There is nothing to fear....
It appears that to be a member of the Wildfilms crew, you need to have nerves of steel, or perhaps a lack of a normal sense of fear.
From my own observations of how we work, a call of "Danger! Step back and come no closer!" is always met with a pause, then assuming the camera gear is all ready, the source of danger will be located, approached, and filmed. Or abused. From the point of view of the creature, I'm pretty sure it sometimes isn't pleasant.
We've encountered several creatures large and small, and all of them willing to cause us a perhaps a lot of pain, if not a painful death if not approached with respect.
A cobra that was spotted as we walked along a trail out of Chek Jawa on Pulau Ubin, several encounters with a stonefish, of which one of us was put out of action for a month. Fierce monkeys on one of the Southern Islands. Stingrays, one of which got a crew member, who stubbornly soldiered on. She only recently rediscovered her ankle. Little glow-in-the-dark creatures, some of which were identified as copepods, and others as fireflies, though sometimes I'm not convinced. The rest will deny and say that it's something copmletely benign. Like a marker buoy. And just recently, an encounter with a large monitor lizard that we got within 10 cm of.
Being one of the two crew members that was present to film the guy, I must say that I felt absolutely no fear whatsoever while filming the lizard. I have to say that Cynthia, who is probably the most normal member of the crew in terms of her fear of reptiles, held out quite well, and got one of the best shots of the creature I have ever seen, getting within half a meter of the lizard's nose.
I think that there is some hope for Cynthia! She has now approached a monitor lizard, and handled a file snake, without freaking out. The more time she spends with us, I guess the more warped her sense of fear will eventually become.
So far, I've had the privilege of handling a number of reptiles as a research volunteer, and as a "unofficial pest control manager" during my time in University. Now, as a wildfilms crew member, I've yet to find the limit of my fear.
However, I believe that I have a great deal of respect for these creatures, great and small, and the pain that they can deal out, which I think will be quite a fair bit more than I can ever deal out with the end of a monopod....
From my own observations of how we work, a call of "Danger! Step back and come no closer!" is always met with a pause, then assuming the camera gear is all ready, the source of danger will be located, approached, and filmed. Or abused. From the point of view of the creature, I'm pretty sure it sometimes isn't pleasant.
We've encountered several creatures large and small, and all of them willing to cause us a perhaps a lot of pain, if not a painful death if not approached with respect.
A cobra that was spotted as we walked along a trail out of Chek Jawa on Pulau Ubin, several encounters with a stonefish, of which one of us was put out of action for a month. Fierce monkeys on one of the Southern Islands. Stingrays, one of which got a crew member, who stubbornly soldiered on. She only recently rediscovered her ankle. Little glow-in-the-dark creatures, some of which were identified as copepods, and others as fireflies, though sometimes I'm not convinced. The rest will deny and say that it's something copmletely benign. Like a marker buoy. And just recently, an encounter with a large monitor lizard that we got within 10 cm of.
Being one of the two crew members that was present to film the guy, I must say that I felt absolutely no fear whatsoever while filming the lizard. I have to say that Cynthia, who is probably the most normal member of the crew in terms of her fear of reptiles, held out quite well, and got one of the best shots of the creature I have ever seen, getting within half a meter of the lizard's nose.
I think that there is some hope for Cynthia! She has now approached a monitor lizard, and handled a file snake, without freaking out. The more time she spends with us, I guess the more warped her sense of fear will eventually become.
So far, I've had the privilege of handling a number of reptiles as a research volunteer, and as a "unofficial pest control manager" during my time in University. Now, as a wildfilms crew member, I've yet to find the limit of my fear.
However, I believe that I have a great deal of respect for these creatures, great and small, and the pain that they can deal out, which I think will be quite a fair bit more than I can ever deal out with the end of a monopod....
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home