A Sense of Place

When I presented this Amazon Dolphin story to the National Geographic, I presented a selection of dramatic underwater images I took last year on an exploratory trip with my friend Mark Carwardine from the UK.  Months later, the idea accepted, I had to endure what is known as "the Pitch" - a phone conference call with all the editors at the Magazine to propose how I would tell my story and what pictures I hoped to get.  

Although I felt like I was defending a PhD, the process was less agonizing than I had expected, but I was left with just one admonishment - "give this story a sense of place."  In other words, my close-ups of dolphins, good as they were, would not be enough : I needed to get shots of the flooded forest where they live.

Well, that was my goal today.  I found some trees and lured (with copious amounts of fish) some dolphins to swim through them.  Only trouble is, I couldn't see the trees.  Visibility here is about 12-16 inches, so I could barely see the dolphins, much less what was behind them.  In the end, I shot through a "V" in a tree trunk and got dolphins with a bit of bark.  Not ideal.  

Thank God I have three weeks to get this done.  But that is the lesson : getting great images is one thing -- telling a visual story is something else again....

Love to all,  

Kevin