SEPTEMBER 2020 - Western Isles with GCN and some Aerial Filming

Headed off on my fourth job with the Global Cycling Network this summer to film a documentary about the Outer Hebrides and presented by Jenny Graham (fastest women round the world on a bicycle). We were a team of four with Hugh Farrow directing, Jenny presenting, Jason driving the follow truck, setup up specifically for following cyclists. Then myself as 2nd camera and doing the aerial cinematography.

The Islands were amazing and we travelled to 7 different ones and met many locals with interesting stories. Jenny did a great job presenting with her outgoing and very positive approach to life. We started in shorts and t-shirts getting a tan then finished with the horizontal rain trying to give us a skin exfoliation:)

SEPTEMBER 2020 - With the Beluga Lagoon team for a BBC Documentary down at the Borders.

As always great fun working with Andrew and Mark from Beluga Lagoon films as we make another episode of their ‘Roaming in the Wild’ for BBC. This time to the borders and with hiking and stand up boards involved. I was filming them on there journey with camera and drone. Andrew would be getting wildlife shots with his big lenses as we went. Do enjoy this work a lot when you get to take part in the trip (behind the camera) with the team. Carrying camping stuff, stove, tent, sleeping bag, and Camera, tripod, drone and all the batteries makes for a heavy load but good bit of exercise:)

APRIL 2020 - The Great Mountain Sheep Gather

Tonight at 7pm on BBC 4, Easter Monday. Well there has been no filming or work for 5 weeks now due to the Virus for me. But tonight I have some footage on TV at least. 100 minutes of filming of sheep being gathered in from Englands highest peak. This was an awesome job to be involved in. Perfect for me being a mountain instructor and a drone pilot. 6 drone crews were involved which was what made it so special for me working with so many people and learning bits from everyone at some point.

Normally filming as a drone pilot you are looking for a 10-15 second long shots. But the format of this show by Windfall Films is known as slow television and tries to film things real time with no presenter etc. So we were asked to get as long a shot as possible for each shot. That doesn’t mean hold the same framing for ages. It meant getting a shot framed and filmed and in a nice way move into a re-framing and new shot then do this again and again as long as you can without messing up your framing or flying hahaha. I was using the DJI Inspire 2 with X7 camera on wide angle, solo operator. We all got long shots but I was lucky and got the longest shot of the program that made the cut with 7mins 30seconds in there:)

Can’t wait to do some more jobs like this in the future.

The Shepherd Andrew and a helper and the all important dogs. 4:30am walking up the hill. Man he walks fast even when rolling a cigarette!

MARCH 2020 - Plantlife Scotland film

Had a great time in the summer filming this film for Plantlife Scotland about the plants in the Cairngorms and especially the endangered ones. I love the fact with filmmaking you keep meeting knew people and learning lots about new things. As a Mountain Instructor I know a fair bit about the mountain plants but I learned so much more out with these guys:)

Filmed over three days with my ground cameras, steady cam and drone and then added too with my aerial archive and a few wildlife shots from Beluga Lagoon Films and also some music from Beluga Lagoon Band:)

JANUARY 2020 - Thunderdragon kickstarter project hits goal

Gerry and Pia Moffat of the Thunderdragon fund who I worked for in Scotland, Nepal and Bhutan last year started a fundraiser for the 11th step film and it hit its target of $25000 plus a few extra thousand which is great. Now the project and hundreds of hours of footage from myself and a few other DOP’s (Ben Figueiredo and Tyler Allyn) will go into post production to produce a finished film for around easter time, where it has its opening night at a festival near New York.

To follow how the film is going goto: https://thunderdragonfund.org

Trailer for the upcoming film is below, with music from Beluga Lagoon:)

DECEMBER 2019 - A Himalayan holiday for Perfect View productions:)

Well not a work blog here as after filming for two weeks I thought I might as well take a month off from work as I was in Asia and I had never been here before.

I have read many books on the Himalaya and several mates have guided Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam or have just climbed on them for themselves. So I thought it would be great to spend a few weeks and trek into see the peaks for myself and experience the amazing Sherpa country. So I went to climb a peak called Tokyo Ri at 5350m which would give me a stunning view of Everest and take me through many of the places I had heard about.

Everest is the higher peak to the left of the sun. Taken from the summit of Gokyo Ri at 5350m

Everest, Lhotse and Ama Dablam

NOVEMBER 2019 - The Kingdom of Bhutan filming

After a week of filming in Nepal we left the super busy Kathmandu for a much more peaceful and subdued Bhutan. It is a fantastic country that seems to be beautiful in every way. Here we would be filming some of the traditional places to get a feel of Bhutan and to link in to how things have changed since Gerry’s original footage of the country. Gerry also jumps back in a kayak to film on the river. We got a very nice morning shot past the Dzong just below in the landscape picture. We used ground camera throughout and several time lapses too. we couldn’t fly a drone in the country unfortunately. Karma who has known Gerry for many years was our guide, he was excellent.

Gerry’s website to see how the film is progressing is at: https://thunderdragonfund.org

NOVEMBER 2019 - Filming in Nepal

I fly out to Asia for my first time ever to spend a week in Nepal filming a documentary as director of photography with Thunderdragon fund. I worked on this documentary in Scotland with Gerry Moffat back in April May and they were keen on my footage so I got to head to Asia for two weeks filming with them:)

The first week was in Nepal in a small local village where an old friend of Gerry’s has been involved in turning it into a kind of Airbnb style place where you stay with the locals in a beautiful hilltop village over looking the Annapurna range. It was an amazing place with lovely people.

My goal was to catch the mountains in the distance and then catch the locals working with nature in detail. I had an awesome time and the memory of this place will stay with me for a long time:) Some pics below of our stay.

The company I worked for is https://thunderdragonfund.org if you want to check out the progress of the film or to find out more about the amazing Gerry and his adventures:)

The village we stayed in is: www.annapurnahomestay.com if you are interested in looking into it or going for your own stay there:)

Riepe village on the left and Annapurna on the right of shot:)