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Introduction by Heather Forcier
Introduction: In January 2005, a trip of a lifetime started for United Kingdom professional photographer George McCarthy, and his wife, Angie. Having arrived in Miami, Florida, they purchased an RV to live out of for the next year as they toured and photographed throughout the United States. To find out more about their arrival and trip start, please see George’s first article at NatureScapes.net. To find out what has happened since, read on.
Major Stops
The experience of this trip has been fantastic to date and has far exceeded our expectations. Since our arrival in Florida we spent some time photographing there as we waited for the details of our RV purchase to finalize. I made my first trip to Fort DeSoto for the shorebirds and was pleased to find and photograph a Long-billed Curlew. I also captured photos of some raccoons plundering the trashcans.
Our next major stop was Lake Martin in Louisiana specifically for nesting and displaying Great Egrets. The alligators and cypress trees were also appealing subjects for me. From there it was on to Lacassine hoping to find the giant rodent nutria, not too dissimilar from our UK water vole but much bigger. A bonus here was the great number of cormorants that flew in each evening to roost. This was a great event to watch if you could see them through all the mosquitoes that also turned out each evening.
Crossing into Texas I started with photos of White-tailed Deer and Javelina. I spent several days seeking out Chachalacas and ended up with a comprehensive selection of shots. While photographing birds, fortunately with my 500mm lens and 1.4x teleconverter, a Bobcat ran out of the trees; it was a fantastic moment just seeing this fabulous cat for the first time.
Before leaving the UK I had made arrangements to photograph on some private ranches in South Texas that are cooperatively part of “Lens and Land.” These landowners have created areas specifically designed to attract birds and other wildlife and have set up photo blinds for photographers. Ponds and feeding stations are maintained to draw in wildlife consistently for photography. I visited three ranches and each was a fantastic experience in itself. Mornings were spent in hides positioned for the early light, and afternoons were at different ones set up for the later sun angle. Most hides could accommodate a couple of photographers and the seats and shelves made things as comfortable as possible.
On Assignment
I was commissioned to produce a monthly column about my US photo trip for UK’s largest selling monthly entitled Practical Photography and transmit my submissions via our intermittent connection to the internet and email.
Experiences to Date on this Year-Long Photo Trip
I think the United States was the right place to do this type of trip; the country is so vast and diversified with photo opportunities around every corner. We absolutely love America and its people. There is a downside in coming to the US from out of the country, but as we have proved to date, these obstacles are not insurmountable. The US National Park system is incredible, and to be able to buy an annual pass so cheaply is astounding. Campsites are everywhere and for the most part are reasonably priced except when close to a major attraction.
The largest problems we’ve had (since our arrival in Florida) involve our phones and internet. We set up with a pay-as-you-go phone service which works fine when in range of their towers. But in the more remote areas, where we are spending a great deal of our time, we have no phones; in fact, have spent the last two months with no cellular phone signal! In hindsight we should have researched the different providers better for optimal coverage.
We could not get an internet service provider without a US address, so therefore have totally relied upon WiFi. Some campsites offer it or there is a hotspot in town. In other areas we have no connection at all. The periodic lack of WiFi has meant I’ve had little chance to simply peruse the internet. Additionally, some “high-speed” offerings are not that at all. Maintaining my website and doing submissions has been difficult and excruciatingly slow at times.
On one occasion in particular we were in the swamps of Louisiana and over two days the storms were severe. The deadline for my magazine copy was up and the WiFi connection in the camp kept breaking down. I was relieved when I thought everything had finally gone through, only to discover later that the pictures had been corrupted and the column had to be cut that month. I did check out the cost of having another satellite dish fitted on the camper to pick internet up that way but the dish and fitting cost alone was estimated at over $5,000, to be followed by additional monthly payments which ruled that option out.
The camera gear is holding up well, but I have had to buy a third external hard drive for storage. One of the most difficult aspects of this extended photo trip is taking so many photos during the day and then keeping current on editing and backing up. I burn the keepers to CDs in RAW format and then back everything up again in duplicate on exterior Lacie hard drives.
Although Angie is a nurse by profession, she enjoys taking her own nature photos using a 5 megapixel Olympus with an equivalent 200mm zoom, and not surprisingly, her photography has improved enormously. The trip is not all photography nor could it be; this is a trip for the both of us and we both decide what we do and where we go. We regularly break off if we are near a town of interest, such as New Orleans where we spent an entire day and simply loved the Cajun music and food.
To any photographer contemplating doing something similar, I would say without hesitation to get the funds together and do it as soon as you can!
We have been on the lookout for the grey NatureScapes.net caps to say “hi” to other members. If you see us in the field, please be sure to say “hello,” we’d be delighted to meet you!
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