| Satellite technology is giving us dramatic knowledge about oceans, so when I learned that the QuikScat satellite was being attached to the nose cone of a Titan II missile at Vandenburg Air Force Base in California, I wanted to be there.
A frantic exchange of e-mails to get access was followed by a morning of safety training, including a quiz. Finally, I donned a “bunny suit” that covered me from head to toe and ascended the rocket gantry. At the top I slipped through an airlock into a two-story clean room built around the nose of the missile. A team of scientists had already attached the satellite, but it was covered with what looked like a giant, plastic lunch bag. Because of repeated launch delays, the scientists refused to remove the cover. So I waited, and waited.
Finally, with only minutes to spare to catch my flight to Bangladesh, they got the word to take the bag off. The delicate process of peeling off the bag and inspecting the satellite for problems kept the scientists so involved that they forgot about me, giving me the freedom to take the shots I wanted.
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The people of Bangladesh suffer through annual cholera epidemics. It’s a devastating disease that is particularly deadly in children. I went to the admitting area of Dhaka Cholera Hospital, where dozens of women with very ill children paced anxiously. One woman attracted my attention. She was tenderly bathing her feverish child in cool tap water while waiting for a doctor’s diagnosis. If the news was bad, the child could die within hours.
When the doctor informed the mother that her child did not have cholera, I was almost as relieved as she was. You can’t help but get emotionally involved in that kind of situation.
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Two hundred days a year, a thick, evening fog forms over the southeast coast of Africa and rolls in over the Namib Desert. Some animals have adapted to get all their moisture needs from this fog.
I read about fog-drinking beetles that line up on the lip of a dune, put their little bottoms in the air, and allow the fog to condense on their bodies. The water runs down the slope of their bodies to their mouths. I had to get that shot.
It was surprisingly easy to find the beetles, but photograhing them was a challenge. The beetles are very light and move quickly across the sand’s surface. Each time I got within two yards of them, the dune edge collapsed under my weight, and they skittered off. Like sandcastle builders, my guide and I carefully sprayed the dune with water to harden the sand before taking each step forward. We spread damp cardboard so I could lie flat to make the photographs. |
