Our pictures start out at Hunter’s Elementary. Kids were working on biology tests and waiting for the kayakers – they came right through the back of their school – at the Shingle Creek Management Area. I got pictures of our crew getting shots of the kids learning!
We had a portage, meaning we couldn’t traverse the creek, so we got out and drove to Lake Toho so we could take a john boat up Shingle Creek to find the kayakers coming toward us. Our support staff, Vince and Bill, has been so great – that’s a picture of them in our john boat. We all want to kayak, but the crew has a lot to record, so we are taking the boat to document them and carry all our equipment. We got to Makinson Island, set up camp and started editing.
Meanwhile, a bona fide cracker, a cattle rustler, gave us a chance to crack a whip. Our sound guy Josh made a crack and me too. Then a storyteller came and everyone sat around the campfire and told tales of Native American friends and pioneer family feuds.
After we finished our first piece, our crew took our first group picture. And then we met our camp mascot, a raccoon we called Francis. Our night was marked by wild boars snorting around our tents – I am not kidding. We all heard them, but none of us moved, said a word, or even ventured out of our tents – so we didn’t get it on camera. I guess we have a long way to go before we can be brave National Geographic-style lion and tiger photographers!
- Virginia Johnson