A Different Thing

Sometimes it’s good to do something that is totally different from our day-to-day way of living. Today I had a chance to do something like that. Gene was hosting a crew of people who wanted to use the Atchafalaya Basin as a backdrop for photographing pretty young people modeling “high fashion” clothing. The pictures were to appear in a spring season catalogue for a clothing company I had never heard of, but apparently a lot of young people had. There were three women models and two men, supported by eight people who did makeup, hair, provided logistical support and some who just helped the photographer with her gear and light settings. We all loaded into three boats and proceeded out into the Henderson Swamp. It is always interesting to me to watch people react to the swamp from a perspective of un-aquaintance. They knew very little about the ecology, and really didn’t know enough to ask serious questions. But you do hear “Where are the alligators?”, and “Are there fish here?” and things like that so that even with these people there is some connection with nature. We were out all afternoon in 50 degree weather with the wind blowing. Since the clothing catalogue was to feature spring fashions, the clothes were very light and sometimes skimpy. The models had to pose in the cold air and try to keep from shivering, which they actually succeeded in doing most of the time. Amazing. As I say, we see catalogues every day but not very often do we see how the pictures got there. The price of the clothes has to pay for everything it takes to market them, including the catalogues, etc. I saw some of the older catalogues and the clothes are like, jeans for $225, and little blouses for $156, and tiny sandals for $148. You sure don’t buy this stuff if you work for the state. When this crew did the winter catalogue for this year, they went to Morocco in October. So I guess our Atchafalaya country ranks pretty high as scenery. It was a good day and the people were all very pleasant – New York is home for most of them.

The young lady is Ashley, one of the makeup people on “the shoot”. She caught a cricket frog in the cold water and asked about frogs in general, and so earned the frog pin that she is wearing. She is now an honorary member of our amphibian awareness group, and has the pin to prove it.

The river is at 3.7 on the Butte La Rose gauge today, and will stay about that for several days. Nothing happening on the Ohio or Mississippi so not much will happen here either for a while.

Rise and shine, Jim