A wedding photographer was taking post-ceremony photographs on a dock in Tempe Town Lake in Tempe, Arizona, when he tripped and fell into the lake, losing his camera in the process. But, thanks to a local fire department’s dive team, the couple was able to retrieve those lost images despite the camera spending several days underwater.
Photographer Anil Kanwar of Akphotographers (@akphotographers) was photographing groom Gunrinder Singh and bride Valeria Perez at the lake after the couple’s traditional Indian wedding ceremony. The groom said he just blinked, and the photographer had fallen off the dock, losing his camera in the water in the process.
“I was not worried about the camera, but I was worried about the images,” Kanwar said. The groom said that the photographer wanted to jump back in after the camera, but the couple didn’t want him to take that risk.
To get those photos back, the photographer reached out to the local Tempe Fire Department. The fire department’s dive team is usually tasked with finding things in the lake for the police department, from cars to evidence, but explained that while they don’t usually recover lost personal items from the lake, the team already had a training dive scheduled. The fire department then decided to move the training to the location where the camera had fallen.
Visibility underwater is poor in Tempe Town Lake, the fire department explained. Three divers – all of whom are married and knew the importance of those images – spent 20 minutes feeling around on the bottom of the lake. The third and final diver finally felt the camera near the end of his 20-minute dive, resurfacing with a water-logged Sony camera and lens.
The camera and lens, valued at around $5,000, did not survive its dip into the lake, where it sat at the bottom for several days. But, the photographer notes that insurance replaced his camera and, most importantly, all the images on the memory card were intact.
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