Created 10-Sep-12
19 photos
There have been days that I spent hours looking for something worth photographing and getting skunked. Then there were days when photographs came looking for me. I love those days!
When I first started as a wildlife photographer, I spent a lot of time visiting wild habitat in remote places where critters might live. One trip was alongside a runoff-swollen river in a rugged part of central Idaho. I stopped one place to walk out on a bridge and look down on the turbulent phenomena from a safe distance. While there I saw a raft filled with thrill seekers headed my way so I grabbed a quick shot as they approached the bridge. Then I saw another raft a bit further upriver. I didn't immediately recognize the situation as being photographs looking for me. But it was.
The river got a little extra turbulent about 200 yards before it got to the bridge. I got ready. The raft hit the turbulence. MAN OVERBOARD! I didn't know that happened because the man going overboard in image 2 was partially blocked fom my view. You need to look close. Even when I could see the entire raft, it was not immediately obvious that there was an empty seat .... except that everyone IN the raft was looking back upstream, rather than where they were headed. Then, finally, a head popped up out of the turbulence. But there was no way to stop, or turn the raft around to pick up the MO. He would need to catch up ... but he never dropped his paddle while he was underwater, and it was keeping him from being able to swim to the steadily proceeding raft.
Here I feel a need to call your attention to image #7. While this life-or-death scenario played out around her, this thrill seeker was watching cat videos on TIK-TOK??
After image 9, they disappear from my view as the river carries the raft under the bridge .... run to the other side for image 10 ... and the MO is catching up. OR IS HE?? Finally, the unsurrendered paddle becomes the hero.
But now seatmate 2, who is already having trouble wrestling 2 paddles at once, gets one more. By 15 she is getting overwhelmed. What will happen in 16, 17 and 18??
Category:Lifestyle and Recreation
Subcategory:Outdoors
Subcategory Detail:
Keywords:adventure sports, kayak, whitewater
