A to Z Challenge 2016

By it's very nature filming or photographing nature and wildlife is a solo endeavor. There can only be one eye looking through the viewfinder and oftentimes it's difficult enough for a single filmmaker to get close to wildlife. I don't know about you but when I have an idea in my head, there's no one else [...]

I've been working on a tallgrass prairie film for several years now. The deeper I get into filming the prairie, the more I discover. One thing I've wanted to convey all along is how fragmented the native tallgrass prairie has become in Iowa. Only 1/10th of one percent of native tallgrass prairie survives in Iowa. [...]

Nature. You can talk about it, you can read about it but you can only "get it" if you're in it. I need nature like I need to breathe. Every time I leave the day to day life behind and step out into nature it's like plugging a battery into a charger.  There's nothing that [...]

When I'm out in the field filming nature and wildlife, I'm usually the first and only one there and the beginning of the day and more often than not at the end of the day. I think I can count the number of times I've shared a sunrise with someone on the tallgrass prairie of [...]

Nature and wildlife filmmaking is a visual art, so when I'm out in the field I'm always looking for a subject and a great composition. When it comes to finding and filming wildlife, there's one thing I've noticed helps me more often than not and that's listening. Usually when I'm finished filming a subject, I [...]

There needs to be more kindness in the world when it comes to filming or photographing nature and wildlife. Well, there needs to be more kindness in the world period, but I'm not much of a people person so I don't witness kindness of the every day sort. The thing about kindness is that it [...]

July and August in the tallgrass prairie is the best time to film or photograph a diversity of flowering prairie plants. Specks of orange, red, purple, pink and white can be seen all over the tallgrass prairie, while the big bluestem towers over your head. Butterflies can be found across the prairie as they visit flower after flower. The prairie is also at its peak, with [...]

As a wildlife and nature filmmaker, you're always looking for locations and subjects to film. I know I spend a lot of time researching areas and trying to find out as much information as I can about them before I head out with camera in hand. You can find out a lot about a location [...]

Nature and wildlife are in trouble. Every day more habitat is destroyed and more species become extinct.  The trend has been accelerating faster than most scientists had predicted. As nature and wildlife filmmakers, we probably see it more than anyone else. Fields where I use to watch pheasant and deer walk through have been turned [...]

I've written in previous posts about determination and effort. It's important to have both if you're serious about being a nature and wildlife cinematographer.  But if you throw greed into the mix, you tend to be out in nature for the wrong reasons. The greed I'm talking about is the "I'm getting mine" attitude I hear about [...]