FISH AND JEANS.

Sam and me were on our daily Nyang Nyang stroll. Casually walking down the path to grab a coconut. But like many other days, the coconuts already sold out. A bit disappointed we had two options.

First drive back up the steep hill and go to our back up spot, or second, walk towards the end of the beach to explore the beach a bit further down than we usually did.

We went with option two, even tho we were super thirsty and it was around 1PM, so the sun hit us with full force. Sam had on a long sleeve shirt and a cap, to protect herself from the sun.

I was wearing swim shorts and my camera bag.

We walked down almost towards the end of Nyang Nyang Beach. I was so drenched in sweat. People couldn’t tell if I just came out of the water or if I was sweating.

So we turned around, I carried my camera bag all the way for nothing I thought as I stored away the camera and the flash. No people. No surfer. Nothing. The swell was just to big that day.

As we walked back I looked up for a second to see how far it still is until we will reach our towels we left at the beach just beneath the entrance. When I looked up, I saw something very strange and if I had to exaggerate now, I would say I thought at first it’s a mirage.

But it wasn’t. It was an Indo Girl, dressed up with a hat and jeans fishing. Suddenly I had energy again and I was rushing towards her. She was approximately 200m away from us, but in the sand that felt like forever.

I reached into my camera bag as I was walking, trying to mount the flash with the trigger and expose the camera already correctly, so I would just have to press the shutter once we reached her.

But then all of a sudden she turned away from the ocean and walked back towards the jungle. I thought today was not my luck. First the coconut and now a cool shot I couldn’t take.

When we reached the girl, she was sitting there, all shy with her fishing rod and was repairing the hook. I approached her and told Sam to stay close by, I never like to approach girls alone when it comes to spontanious photographs, I don’t know why, because I only have good intensions and want to photograph cool characters. Maybe something to work on in the future.

But back to the girl - turns out her name is Dina. First thing I told her is how damn cool she looks fishing with that outfit on. She told me she is very shy and excused herself many times.

Her english was on point, probably better than mine. She had a very calm and mysterious nature. I talked to her for about 5 mins about fishing, Bali and so on until I asked her if I could take some pictures of her, since I try to photograph special characters around the world.

Shy as she was, I only got a nod but a bright smile, so I knew she was down for it. I never rush things or push someone, but I just knew she would like the photographs herself probably more than me.

Turns out she was more confident than she first said, or thought.

The more pictures I took, the more confident she got. A real character.

Definitely one of the cooler girls I met in my life.

Once more a sign to trust your gut. Would have missed her fishing if I wouldn’t have went against the odds of heat and thirst. But I trusted my gut that lead me down that beach and ended up with an amazing encounter.