Irredeemable, irresponsible, boneheaded. I was told those things when I showed my drowned Zoom F3. While I had everything to protect it from the disaster in waiting, the setup phase was what brought me down.

It turns out that one out of 27 waves is a “big one”. I started setting up my gear at wave 24. I guess you can see the following minutes in your mind.

Yes, we all know the song. Yet sitting there makes life look easy and friendly. Armed with just a Zoom H6 and my camera, a few days ago I was sitting on the docks. Sitting in the evening sun was very nice, probably the last time that will happen this year here in Halifax.

As you can see, from the picture, I was not alone sitting there.

I still can’t seem to bring myself to leave gear behind for a night, probably because the province has people everywhere at any time of the day or night. Also, I am not in a position like some professionals to just write off some gear due to animals or vandalism. This comes out of my own pocket, and nobody is filling it for this.

So the next best thing is to stay there, close enough to the gear to be visible to others, but not so much by the wildlife I am targeting.

Field recording can be done in the weirdest places, from high mountains to cities. Some 15 years ago, I was in my hometown of Leeuwarden, Netherlands. As usual, there was a street market, although not in the usual place at that time. The space was stretched out and really cramped as they still allowed regular traffic to go through.

Back then, I only had my Zoom H2, a brand-new, wonderful Handy recorder.