Brave – Sometimes You Have to Take the Chance When Filming Nature and Wildlife

All of us that film nature and wildlife have our comfort zones. When we encounter a subject, whether it be a plant or animal, we tend to fall into that comfort zone and film our subjects the same way time after time.

When I’m filming woodland wildflowers or tallgrass prairie flowers, I tend to film them on calm days with the camera locked off. The footage looks great but if you show my footage of flowers one after another, they tend to start looking like a slide show instead of video. That’s my comfort zone, that’s my recipe for success. A lot of times if it’s the first time filming that subject, I’ll call up my recipe and film my subject just to be sure that I come back with some decent footage. Nothing wrong with that at all.

If you decide to be a little brave however, and step out of that comfort zone you’ll not only have a new recipe for your filmmaking cookbook but you’ll come home with some unique footage.

Case in point. I was filming a grizzly bear last Fall in Montana. I had shot some great footage of the grizzly trying to rip up an old stump but the grizzlies face was obscure by a tree trunk between the bear and I.

Now my typical recipe for a situation like that would be to try to move to one side and get a clear view of the bears face. I mean after all, there’s not a huge demand for footage of grizzly bear ears which is about all I could see from my vantage point.

Taking another look at the situation, I realized that if the stars aligned just right, I might be able to get me “Brandenburg” shot.

Nature and wildlife photographer. Jim Brandenburg took a famous image of a wolf peering out from behind a tree. It’s always been a favorite of mine and I realized that if the bear moved his head to my left, I could get that shot. If the bear didn’t move its head I’d be coming home with some of the best grizzly bear ear footage that’s ever been shot!

I decided to be brave and step out of my comfort zone and take the risk that the shot might not happen.

The bear moved his head farther to my right. Now I wasn’t even going to get grizzly ear footage! I stayed put and decided to wait it out for better or for worse.

The bear started to move its head again, this time however to my left! I held my breath hoping that it would peek out from behind the tree far enough to see half its face.

The bear kept on moving farther to my left. I hit the record button on my camera and did my best silent cheerleading to the bear to keep moving his head. Finally the bears eye appeared from behind the tree all captured in glorious 1080p/60p! If I had struck to my recipe, I never would have had the opportunity. I would have had some nice bear footage, but by being brave and going for broke, I came home with one of my favorite grizzly bear clips of all time!

And as always, shoot the ordinary and make it extraordinary!