3 times the camera failed

In 2016, I was assigned by my agency to be in charge of propaganda on natural disaster prevention. The nature of this propaganda field is that reporters often have to work in adverse weather conditions such as rain, wind, storms, floods, and intense heat...

The first time I was assigned to work on the storm, I eagerly took my camera to work in the vegetable growing area in Gia Loc district. At that time, the rain was not heavy yet, farmers were still in the fields, tying up cucumber trellises and covering vegetables with plastic. I quickly took a few photos of farmers actively preparing for the storm, but after taking the photos, I forgot to turn off the camera, put it around my neck, covered it loosely with a thin raincoat and took the opportunity to interview the people. When I finished, I discovered that the camera was still on but the circuit board was damaged by the rain and could not be repaired.

The second time I broke my camera was during a disaster prevention assignment, but not in stormy conditions but in extremely hot weather. At that time, I went to Binh Giang district, a key drought prevention area of ​​the province, to record the actual situation. Learning from my previous assignment, I always paid attention and carefully turned off the camera after taking a photo. But this time, I was careless and did not wear the camera but held it in my hand. When I jumped over a small ditch to get to the field, unfortunately the camera fell into the ditch and could not be saved...

The two times my camera broke down due to subjective errors taught me a lesson to always be careful when taking photos. However, the third time my camera broke down was in early 2024 due to an objective incident. That time, I was assigned to report at the fish cage farming area in Nam Sach district. After finishing my work, I crossed the bridge to go ashore to another location, but the bridge collapsed, and both I and my camera fell into Kinh Thay River. Despite the accident, there was still luck in misfortune because the camera was turned off and worn around my neck so it did not fall to the bottom of the river. After getting ashore, I quickly removed the battery and memory card in the hope of saving the camera. Luckily, this time the camera could be repaired.