Nine years ago, when we quit our regular jobs to lead photo tours, all of our friends and relatives had good jobs--auto mechanic, engineer, teacher--many of them with big corporations or branches of the government. They had steady sources of income while we never knew if we'd be dancing in the streets or sweating bullets as we went over our finances. While things have not exactly reversed, the times sure have changed.

A 5-ft. Mona iguana yawning as it suns itself.

Today our income is at least as insecure as it has ever been, but now a whole lot of people are in the same boat. It brings home the fact that while there may be degrees of insecurity, there is no such thing real financial security. It is an illusion, a mirage that people chase like thirsty men in the desert who think they see water. The sad thing is those who wait for financial security before they begin doing the things they enjoy are doomed to die without having lived. (A disclaimer before I proceed. This is not a license to spend all your time and money on yourself when there are others who depend upon you.)

As scary as it is, humans were born to take risks. My heart goes out to parents because there is no way you can stop your children from taking risks, including incredibly stupid things like holding on to a moving car while skateboarding. I literally quail when I think of the risks I took during my prolonged adolescence (I'm nearly an adult now), and I was the conservative one among my siblings. That's one of the reasons I have never become a parent. I don't think my heart could take it. I'm sure you've heard the old cliche, "A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships were built for." And so it is with us. Whether we like it or not, risk-taking is one of the things that makes us human.

Coconut palms silhouetted against a colorful sunset.

One reason we're so proud to call ourselves photographers, and nature photographers in particular, is because of the risks they take. In all fields there are those who place their own desires before their subjects'. The good ones however, risk only their own time, money, livelihood, comfort and life. It's nature photographers' reasons for taking these risks though, that make us so proud. It's not so much the monetary gain that drives them. In fact, many of those taking these risks are amateurs. Some of them risk all just to capture a beautiful moment. Some to share with others a habitat or species that is in danger. Ultimately, nature photographers take risks because of their love of creation. How poetic is that. Kind of chokes you all up, doesn't it? And all of those risks nature photographers took as children may just have been training for what they do now.

Besides quitting our regular jobs, Cathy and I took one of our biggest photographic risks soon after we acquired decent equipment. We came up with the idea that we would find some place new, some place that had not been photographed to death, and more importantly, some place we could kind of afford to go. There are all kinds of such places--some at the ends of the world, some right in your own backyard. We came up with Mona Island, a pretty much deserted island halfway between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola. We contacted the Puerto Rico Dept of Natural Resources for a permit to camp there, told them we were God's gift to nature photography and offered to share our photos with them. They surprised us by offering to fly us out there with their work crew. The trip was nothing short of magical, as well as being brutally uncomfortable, and I never, ever want to go that long without a cold drink again. While I exaggerated a wee bit about our photographic skills, we did get some nice photos. In fact, ours are the best I've seen, which is more a factor of better photographers never spending much time on the island than of our ability. A few of the shots from that trip are included with this piece.

Cathy hiking along a 200-ft cliff above the ocean.

The point is we initiated this grand adventure with the idea of sharing with the public some of the remaining wild areas in the Caribbean and the thought that it might be a very salable idea since so few knew about it. We were sure magazines like Islands, Backpacker, Caribbean Life and maybe even National Geographic would jump at the chance of covering a place where the romantic fantasy of being marooned on a tropical island is still a possibility. It turns out that the major magazines pretty much only want to cover places that everyone already goes. Sure, they have all written short articles on Mona, some more than one, and they have all used our photos with them. In the 11 years since we returned though, the photos we've sold have not paid for half of what the trip cost. And if we had to do it over, we'd both jump at the chance.

I know how hard it can be not to turn cynical during times like these. It helps me to remember the true story of creation, which is more fantastic than any fable. Everything on this planet, including us, is made of atoms that were born in the death throes of giant stars billions of years ago. Each and every one of us is a child of the stars, and no destiny or dream is too high to be forever beyond our reach. It may however, take a few risks to reach that dream.

Carmelita Beach, our own private tropical paradise.

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