The Dirt: Chasing the Story of a Changing Coast

When we got to the site, the image was far different from the ideal sunny beach on the Outer Banks that attracts thousands of families every summer. The sky was gray, the wind was blowing and salt-damaged trees lined the shore. Throughout my internship, I had recorded lots of beautiful sunny shots, but today my set looked more like a horror movie.

We met up with Dr. Aaron Bunch, TNC’s coastal scientist in North Carolina. I was there mainly to document what Aaron and Isabelle were doing today, which seemed pretty difficult to figure out exactly. I recorded them setting up gadgets and doohickeys that I’d never seen before, and then we all headed out onto the water in small skiffs.

As I was stealing shots, I mostly stayed a fly on the wall as they talked about factors that seemed above my head: RTK, GIS and other terms I was unfamiliar with. Dr. Bunch pointed out some of the exposed roots hanging over the water and the steep, muddied marsh shorelines. He explained briefly how these marsh shorelines are depleting quickly due to erosion. After learning from him what was happening here, I had a better understanding and a new mental lens to shoot the landscape out of.

Once we stopped at one of the shorelines so they could record data, I carefully set up my tripod over the water to catch shots of eroded shoreline, harsh waves and crew members logging measurements to understand the speed of change. I was trying to capture as many shots as possible from different angles so that I could have choices while editing—it’s no fun editing around a piece of footage you don’t have.

After a couple of hours of following them, I left the CSI campus and went back to Nags Head Woods while they finished their work. Later, I met with Dr. Bunch again to discuss in depth what he and the other scientists I filmed were doing and to provide voice-over narration for the footage I was preparing to edit. He explained how all their nature-based structures, such as sills and oyster reefs, reduce erosion and improve biodiversity across the North Carolina coast.

Once I had both the audio and video footage, I outlined the structure of the video and then began the boring part: actually putting the video together. I worked backward, starting with audio and narration before adding video that illustrated what was being explained by Dr. Bunch. I spent the next couple of days sitting at the computer, carefully cutting and splicing audio together and cutting each video clip down by single frames. It is tedious work, but when you finally finish and are able to watch a complete cut back that you feel is good, there is a wave of satisfaction that rides over you.

Creating educational videos for TNC reminded me not only of my love for photography and videography, but also how I can connect it with my love for nature. The environmental field needs all skills and trades, and TNC helps you point it toward the shared goal of helping our planet. For me, it was helping communicate how we can protect shoreline biodiversity. Being at TNC this summer taught me not only so much about science, nature and protecting our planet, but also about myself and what I want to do to help.