Infectious

I haven’t written for a little bit, not that I’ve been busy but I’ve been busy doing nothing.

My normal line of work (VFX) hasn’t really yielded much work this year, what with an over flooded market and Hollywood supposedly in a state of disarray thanks to A.I. a lot of companies just haven’t seen the work, couple this with Tax Subsidy restrictions and a New Zealand Government that simply doesn’t understand nor see the benefits of pushing the film industry here in New Zealand and well….. it’s been rough.

What this busy doing nothing time has allowed me to do though is to go out on a whim and film stuff. I’ve seen things while out walking that have excited me, discovered new areas that in ten years of living here I didn’t know existed and spent more hours than is healthy with a GoPro mounted upside down on a long poll submersed in the crystal clear rivers near me in the hope of filming some fish. Like fishing, I was unsuccessful, but the water was very inviting.

I also found the time to start sorting out digital assets and am 95% sure that we have a New Zealand Falcon frequenting the area, but I’ve yet to get tangible proof (for non Kiwi’s the Falcon is on the endangered list, so this is quite special).

Which brings me nicely to the title of this blog post.

You see I am like a kid in a candy store when I see a Falcon and indeed if I hear the Ruru calling of a night it lifts me up mentally and emotionally and puts a huge smile on my face to know that they are around and in the area even if they’re not using the box. But in the same way you can’t expect everyone to get excited that Arsenal just won the Premiership after 22 years (Go the Gunners!) or to agree on any given subject, you can’t really expect everyone to get massively excited about the fact you have seen a Falcon or that you are privileged to have Ruru raise their young on your property in a box you built!

But this leads to a bit of disappointment for me. My Family (mostly my daughter) support me and fein a passing interest, “Oh that’s nice that they’re still around and haven’t been hit by a truck” but I know that in reality they’re too busy with their own lives to really care, it just gives them some ideas for Christmas presents “We can get him a mug with Owls on it, something a bit different to a soap on a rope”

Of course I understand this is my world, I can’t expect people to get anymore excited by all of this than I can excited by the fact that my daughter is proud of her helix piercing.

So you tend to migrate (no pun intended) into groups of people who share a bit of your passion, but the danger of this is you find yourself in somewhat of an echo chamber, although it can be socially interesting to sit back and observe the insecurities and competition inside these chambers as everyone vies to get as many facebook likes as they can. I’m part of a one facebook group in particular and it’s truly astonishing to me the level of competition that this group unwittingly fosters for likes.

I grew up in England and not in a well educated, cocooned environment, if Germans were mentioned it wasn’t unusual for people to hold up a finger under their nose as a fake moustache and start goose stepping, as I grew older I started to think this was stupid, but it wasn’t until I moved to Germany that I really appreciated just how stupid this was! I loved Germany and the people, I made some great friends and had a really nice life for the most part.
But what has this got to do with anything Steve? Well these days when I mention to someone that I am a budding wildlife filmmaker and photographer the response is often or not “Ah so you’re David Attenborough” which makes me chuckle because I’m never quite sure if they are comparing me and the great man himself due to my age or just simply that Wildlife filmmaking is synonymous with him and so by making this comparison they have effectively pigeon holed me and can file it safely away.

So of course my own excitement is not “infectious” to everyone and at times I have thought it would be quite nice to go out with like minded people and shoot some film or stills of nature, but yesterday I decided to venture further afield and try to film some Sacred Kingfishers which seem very prevalent right now, it wasn’t long before I had found a spot and was trying to film them fishing that someone else rocked up and after a while sidled up to me and started chatting. The King fishers decided they wouldn’t stick around and I was getting eaten alive by sandflies, I was also in need of a pee, so after a while I decided I would depart. This decision coincided with the arrival of another chap so now we were three.
Now please don’t get me wrong, NO seriously, don’t get me wrong, it was nice to chat to the guys but I suddenly became aware that I was becoming irritated because all I wanted to really do was spend some time quietly immersed in nature and capture the birds fishing.
After spraying myself with bug spray and having a pee I returned a bit further along the inlet and captured a bit of footage but I’m sad to say my mojo was gone.

So there you have it, on the one hand it would be nice to have a chat, hang with some like minded people, but ultimately I really prefer the solitude and to be literally at one with Nature.

Does that make me an arse?