What Chuck Does

Helicopters, Bugways, and Black Pearls

September 6, 2008
It’s 11am and I am totally stoked for today’s helicopter ride. This will be the second time for me in a helicopter. This time however I’m flying over the skies of Bora Bora and I’ve paid nearly $500 for this 30 minute tour of the islands. It’s crazy I know but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity to see the islands from air and an even rarer I have the opportunity to shoot pictures of the island with my D3. I have mounted the 24-70mm f2.8 on the body and brought the 14-24mm f2.8 in the bag. I get to the pickup spot early and wait for the helicopter anxiously. So many things are going through my mind right now from “Will it be sunny?” to “Will I get a window seat? Will the window be clean? Will I get a good view?” and more. Before the helicopter lands I make peace with fate and accept whatever happens for what it’s worth.

The helicopter finally lands and away we go! I’m sitting rear left and immediately shooting out the left window as we liftoff and fly low over the atoll. My seat doesn’t offer me a frontal view however it affords me a pretty decent side view. Although the window is not pristine and 100% clear it’s not too bad. The weather seems to be cooperating and I’m shooting like mad. We first fly over one of the small islands next to Bora Bora and then head back to the main island. By this time I’ve already unmounted the 24-70mm f2.8 for the 14-24mm f2.8 as it offers a wider FOV. I’ve set the D3 to aperture-priority and stuck the aperture on 11 for depth of field (although at this distance it’s pretty much infinity anyway). My only mistake is that I’ve got the metering set to the smallest center-weighted circle in the viewfinder. In retrospect that was a HUGE mistake. If it weren’t for the fact that I took over 200 shots, it might have cost me the entire shoot! As we fly over the main island of Bora Bora I notice we’re getting really close to the mountain. I feel the winds gusting over the tip and I get really nervous as it looks like we’re not going to clear the top of the hill. Everyone in the helicopter is like, “woooooooooooAAAAAAHHHHHHH!” as we seemingly barely clear the top of the once volcano. As we round the other side, I’m madly clicking away on the D3 again.

The ride is over far too quickly and I only hope that I haven’t screwed up too much on the camera to cost me the entire session.

The afternoon comes quickly (12:30pm) as we head over to the main island of Bora Bora on a small hotel ferry. It’s really close, only a 5 minute ferry ride and we’re on the other side. We’re greeted by the Avis Rent-A-Car people. We fill out some paperwork and soon we’re standing in front of the “Bugway”. This car can only be described as something of a cross between a Lotus Elise and an ATV or a Jeep. It has no doors. The tires are built like it was made for off-roading. The inside of the car is barren like the interior of an Elise. It’s got no AC. It’s got no carpet. Hell, the seats aren’t even upholstered, they’re made of plastic with a few pieces of leather attached for padding. The roof of the car is tarp that’s attached to the car via some “button clips”. We quickly remove the tarp for the convertible-sensation. We would later come to regret this decision as the Bora Bora clouds pour rain all over the interior of the car. I quickly understand why the interior of the car is so cheap as it’s basically completely waterproof. We drive around the island with the primary purpose of looking for Tahitian Black Pearls. We stop by two places and wind up spending the better part of 2 hours picking out our own pearls for a necklace, earings, and rings. The pearls are beautiful. The process is pretty interesting as these are all cultured pearls. They are still insanely expensive though. I won’t go on about how they are made and how rare they are but they are as expensive as they are impressive and rare.

We jump back in the Bugway and grab a really late lunch around 4pm and buy some groceries (mostly water). Things are much cheaper here on the main island although things are still more expensive than they are at home. We wind up returning the car around 5:15pm after making it all around the island and head back on the ferry.

Dinner is late tonight as a result of the late lunch. We eat a la carte because we discover tonight’s buffet is Mexican-style. Most people know that I’ve had enough Mexican food for a lifetime and I’ve avoided it in the last several months. Dinner is fish again with some great sorbet! We head to the Internet lobby and front desk where we do our daily online activities and take care of some business with the remainder of our stay.

There you have it. Most of today’s highlights all captured here. Tomorrow is our first day with no activities and also our last full day here in Bora Bora. I plan on seeing the turtles again and taking some final sunset pics, weather permitting. As I’m typing this, I’m watching the fish again beneath my feet. I’ve concluded that they’re attracted to the light since I’ve noticed that these big buggers seem like they’re always swimming in the light underneath the glass of each bungalow. They are also responsible for jumping out of the water and making noise now and then. Which reminds me, earlier today I saw a lone sting ray in the middle of the lagoon underneath someone’s bungalow. This was a pretty large sting ray like the ones we swam with the other day. It was all alone which was somewhat strange after seeing them all together in a pack the other day. Speaking of which tomorrow I plan on swimming in the outer lagoon for the first time. Hopefully the water isn’t too cold and the wildlife doesn’t scare me.

The weather tonight is really calm. The current is not very strong and the wind is quite still for the first time in our entire stay. This however did not aid my sunset as it was still pretty cloudy over the main island as I was trying to shoot the sunset over the mountain. Things like sunsets and weather are impossible to control. You pretty much get what you get. You’re only hope is that you’re prepared and in the right place at the right time. Every now and then you get that one opportunity and hopefully all your settings are right, you’re paying attention, make the right composition, etc. You get one chance for that perfect shot and hopefully you don’t screw it up! And then sometimes you don’t even get a chance with the weather. We’ll find out tomorrow!