Day 4 – final camp day BONUS post

By first time traveler and photographer/videographer Gina Szfraniec

The Best Laid Plans: An Unforgettable Photo Day Adventure

Like most things in life, you come up with a plan. You review it, you workshop it, you talk it over with everyone, and when you are all done, you genuinely believe the plan is going to work.

And then the day actually comes, and the plan goes completely out the window.
Today was definitely one of those days.

Part 1: The Three-Hour Shoot in the Hot Sun

The mission seemed simple enough: take beautiful, formal portraits of all the girls. These weren’t just any regular snapshots. We wanted to capture graduation-style school pictures and high-quality portraits to go into the beautiful frames they had handmade.

Our initial, optimistic plan was to be completely done in 90 minutes.
Instead, we started at 9:00 AM and didn’t finish until around 12:30 PM. We spent three and a half hours standing in the blazing, hot sun, completely melting. But through it all, the girls were absolute angels. They fanned us with paper, they helped pin our hair up to get it off our sweaty necks, and they kept our spirits high.

When it came time for each girl to step up and pose, they were total professionals. They were graceful, grateful, and so incredibly beautiful. It was wonderful just to be enveloped in their youthful energy and to see their excitement as they looked at their beautifully posed pictures on the back of the camera.

Part 2: The Great Gate Escape

Getting the pictures on the memory card was only the first adventure. The second was actually getting them printed.

Back home in the United States, printing photos is a quick, completely uneventful errand. Here, things are a bit more of an adventure. Just as we were getting ready to leave, our security gate jammed shut and refused to open, completely trapping us inside and delaying our trip to the print shop.

As the minutes ticked by, I jokingly said, “Well, if we don’t get these printed today, it just wasn’t meant to be.”

No sooner had the words left my mouth than Sister Carmen Luisa walked up with a smile and said, “The gate is open, let’s go!”

Part 3: Lost in Translation (and Credit Card Machines)

We rushed out and arrived at the photo shop at 5:00 PM—exactly one hour before closing time.

I walked up to the counter, handed the employee an SD card, and realized we had a massive barrier: we spoke almost no Spanish, and they spoke almost no English. Armed with nothing but Google Translate, hand gestures, and sheer determination, we managed to explain that we needed one 4×6 print of every single photo on that card.

Miraculously, with just 15 minutes left before closing, the photos were finished. They looked absolutely stunning.

Looking Back

But the universe had one last plot twist for us. Just as I pulled out my card to pay, the credit card machine stopped working. We had zero pesos on us, only American dollars, and an American Express card that was now useless.

In an incredible act of local kindness, the shop workers handed us the completed photos and simply said, “Come back tomorrow with 200 pesos.”

The plan failed beautifully, but the day was a total success. The pictures are absolutely gorgeous, and we know these girls will cherish and enjoy them in their handmade frames for years to come. It proved once again that sometimes, when the plan goes out the window, a much better story takes its place.