South Africa Bound

Well other than my Mom I am not sure who still reads my blog, but then again I haven't posted anything lately until now :)

The day is almost near to where my next adventure will begin. I leave Friday (Oct 12) for Cape Town South Africa to complete a 5 week wildlife filmmaking course. To where the first 2 weeks are spent in lectures learning about the industry from creating story ideas, to pitching them to people to get funding, and where to look for funding/jobs. We will also be getting hands on lectures with the various equipmet used and we will get to use them for the 3rd week when we go out and film.
For filming we will be heading out to a park/game reserve to capture footage to piece together a 5 min story. Then the last 2 weeks are spent editing and finishing up the 5 min broadcast quality film which will be shown on the last day for critiques.

I am really looking forward for the course for many reasons. I will be back in Africa (I loved Kenya), I will be given lectures by pros in wildlife filmmaking, I will finally learn the aspects of what it takes to get into the industry. Oh yeah and I will be riding around in open top rangers for filming :)

Of course I am a little nervous as I still haven't really planed out exactly what I want to film (I have a brief idea but haven't pieced together 5min worth). But then again working with nature nothing really goes to plan :) So I am not to worried as I am usually pretty creative when it comes to editing footage together (or at least in my mind as I have things back logged so to speak). Also I will most likely be driving to and from the Academy which will be an adventure in it self as they drive on the left.

I of course will take my camera and try to get some still pictures, I will also try to keep a better journal this time maybe make a video journal, and will try to post it often.

Well back to packing

Hope all is well
Simon

More hummingbirds

Hummingbirds

Bret bought 2 hummingbird feeders to put outside of the bunkhouse and they are attracting a lot of them now. So it is time to do some more photography here are some of the first quick shots I took tonight without much planning. I know have a couple pictures in mind that I am going to try and get which I will post if I can manage it

Trying to capture some of the sunsets

I have gone out a couple times to experiment with settings to try and capture the sunset colors.
The top is the view from the bunkhouse, lower is from the overlook

Where I am living now

Refuge Complex

This was taken from the bunkhouse (Grey Goose Lodge) just outside the front door.
If you click to enlarge the picture there are lables to the buildings

Finally getting into a routine

Well things are finally starting to fall into place more or less. As soon as I think I have the vegetation down it dies and new different stuff pops up. But still knowing the old stuff I am a little quicker so I don't have to go out much to double check veg. So that means having a full 3 days off a week, which this is really the first time. So today Matt and I headed to Idaho Falls (well a town on the outskirts) to drive around more and get groceries.

Tomorrow I think I am going to hike Caribou Mountain and try to see if I can see the flames of the big fire going on in Wyoming that we can see the smoke from here (I will add the picture tomorrow).