the wet landing the money that people use to pay at the bar is usually wet. Many of the people that come ashore stop here so my sister and I decided to head further down the beach where it was less crowded.

The walk along the beach was amazing. It was a perfect day with a brilliant blue sky and turquoise waves gently breaking on the shore.

Halfway down the beach we decided to sit down and relax at Gertrude's Beach Bar & Grill, a quiet little place with only a handful of people which was a nice change of pace from Soggy Dollar's hustle and bustle. I had a few more sips of soda and we watched the waves roll in.

We continued down the beach soaking up the sun and enjoying the beautiful views.

At the west end of the beach is a cute place called One Love Bar and Grill. We didn't have much time to stop, but I loved all of the buoys decorating the outside and couldn't resist snapping a few pictures.

At this point we headed back towards Soggy Dollar, meandering up the beach while I used up the rest of the film on the disposable camera.

We got a dry bag at Soggy Dollar to put the cameras and clothes in for the trip back which my sister swam with. Using two arms and having my lungs clear I had no problem getting back to the boat. I used the camera on my phone to snap a few more pictures from the boat before we pulled away.

Despite my camera mishap we had a lovely time at White Bay and if you are in the BVI I would definitely recommend stopping there. There is nothing like relaxing in one of the hammocks there under a palm tree. I might suggest getting a dry bag prior to your visit, however, to make bringing any cameras or clothes to shore easier. I definitely will next time!

As for my poor little G12, well, it was toast. Back at my sister's apartment we covered it in rice to try to dry it out but it didn't fix it. I think that it might be because I had tried turning it on earlier. Luckily my SD card was fine so I still had the pictures from my trip.

With my camera dead I decided to replace it. Since the newer Canon PowerShot G15 was fifty dollars less than the G12 I thought I would get the G15. It is a nice little camera and perfect for my needs of having a small point and shoot when I don't want to take my SLR with me. 

I've had it for about a month now so I thought I would share how I feel it stacks up with my old G12. Both have the capability to shoot in RAW format and have the ability to change settings manually to have more control over the camera than a typical point and shoot.

I really like that the G15 has a larger aperture lens (f/1.8–2.8) than the G12 so that I can take better pictures in low light. Since I take a lot of photos in dimly lit restaurants with my point and shoot this is great for me. The G15 has a 12.1 Megapixel sensor compared to a 10 Megapixel sensor for the G12 and the continuous shooting speed on the G15 is also a little faster which is nice.

The only downside for me is that the G15 has a fixed screen and I loved my articulating screen on my G12. As someone who is short and travels alone a lot the articulating screen was an awesome feature. In crowds I could hold the camera above my head but swivel the screen down so I could still see what I was shooting. Also, when taking my own picture by holding the camera out in front of me I could flip the screen so that I could see that I was actually in the picture and not cutting off my head. It is definitely something that I miss about my G12, but all in all the G15 seems like a great camera and I have enjoyed using it so far.

This has turned into a pretty long post so I will wrap things up with a quick summary: White Bay = gorgeous, sea water + camera = bad news and G15 = great point and shoot.

Have you ever had any camera disasters? Were you ever any place gorgeous with only a disposable camera to take pictures?