Milán Radisics - Lake Skadar, Montenegro 01

12.05.2008
What to take with you for such an assignment? Well, I did not want to miss anything at the scene so I packed an aweful lot of stuff into my car. I even had to take the seats out to squeeze everything in. There was all sorts of things from a torch to scuba equipment just like in a flea market. I have been there before and I know the local language so I didn't expect a surprise. But there was some.
Firstly the anglers didn't know the terns the type of birds I was up to take photos of. What more, one of them tried to explain me that what I meant was the pelican and another tried to avoid me from taking photos of terns because they scrape out my eyes just like in Hitchcock's movie. Some suggested me not to go into the water because the sludge is very deep. So I had to wait another two days till Monday to meet the National Park's fellows. They were too busy to help me straight away just showed me the place of the nest and they promised to take me there by boat the next day. Finally I can take some action-photo after 3 days landscaping. So I thought.
But this is where it ended, a storm came. Wind started to blow and raining and thunders were flashing over the 1.600 m high mountains. Just about enough to cancel the next day's boating. And it was off of course because of the high waves so I went to look for anglers in the surrounding villages again. Devastating result: no one was willing to help. Reason: repainted the boat and it is still wet or didn't believe that someone wants to take photos of birds from water or didn't want to wake up early or they were just a bit lazy. Finally I could agree with a boy who had a twinkle in his eyes starting the job. From then I was taking photos of terns for 4 days from dawning to glooming. Third day I had an idea: luring the birds with tiny fish and shooting them at hunting. Easy thinking - hard managing. I had neither tiny fish nor net in my car therfore I asked for some from the local angler. I couldn't get any even though native people fish for a living. I went to the capital thinking I can get net or tiny fish there. I realized that they keep none of them. Next time I put them on my extended list. I am going to bring a net and a damn boat myself.