Adventures with an SLR

Well, I know I said I’d be updating the blog regularly whilst I’m here, but it’s proving a little difficult since I’m mainly restricted to phone internet (very useful to have, but extremely slow!) unless I use the Sea Watch computers out of office hours.

Waves crashing on boats in New Quay Harbour

I’ve been here about a week and a half now and I absolutely love it.  To begin with the weather was a little blustery, and it was a while before I could get out on a boat since the sea state was too rough.  Plus the wind made getting any steady footage pretty much impossible … but the past few days have been amazing.  Wednesday and Thursday saw stunning sunshine and really calm sea.  I spent both mornings on the quay from 7/7.30am for a few hours then did two boat trips on Ermol 6 (a tourist boat that allows sea watch volunteers to come along)

Cormorant in between dives

Filming on a boat is proving a very interesting experience; I haven’t done much hand-held work before now, so having to hand hold my camera AND try to combat the rocking of the boat is rather difficult!  Practice practice practice…

"Chris" ... the view of a dolphin I'm used to seeing!

It seems I’ve seen dolphins most days, with a dolphin named Chris being one I can count on to come into New Quay harbour so I can film her! The other morning I was lucky enough to see a couple of porpoise in the harbour; they tend to be more shy, and are much smaller than bottlenose dolphins.  In addition, if there are porpoises there won’t be dolphins since the dolphins tend to attack the porpoise due to the competition for food.   However a couple of dolphins turned up so we thought we’d be in for a bit of a scene.  Luckily for the porpoise they made a run for it so no drama.  I’ve seen a couple of seals (although they’re not above the water for long) and there are loads of different species of seabird here too; birds rock is just south of new quay and has fulmars, gulls, guillemots, razorbills and cormorants.  Plus gannets feed in the area.

A herring gull joining the boat trip

I still have an awful lot of footage to get, but it seems to be going well!

I’ve  posted the film about Animals in Captivity to my vimeo account.  It was completed by myself and two of my coursemates at the end of last year; All shots were taken on location at both Chester Zoo and Twycross Zoo.

Camerawork: Katherine Dixon
Director: Mia Balashova
Sound & Music: Ellery Chu

Editing: K Dixon, M Balashova, E Chu.

Animals In Captivity Film

Click the image above to be taken to my vimeo account, and watch the film.

I’ve started to upload some of my films to Vimeo. Though I still have a free account, so it’s one video a week for now!

First up is the film that started off everything. Our first film assignment was to make a 3.5 minute short about Wollaton Park in Nottingham. The day got off to a bad start since I was feeling absolutely dreadful, yet everything took a total 180 whilst filming the deer rutting, and I realised I’d found something I absolutely loved doing. I was a bit apprehensive about the video element to my course as I’d never really done any filming before, photography being my main interest. But, whilst I still really enjoy photography, filming has become my passion. I will do whatever it takes to become a professional.

Deer at Wollaton Park

Here’s a link to the film: Wollaton Park