Merlin- Fallow deer and Wolves

I've done a couple of shoots for the giant that is 'Merlin' in the last six months.
the first was for the last series with a recalcitrant fallow deer, a smoke machine and a lovely patch of beech forest.
With the help of Sophie and my brother Dom we managed to somehow get what the editors just.
the second i cant sat much about, as the scripts more closely guarded than the crown jewels.

stunning stunning creature

Tweed and Alexa up a ladder

I can say I drove a car full of shiny camera toys up to North Wales with help from Ryan - thanks for the piccies,  to a wonderful man called Tony who cares for a number of wolves in a stunning isolated valley.




We turned up in the dark and Tony took me outside where he preceded to start howling, the call was taken up and soon the darkness was full of that spine tingling primal extroidinary noise that has haunted man's dreams for millennia.

fake snow

Real snow

The next two days consisted of gentle wolf, angry wolf, chicken legs, fake snow, real snow...lots and lots of real snow, good food, tall ladders and high winds....

Was it successful ? 

We will have to see what magic Merlin can weave !

antarctica prt 1

What an amazing trip.
Antarctica is one of those places I had always wanted to go and never thought i'd get the chance.
Our four man team headed off for the long haul south in October.
30 hrs later, a couple of bottles of white and only the wonderful air crew to entertain us, we found ourselves in Christchurch, the main jumping off point for expeditions South to the ice.
We had a day here to blearily film in the local museum packed with Scott and Amundsen items.
Our film was to look at Scott's hut on Ross island and the efforts to preserve it, also we wanted to look at Scott's dash South from the point of view of those left behind.

We were to be hosted by the New Zealand Antarctic guys and so we found ourselves in a room full of thermals and coats trimmed with rabbit.
We were issued 6 pairs of gloves and -100 degree boots!

all very exciting, I've never been anywhere that requires such preparation and specialist equipment.We flew out very early in the morning with a bunch of Americans, suited in vast boots and coats in case of an unscheduled plunge into icy wastes!

Our team consisted of Ben Fogle, veteran antarctic traveller and lovely fellow, Nick the sound man and Tim the producer. both were friends with whom I'd filmed with before.

5 hrs later I was lucky enough to be sitting next to the pilot on the jump seat as I filmed our approach and landing into Antarctica, quite staggering. blue blue sky , smoldering mount Erubus  on our left, we skid to a halt on the frozen sea. the trans antarctic mountains rose  4000 metres on our right shoulder. we were here!

Escudo and san fran

What an amazing place. Escudos is a 2km long island off the coast of panama.
Its surrounded by sandstone stacks topped with palm trees. A coral reef encircles the island. White beaches are over hung with palm trees and the interior is mangroves.
This little island is home to at least four endemic species. Orchid, frog, humming bird and sloth. It was the last one we were here to film.

There's only a hundred left in the world and they are all here.
Getting to them meant driving as far as we could by boat then wading into the mangroves. Not easy at all. One slip and the camera goes underwater and it's all over.
We got really lucky and were able to film a mother and baby only a couple of feet away and unlike there larger main land cousins these guys are super chilled. They can even be handled and they just sit there looking like a cross between yoda, ET and a bean bag. Very cute.
The highlight for me was filming one swimming, which they do well. I was able to dive beneath him and film looking up as we swam overhead.
We stayed in an idyllic bay. We swung our hammocks in thatched huts on stilts , at snapper and lobster and the day always started with a swim out to the reef.
The down side to the trip is that the island is supposed to be protected and uninhabited.... We saw mangroves being chainsawed and taken away. We saw permanent dwellings and the fish around the island have been decimated.

Bryson our scientist gives the Pygmy sloth five years before it goes the way of the dodo.


San Francisco

I skipped merrily from Panama to the west coast and hooked up with my friend Tuppence for a few days in San Francisco.
What a wonderful place. I had time to explore Haighte and the mission and all the bars between. loved it.




















We were filming a Madagascan environmentalist for a Natural world. Out of the forest for the first time, receiving an award in  the city.
Typically i think San Francisco was more eye opening for us than it was for him!

Deer fawn prt 2

Ok so two days ago I was sat with a deer fawn nuzzling on my lap.
Yesterday we were walking along a lane, tracking juliette, a mother of three as she walked parallel to us in the woods. Suddenly we hear a child like scream, we ran in to find the bear ripping a dear fawn to pieces.
This was a different image to the gentle lumbering vegetarian earth mothers i had been following
I took one step to close and BWAARR. A 250 lb killing machine with blood dripping jaws charges.
Ooooookkk fine by me, your the boss. I'll back off.
She then trundles off and feeds her cubs at the base of a ceder tree.

australia

Just back from an amazing trip to the northern territories,
We were following the story of Ben and his team who round up thousands of cattle on horseback, quad and helicopter.





These guys are extraordinary, flying below tree level, nudging cattle with the skids.
massive adrenaline rush, flying with them.





I think we got some great footage, with the low sun, massive amounts of dust, cattle, horses and helicopters.
We also had a cineflex system with us, giving stunning aerials.








Great shoot, great bunch of people.

kenya

I was lucky enough in February to head back to Kenya and film at the Elephant Orphanage, with the BBC.

It was magical for me to catch up with everyone there and all my old Ele friends, including Emily and her new calf Eve. I hadnt seen Emily for a couple of years and she's now matriach of a lovely herd of ex orphans out in the wild.

We went out with head keeper Joseph and finaly found her. Em came straight over to say hi, leaving her new calf with the protection of the others. It was really emotional for me ( which i covered up very badly!).

We had a couple of weeks and got up Ithumba in northern Tsavo as well as Voi. The rains had finaly broken after a hideous drought. This ment the water at Ithumba was plentiful and made mudwallow a wonderous spectacle!

first day up the volcano

First day out today in the volcanoes.

It rained……a lot
Squelched our way through mud up a steep track for an hour and a half.
There are three types of nettle on the volcanoes. I found all three and a possible fourth.
For reasons beyond my management level we only have one hour with the gorillas here. So Felix who was our expert today did his best but it just felt pressured. Got a couple of shots of soggy gorillas but not a lot. The silverback was not too pleased to see us and did a couple of impressive charges!! Fangs and all.
It was wonderful to see these gorillas they are very different form the Bwindi variety, there a lot hairier.
Also when the mist/rain/fog clears the views out over the farm land below are staggering. Sooooo a bit disappointing, we really want to make something special, but not sure we will be able to do

it with this limited access.
Anyway we slid down the mountain doing the most outrageous falls in the mud, much to our amusement and nobody else’s!
Myself and Rosie got back very soggy to an extremely welcome

lunch of pizza. Brilliant!

looking at 14 gorillas!

views down through the mist