Mercury Rising Teacher's Log #2

Denise is also the Digital Photographer for the team and is responsible for documenting the expedition with the photographs that are posted daily from the field. "The photography is my favorite part. It's pure creativity." With a digital camera, Denise is able to view her pictures immediately. A giant smile and gleeful shout let other members of the team know when Denise is especially proud of a picture she's captured. Denise has worked with digital photography since 1994 and estimates that 90% of her shooting is now digital.

What's the downside of being the Executive Producer and Digital Photographer? "When something goes wrong you're the person who has to fix it. You've got to work with six or seven people, and you have to maintain harmony."

Toby Malina is One World Journeys' Field Technician. "I'm responsible for all the audio for the expedition. The audio works with the pictures and the words to tell the story."

During expeditions you can find Toby in the field wearing earphones and holding a foam-covered microphone as she adjusts the sound level to record people talking, birds calling, monkeys chattering, or trees creaking. Using her computer, Toby then edits the sounds she records into the powerful pieces that you can hear on the web site.

Toby sends all of the information from the field team to the people who put together the web site at home. "I collect everyone's contributions: photographs, writing, captions, and sound. I squish, or compress, all the data to make it as small a digital file as possible."

Sending the information out of remote areas isn't always easy, and in past expeditions Toby has used satellite telephones, rewired an outmoded phone in a small Mexican village, and driven for several hours to find a telephone. "Everyone may have created wonderful things, but if I can't get it out, there's no story."

Toby is also responsible for keeping all of the team's equipment -- including computers, audio equipment, and satellite telephone -- in working order. "I have to have a working knowledge of all equipment, and I have to have ingenuity. If something breaks, there's not a Radio Shack around the corner. I have to make do with what we have and be resourceful." She brings trunkloads of tools and supplies on each journey, just in case.

The technology it takes to keep the One World Journeys web site operating comes with a price. "Sometimes I wish we could have less impact. We're in beautiful, pristine, unspoiled places, and here I am with batteries, generators, and seven cases of stuff."

It's clear, though, that Toby enjoys her job. "I love to travel. I'll never get rich doing this, but what I get out of it is wonderful. This is one of the coolest jobs in the world."

Asclepia: Monarch butterflies feed on the tiny Asclepia flower. Its dark orange petals point downward, a little like an upside down tulip, and the golden-orange center points upward.

Cecropia: We've seen this tree in the Cloud Forest before, but this time we see the lime-green fruit of the Cecropia. The fruits hang under the leaves in clusters, each fruit an eight to twelve inch long "snake." Some hang straight down, while others, especially those that have just begun to develop, are tightly coiled around each other. The trunk of the Cecropia is silver-gray, with horizontal ridges every inch or so.

Fig: We see an enormous fig tree that has been blown down many times by strong winds. When that happens it sends new roots into the ground, so that it is now a giant tree trunk that travels horizontally along the ground for twenty feet, looking like a wooden dragon. Then the Fig grows up towards the sky like a more traditional tree.

Limoncillo: The Limoncillo is a member of the Rue and Citrus family. The trees we see are 30 to 40 feet high, its bark colored with camouflage patches of olive, orange, brown, and gray. The most amazing feature of the Limoncillo is the many sharp, triangular spikes that jut out from the trunk of the tree, like the tips of swords.

Blue-crowned Motmot: We see the Motmot's red eye, surrounded by black feathers. The bird's head is bright blue, its breast is red-orange, and body is a vivid lime-green. The Blue-crowned Motmot's eight-inch long green tail feathers end in a separated, flat puff of blue and black feathers. It lives in holes in the side of hills or cliffs.