Covering Odile Hurricane

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With an iPhone 5c!

We were on holidays in Los Cabos, Mexico. We knew it was hurricane season, so my partner took his professional camera with him. He is a photojournalist at the AP so he always, ALWAYS, has a camera with him.

I did not take my video equipment to Los Cabos. My luggage was full of vacation gear: bikinis, flip flops and so on. That is to say I was totally unprepared for a hurricane category 5 hitting our resort the day after our arrival.

We started taking video and photos at our resort before the hurricane hit.
We started taking video and photos at our resort before the hurricane hit. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Anyhow. I did have my iPhone. That allowed me to take video in full HD and send footage to Washington in real time. Shot by shot, by email.

I am really impressed of the capabilities the iPhone has. I was taking interviews with no microphone and even if not perfect, the footage had enough quality. The soundbites were clear and understandable. And the images were broadcasted world wide the next day.

This is the result:

“Mexico City-based interactive producer Alba Mora Roca and photographer Victor Caivano, recently named AP’s new director for coverage of the Southern Cone, provided some of the first video and still images of Hurricane Odile approaching Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. Their work was featured in media including the Daily Mail, Los Angeles Times, and vice.com.”

A family from San Jose, California, cover themselves with pillows as they sit on the concrete stairs in the service area of a resort after the designated area for shelter was destroyed by winds in Los Cabos, Mexico, Monday, Sept. 15, 2014. Hurricane Odile raked the Baja California Peninsula with strong winds and heavy rains early Monday as locals and tourists in the resort area of Los Cabos began to emerge from shelters and assess the damage. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)
It was a hell of a night. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)