31/08/2026
These photos very nearly didn’t exist.
Picture this: a fairytale photoshoot by a beautiful waterfall in Bali. Michel behind the camera, me in front of it, surrounded by this ridiculously beautiful landscape.
We even randomly met a guy by the river who had a drone, and he very generously took a few little videos of the shoot from above and later shared them with us.
Michel had also strapped the phone to his chest so we could capture some of the photoshoot from the photographer’s point of view.
Which turned out to be a very good decision.
Because it means we have actual footage of what happened next.
Michel fell into the river.
Camera and all. 😂
And that was pretty much the end of the photoshoot.
Back at the house, we took the camera and lenses apart, dried everything as carefully as we could and hoped for the best.
A few days later, Michel had already left Bali when he realised the memory card was missing.
He searched through all his camera equipment and luggage. Nothing.
And then came the slightly horrifying thought:
What if it had accidentally ended up in the trash?
I’d already taken the trash out, and the bag had been sitting beside the house waiting to be collected.
For a couple of days.
In the rain. 😂
Michel was travelling and wanted me to wait until he landed so he could check his suitcase one more time.
Absolutely not. 😂
There was no way I was going to wait while that bag could be collected at any moment.
So I found some gloves, opened the bag and started digging through the trash.
And there it was.
The memory card.
It had survived falling into the river, several days in a trash bag, and the Bali rain. And by some ridiculous stroke of luck, the trash still hadn’t been collected.
I cleaned the card very carefully, put it into my computer and checked…
And every single photo was there. ❤️
So the photos in this video came very, very close to disappearing forever.
First into the river.
Then into the trash.
And somehow, here they are. 😂❤️
Photography: Michel