So, last week was an interesting and new experience for me. I spent Monday to Thursday working for Aden Productions. They are a production company that specialises in natural history film-making and are currently working on a series called Iolo’s Snowdonia . It will be a 4-part series with Iolo Williams presenting a program about what I discovered to be a truly stunning place – Snowdonia.
The trip for me started on Monday when I drove to Chepstow to pick up Graham, the camera man. We then drove on to Brecon, where we met Osian, who took us on to Llanbedr, Gwynedd. Here we would meet John the producer and spend the next two nights at Ty Mawr Hotel. It is a lovely hotel, set in a beautiful location.
Tuesday morning would see us meet up with Dafydd the sound man and Iolo at Coed Crafnant Nature Reserve. The reserve is an ancient oak woodland owned by North Wales Wildlife Trust and probably one of the most relaxing and peaceful places I have been to. The only sounds you hear are the river that runs below the wood and bird song. It’s therapy for the soul. After we had got the aerial shots and the rest of the crew went higher up in the wood to film Pied Flycatchers and Wood Warblers, Iolo suggested that I have a sleep whilst they were filming. So I put my coat on the ground, laid down and slept under the canopy of the wood! Falling asleep to bird song is something special.
Next up was to film some sequences by the river below the wood. Graham filmed Wagtails and a young Robin, whist the drone was used to get some shots of Iolo walking over a bridge and out towards the wood. Then it was off to scout out some other locations and then back to the hotel for a lovely meal in the hotel's pub.
Wednesday saw Iolo out in the morning for what turned out to be a very nauseating helicopter flight where he was filmed (from the helicopter) walking on the peaks of some of Snowdonia’s mountains. He informed us in the afternoon that the helicopter couldn’t land at some of the locations as it was just too windy. At times, it was windy enough down on the ground, so I’m certainly glad I wasn’t up in the helicopter! Myself and John (John operating the camera) got some shots of Cwm Idwal with the drone before we relocated to another site to film nesting Ravens. Then in the evening it was out for curry in Caernarfon!
On Thursday, with the help of a guide, we were due to venture up the Glyderau. But the wind was forecast to be blowing at over 40mph, so that plan was abandoned. We filmed some sequences of Iolo meeting Hannah at Cwm Idwal from the drone and from the ground. Hannah is a guide for the area and would have been advising Iolo of what to expect on the mountain tops had we ventured up them. So instead of mountain climbing, the crew had a much easier rest of the day filming a nesting Mistle Thrush and a beautiful river that flowed from a waterfall in the side of a mountain. It was yet another incredibly stunning location – we were down in a valley surrounded by towering mountains. Gorse was flowering adding splashes of yellow to the pallet of green and slate grey. As I sat on the rocks in the river at the base of the waterfall, I couldn’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be. Sadly, I didn’t get to fly the drone at this location, the wind was just too gusty. This was a shame as I know that the shots from the drone would have been breathtaking. In the afternoon myself, Graham and Osian left Iolo, John and Dafydd filming some presenter pieces and that was my little adventure over. All that remained was the journey back home, which when you are driving through Snowdonia and then the Brecon Beacons, is certainly no hardship!
The whole experience for me was one I will never forget. It was a pleasure to meet and work with people that are so passionate about wildlife and the environment. These are people that in my mind, really make a difference. They produce material that shows us the wonderful variety of species and environments that we have right on our doorstep and how important these species and environments are. I believe that these natural history documentaries that get made by people that genuinely care about what they do are the most important forms of media there are. When many people can’t draw themselves away from their social media feeds, we need these programs to inspire the next generation of people that will care for the planet.
I suppose really, I should talk about the drone! To be honest, the drone was simply a tool for the job and I know it sounds daft, but when you are working in such a beautiful location, the drone seems almost irrelevant! All I will say for now is that I was flying DJI’s Inspire 2 and it was very, very good. I didn't want to hand it back to them! I am due to be working with Aden productions again on this very same project, so I will go into detail more about the drone after the next trip to Wales.
This week I am trying to squeeze in visits to the cement works to capture some of its wildlife for the book I’m working on – Westbury Cement Works: An Illustrated History. These visits must be fitted around flight exams that I’m doing (as an examiner) at Phoenix UAV Centre, on behalf of the Aerial Academy. It’s going to be a busy week!
