Being Prepared

Years ago, I told myself that I'd never buy a selfie stick. For me, they were merely for vanity—why would I ever need to hold my camera to include myself in a photo?

I have taken self portraits in the past but only on rare occasions, when I wanted to be the subject of my photography. And when I wanted such photos, I would set my D-SLR on a proper tripod.

When I would see people trying to capture a monument or popular scenery, and hold their cameras on a long pole, I would roll my eyes. You would never catch me doing that, I decreed.

Well, this weekend DW and I purchased not only one but two selfie sticks: one, for capturing the two of us as we laze about our Mayan Riviera resort during our silver-anniversary getaway; the other, to which we'll attach our underwater video camera and capture sea life as we snorkel the crystal-clear waters in search of sea turtles.

What's a Quik boq?

We settled on two sticks from Quik Pod: the Quik Pod Sport and the Explorer 3.

It wasn't an easy task. We had specific criteria. First and foremost, one selfie stick had to be not only waterproof but sea-water resistant. We learned that even though the Explorer 3 selfie stick describes itself as "fully waterproof" and it's packaging showed images of a surfer holding the stick as she lay on her board and another picture of a scuba diver around colourful salt-water fish, a YouTube video of this stick stressed the word "fresh water" several times, even though the video itself shows a diver with a shark and there's a beach that is questionably at the sea. We can take this stick into the resort's swimming pool but not with us for snorkelling in Akumal Bay.

We purchased the more-durable Sport selfie stick that touts itself as salt-waterproof. But its collapsed length is 15-and-a-half inches, which for me is a bit long.

The second criterion, for me, was that the selfie stick had to be compact. I wanted one that I could throw into my small camera bag and wouldn't get in the way. In Mexico, as well as in South Korea, I plan to create video travel logs. I'll be carrying my selfie stick with me fairly often, so I don't want something that is too long at its minimum length.

The Explorer 3 stick collapses to a mere nine inches and easily fits into a side pouch on my camera bag. Perfect.

The third criterion for our selfie stick searches was that the stick had to extend to a decent length, particularly the one that we would use for snorkelling with the sea creatures. While getting up close and personal to wildlife is frowned upon, apparently the sea life is disturbed only by human proximity. As one sea-life explorer said in a video we watched, sea creatures don't tend to be disturbed by inanimate objects, so if you can extend a camera as far away from you as possible, you can get better images without bothering the fish and turtles.

Our Sport selfie stick extends to 39 inches. With an outstretched arm, we'll be able to keep our distance and yet still (hopefully) capture some great video footage.

Both of our selfie sticks, in fact, extend to 39 inches. The Explorer 3 stick, however, feels a bit loose when fully extended, as though it doesn't have a solid hold. I did practice with it a couple of times, though, and it seemed strong enough for my cell phone, so I hope it holds up over at least the two trips. If these sticks exceed or fail to meet our expectations, I may write a full review of them when we return from our vacation.

At least DW and I are better-prepared for our trip to Mexico. I never thought I'd be one to have a selfie stick but for these occasions, I think they'll be worth it.

However, if you ever see me holding one to capture myself as I stand on the edge of a precipice, do me a favour: push me over.