My cell phone rang at an inopportune moment, to say the least. I was hidden in the bushes about 40 feet away from an active kit fox den on the Carrizo Plain National Monument. It was wildlife cinematographer Mark Romanov on the line. He found my number via Instagram and told me he was gathering footage of California wildlife for a documentary produced by Wild Logic that was eventually entitled Planet California and aired on PBS in spring 2022.
At the time, I was working on finishing my book about the Carrizo Plain. Romanov saw my images of kit foxes, blunt-nosed leopard lizards, and other grassland fauna on Instagram, creatures he needed to film for the documentary. He was hoping I could help locate the species they needed, but I was envisioning a big film crew coming out, which didn’t sound appealing to me. However, Romanov assured me it would be no more than one or two guys, the other being renowned wildlife cinematographer Rick Rosenthal.
“Well, I’m sitting on a kit fox den as we speak,” I said softly.
