Janury 29, 2021 - We finished filming today. Hoping the interviews went well. The team they sent to do the interviews for Redrock was new to me. I had never worked with any of them before. But they were super cool, very professional and hard working… truly hoping we get to work together again on a future project. It was a lot of fun, getting to work on a new show about sharks. I wish I could share more details about the shoot, but I can't until it is closer to the airdate. All I can say is that it is a TV show about sharks, I am in the show, and it is on one of my favorite channels. The filming went well, but I realized that I REALLY need to get to my shit together and fast!

We are here in Florida finishing up some key interviews we did not have time for while filming principle photography for the show. The location for the interviews was at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park. It is pretty here and away from the noise of Florida, which is excellent. All was grand while we shot, other than the occasional pedestrian walking by as we were trying to shoot. But we worked through it and got everything we were hoping to film.

Ok, so now on to why I need to get my shit together. We started shooting yesterday at the park. I think we were about an hour into shooting when I turned and saw four raccoons walking by our pavilion that we had rented for the day. Of course, I lost my mind when I saw them, excitedly telling the film crew that was distracted with changing camera cards and fixing lighting, about the raccoons. They casually say, "oh yeah, they are all over the place; just wait till lunch gets here." At this point, my jaw dropped, and I think my knees buckled—raccoons all over the place… what the hell. I began kicking myself because I did not bring my camera with me. I left it in the hotel room. I didn't feel the need to bring it.

Of course, the first thing that comes to mind was when we were filming bull sharks for the show, at the Bimini marina, back in December. I did not bring my underwater camera there either, because it was a cage dive, and apparently I am too arrogant to bring a camera to a cage dive.However in my defense, the water is ordinarily murky, so I left it in the room, but really I left it because it was a cage dive. Of course, we get to the marina, and the visibility is crystal clear, and there are bull sharks all over the place. The conditions are just perfect!!! aaannd I had no freaking camera. Despite it being a cage dive, it was an incredible dive, and I had a lot of fun, I did not want to get out of the cage. It still hurts that I did not bring my camera, as close as I was, the images would have been insane.

Back to yesterday, I guess I did not learn from that mistake, and now I missed out on a fantastic opportunity to photograph wild and free raccoons that were very tolerant of people. Just damn. Even as we were driving out of the park at the end of that day, there were families of raccoons just hanging out in the parking lot. I swore to myself that this would be the LAST time it would happen.

Today, I woke up and prepped for the morning shoot, and this time, I got my camera ready. While I was packing up, I could hear parrots squawking outside my balcony window. I walked out, and a pair of mitred parrots were hanging out on the high wire, dropping down onto the parking lot floor to drink from a puddle of fresh water left by the night's rain. I snapped a couple of quick pics before they flew off. The birds were on a power line, which I am not a fan of - but these are parrots, and you have to take pictures of wild parrots every time you see one. In fact, I think it is a state law, or it should be. I just took it as a sign that I was going to have a great day.

We spent the morning filming what was left of the interviews for the show. In-between takes, I would scan all around me, looking for raccoons. Sadly, nothing was around. The entire day, not one raccoon passed by our pavilion. We shot all morning, and sometime after 1 PM, our producer Sam called out, "That's a wrap!" As soon as he said that, I jumped up, grabbed my camera, and hit one of the dirt trails in search of those beautiful little trash pandas. I did not even wait for our sound guy to remove the mic he gave me to wear, I was gone. I walked for about a 1/4 of a mile with no luck, and then reluctantly, I had to head back. Sam was my ride back to the hotel, and I didn't want to miss it. I walked super slow, scanning the trees and the floor all around me… still nothing. I was about to give up when I spotted a raccoon in the shade of some trees, right in front of our pavilion. It found a piece of fruit, grabbed it, and climbed up high in the tree to eat it in safety.

I looked around at the surrounding trees and could see that the way the raccoon went up was how it had to come down. So I happily and patiently sat there waiting for it to finish its snack and return to the surface to look for more food. It finally started its climb down, my camera Gloria itching and ready for me to push the shutter button. The quick session with this raccoon was so good. I captured a few pretty images of it; climbing down the tree, foraging in front of the tree, and standing up. It was just fun. The raccoon could have cared less that I was there, which was so great. Having habituated raccoons posing for your camera does not happen every day. So I took full advantage of it.

*The little raccoon we found on Bimini that was sick. We gave it to the Bimini Shark Lab.*

This was a total dream come true for me. When we were in Bimini filming for the show this past December, I really wanted to photograph a raccoon. the island has an invasive population of these guys. We found one while we were there, but it was sick, so I never did get to photograph it. However, I had already sent the message to the universe that I wanted to photograph one and the universe provided. I know, it sounds woo-woo, but I don't care what it sounds like, I got to snap images of a raccoon, and I am happy because today was a good day and it seems like I am finally getting my shit together.

Thank you guys for reading and I will see you for next week’s blog as my Florida adventures continue…