broken camera woes

*note: this blog is a bit dramatic but, it is completely how i felt at the time.

My heart began to race, my hand shaking as I looked down. There it was, a huge dent which had rendered my beloved camera useless. I felt tears begin to build in my eyes, I took a deep breath. “Maybe it’s not that bad,” I told myself with an attempted optimistic tone, “I will go to a camera shop in the morning, they’ll be able to help me.” I set my camera in my bag and went to walk around Queenstown. The walking didn’t last long, all I could do was think about my poor camera.

I kept relieving its tragic fall to the floor, where it smashed into a heavy white plate, someone left in my hostel dorm room. I went through every stage of grief in rapid cycles. I even had moments where I felt silly reacting so strongly to a broken camera. Nonetheless, the thought of breaking my camera and therefore being unable to photograph even one minute of my trip made me seethe with anger. Right after my passport and my debt/credit cards, damaging or loosing my camera was next on the list of things that could instantly ruin my trip. I take thousands of photos when I travel and with out my favorite Canon Powershot, I felt naked, as if I was missing a part of me.

I worried all night long, “what if I can’t get this fixed?” “Can I afford a new camera?” “Can I at least save the pictures on the memory card.?” I was standing outside the camera shop when it opened the next morning. The friendly staff said there was nothing they could do to fix my camera, but they could give me the tools necessary to try and fix it myself. I stood at the counter of the tiny camera shop holding a very small flat head screwdriver and went for it. First I tried to gently pry the dented section of the camera loose, no luck. Next, I lightly tapped the screw driver into the dented compartment with a hammer, still nothing. At this point I has lost all hope, so mostly out of frustration I jammed to screw driver down into the camera door and POP it flew open. The battery and memory card exposed. My heart began to beat fast and irregular, I was either on the verge of fixing my camera or completely destroying it.

I took a needle-noose pliers and gently molded the mangled metal back into place. I tried to shut the opening, it was too loose. I folded the outer shell inward, tried to close the door again, and again nothing; this time it was too tight. As I made my third attempt to mold the camera back into the correct shape needed to close the flap and hold both the battery and memory card in place, I began to think about other ways I could hold the door shut, duct tape, hair elastics, everything I had access to crossed my mind. Gently, I pulled and twist small sections of metal, I exercised a level of patience I was unaware I was capable of achieving. Then finally as if nothing had ever happened to the camera, the door slid shut. I opened and closed it a few times to check, but indeed it was back together and able to function as if the previous evenings damage had not occurred. To be safe I affixed a small amount of duct tape to the outer section of the door and for almost 2 weeks I had no further issues.

Then my first night in Singapore, it happened again. The door to the case was jammed. This time the camera had not fallen or for that matter, been mistreated. Again I went to a camera shop and again, I found myself holding tiny tools and carefully tinkering with my camera. After several unsuccessful attempts. The man in the shop took my camera from me and slapped it from the undamaged side. The door popped open. He the innstructed me not to open the compartment unless I absolutely have to and he replaced the hinge on the door, free of charge. Two more weeks have gone by and so far (*knock wood*) no problems (although, I've only opened the flap twice). I am thrilled to have a working camera and thankful I can take pictures and video to remember my trip. However, I have learned three valuable lessons from all of this. First, use a camera case; second, always bring a spare camera; and finally, never ever, let something like this ruin your trip; I was acting crazy.