#i'm applying to less stressful jobs in the hopes my next situation won't be in the heart attack zone but see

[gideonisms]

you’re so correct like I can’t believe I’m not going to suddenly switch personalities one day. what do you mean I am who I am and it’s impossible to fight that. personally I have tried to do it and the result was that I lost a lot of hair due to stress. anyway my new technique is to do whatever current me wants and hope that leads to things future me also might want, because shockingly future me IS still me. it remains to be seen how this technique will work

Anon I sympathize with your predicament! I have also tried to do that and basically the result is that every couple of years I become unable to do that, or much of anything in fact. I wish you the best of luck with your new strategy! I think people can get so carried away planning for their future ideal life that they forget they also have to live their present, less ideal life. Never hurts to take stock of your current feelings and do something about those rather than hoping they will just go away. Although at times progress slows to a crawl with this strategy it probably does keep you more invested in staying alive which is a pretty large benefit

#replies #i'm torn because it's about 50/50 older people are glad they pushed themselves to get to a life where they didn't have to #or their health got drastically worse #if you can survive a few years of cbting your way to stability before that breakdown hits maybe worthwhile #but it's a real chance you're taking there #like die of a heart attack risk. #i'm applying to less stressful jobs in the hopes my next situation won't be in the heart attack zone but see #what i really want is to be left alone forever and still eat. which is a bit unrealistic #anyway kids you should probably just be kind to yourself and avoid the death trap that is stomping on your own emotions and reactions

[cold-earth-connection]

I have so many questions. How do you get such incredible shots without influencing the behavior of the animals? Do you try to follow a specific animal or group or scout a location and film whatever comes by?

Haha, this is a complex and very broad one but let me try. Take a deep breath everyone, Olly is about to ramble...

So we often work alongside scientists, ecologists, reserve rangers etc, who have animals they perhaps study or are just aware of, and who they know some of the behavioural patterns of. This is a kicking off point to being in the right place at the right time. It usually means that the animals are often at least a little habituated to human presence, still very much wild wild, but won't freak out at every single scent, noise etc which is good, so that us being there doesn't stress them out too much, and change natural behaviour. And that they don't run every time your producer drops a battery 😅

But, it's a vast spectrum. I'd say that it's around 50% that situation and maybe 50% of speaking to scientists etc remotely and then applying your experience to a situation to track the animal, look for what you need to film and understand how that animal is going to react to you being there, or how you're going to make yourself invisible or just nonthreatening to it. You end up after a while with a good idea of how rodents react to things, wading birds react to things etc. Learn which animals use which senses keenly, and others less so. Just, a lot of time and most importantly a LOT of paying attention to all the little details which is what people usually miss the most. I'm amazed how many experienced producers I know who still balls obvious things up multiple times a day on shoot, because they don't get in the zone and pay attention.

I often say that my favourite thing about this job is the learning curve. It doesn't matter how much you know about cameras and all that rubbish, when you finish a shoot and go on to the next one, you're back to square one and you have to learn everything from the ground up. There's a good reason you see that it always happens 'on the last day' in those behind the scenes, and that's because it takes those weeks out in the field to put all the pieces together to be in the right place at the right time with the right light and the right behavioural conditions!

Hope that inane ramble kind of answered you a bit?

#q&a #ask #answered #wildlife #nature #conservation