On Assignments: Georgia, St Thomas – A Centenarian and Tall Tales of a River

It felt like a while since I was in the field doing something other than the usual Kingston and St Andrew beat so the second I saw an opportunity to take on something in deep rural St Thomas I jumped on it. A community I’ve never visited called Georgia, The definition of quaint and quiet. The journey was fairly lengthy and the roads quite terrible however on arriving on location and meeting a lively 102-year-old gentleman it was worth it.

Mr Winston Annon is so lively for 102 he still walks around strong, sweeps the yard, cooks, sings and repair work where possible. The only drawback that day was the insane amount of rainfall that essentially kept the features indoors for the most part :(. As is expected in this day and age, a multimedia approach was taken here’s the video produced by the Gleaner Company Media Limited Multimedia Unit, a great set of people, who do soo much in so little time (shout out to R.L.C.T)

Read story by reporter here and see video below.

After departing Mr Annon’s house we (the reporter and I)  headed to a cave of legend in the community dating back decades or more. “Copper Hole”, that’s what the residents call it. An elderly man currently residing in the community grew up hearing stories of the many eerie occurrences in and around the copper hole. The lure of river maidens or merfolk, the existence of a golden table and the lives the river has indirectly or directly claimed of persons who have come in contact with it.

What made me chuckle was the precursor from the elder in each story before he spilt the tea or better yet River Water.

*grin* gotta love these rural stories. The trek to the location wasn’t far however with the excessive rainfall the terrain was treacherous to climb down. Also, the skill of a farmer wearing water boots climbing down a hillside is unreal!!! While I clung to everything I could find this man ran down and up the hillside as if walking over to Starbucks to order a caramel macchiato venti with an extra pump of caramel.

Of course, multimedia workflow kicks into action here’s the output.

See story by reporter here and video below

Those two features were probably my favourite from the day.

Setbacks on the assignment

• Heavy rainfall limited my coverage, I couldn’t drone as the rain was mean-mugging the entire time. that would have been great for copper hole feature.
• Genuinely wanted to do a lot of b-roll of the climb down but of course, it’s hard to hold a cellphone horizontally while trying not to fall and break one’s neck heading down a hill in rainy muddy circumstances.
• As well as for a farming story, I definitely wanted to visit the hillside farm which the farmers recommended we avoid giving the weather

Overall feelings

Satisfied with output given setbacks weather conditions. A revisit is in order, we have unfinished business Georgia and me.

Until next time, move to the left, chin down, right shoulder towards the camera, *clicks shutter*.

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