When the opportunity arises to go into a country whose deserts are the subject of the two of the great early writings on desert travel the offer no matter the initial circumstances have to be accepted.
No Basis for an Expedition.
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Why I’m not going to KMF 2011
To put it simply the Kendal Film Festival is too good at its job.
For the last three years I have been to the festival in some capacity including the bum numbing marathon that I did last year. Each time I have gone back for more; to hear from and meet up with the people who are out there doing it. The filmmakers the photographers, the athletes and the audience all congregate in the same place for these awesome few days. Watching, listening and spending hours immersed in inspiring footage and talks though has had a predictable outcome. I’ve become one of those people who is going out there.
In about a weeks time I head out to Oman with for a month and a half to accompany the first half of a 3 month expedition that is travelling south to north of this incredible country. Having read Thesiger’s landmark book on the empty quarter I am psyched to be heading out there to document this expedition.
I’m gutted however that I’m missing Kendal because besides getting to catch up on what everyone else has been doing, I really want to show my support for two of the guys I was at Uni with. Matt Pycroft who worked on The Long Hope/Hot Aches Film and also for Dom Bush of Land and Sky Media who has got his first major production in probably the best slot possible in the festival! Alongside Camp4 Collective and Hot Aches sits ‘Islands: Traditional Tales of Lakeland Climbing’ in Climbing 2. Serious congrats to both of them who have worked so hard, they both deserve it.
Looking forward to going in 2012 and having something of my own or stories to re-tell there in the future.
Sim.
Northern Pole of Inaccessibility Expedition
Watching Frozen Planet last night has in my mind justified the reasons why I started on the path of being an expedition photographer and the UK Ice Warrior training that I have just completed. As a photographer with a bit of a desire for adventure watching the first part of this series has done nothing but make me train harder even though this means looking like a numpty as I practice my cross-country skiing with no snow (or ski’s to that matter) across the fields of Suffolk. All this training is being put toward the expedition that I am Joining next year headed by Jim McNeill (pictured above talking to new recruits about the expedition) to reach the Northern Pole of Inaccessibility on the Arctic Ocean.
An Inaccessible pole is defined as the point furthest from land or sea in any direction and in the north is a point that has yet to be reached. Until recently it was believed that Wally Herbert had reached this pole but more recent data has re-determined the location of the pole. Wally Herbert’s achievements and story is an incredible one to research if you are lacking in your knowledge of great British polar explorers. Along the way to the pole the team will be collecting scientific data from a region of the ice cap that has yet to be measured.
In January I will be heading to Spitsbergen on Svalbard, Norway in order to complete 3 weeks of polar expedition training and the main expedition for the pole sets of in February from Resolute Bay, Canada. Photographically this is going to be a huge challenge working in conditions of exhaustion, dehydration and of course the cold, but despite this I can’t wait to get out there. Beyond the photographic challenges of documenting the expedition, psychically this is going to be hard work and the reason that training has started so early. I feel truly fortunate to be involved with a project like this and the potential that lays ahead.
I am currently looking for entrepreneurial sponsors for whom connecting with the values of exploration, scientific discovery, testing conditions and being involved with an attempt at a world first professional expedition and sharing the benefits of an expedition which will be gaining national media attention.
If you are interested in commercial sponsorship of my activity within the expedition then I would love to talk and discuss some of the options that I already have and customising a package to create maximum benefit for your company. You can email me through this link
Sim.
Ice Warrior UK Training
Last year as the end of Uni was in sight and I made the transition into being a professional photographer I visited the outdoors show in order to seek some interesting expeditions and companies to work with and see where in the world I could go. One of the companies who grabbed my attention was Ice Warrior (http://www.ice-warrior.com) who run logistics for large expedition’s, provide safety training for production companies and most excitingly run their own expeditions.
Ice warrior is headed by Jim McNeill a polar explorer with 33 Years experience in professional expedition, and is a truly invaluable person to learn everything from planning and funding professional expeditions to safety and logistics. He has been the main safety and logistical coordinator for many of the BBC NHU productions including Frozen Planet which starts tonight.
Since first meeting up with Jim at the outdoors show I have since been down to the Dartmoor National Park three times in order to partake in training for the High Arctic. The past 10 days have been a series of intensive and practical lectures which have covered everything from the conceptualisation of an expedition through to putting it on and everything in-between.
The course is aimed at ensuring that the teams that ultimately form for the expeditions are competent and capable of the tasks that they will be set, so the course ensured adequate skill in navigation theory, compass, GPS and map usage, Rescue systems and the appropriate rope work needed for the Arctic. The last four days were dedicated to a Rescue and Emergency Care Level 4 first aid course which takes the core values of a standard first aid course and builds upon them for situations where emergency services will not be with you for hours/days. While it is not something you can practically practice everyday knowing a bit more about what to do in an emergency.
Currently I am looking for sponsorship in order to be able to complete the Polar training and join a world first expedition being organised by Jim in 2012. I will be posting more information about this expedition soon.
Sim.
Dragoman.
While in my about page I claim that Suffolk doesn’t have much to offer in the means of adventure, I have been recently made to at least eat the brim of my hat. Based in Debenham in the heart of rural Suffolk is a Company called Dragoman. Dragoman are one of the worlds biggest overland adventure companies and I have recently been looking through over 30 years worth of footage from them to produce a 3 min short providing a snapshot of the company. It was really interesting looking through the footage especially the 1962 documentary which includes duly imperial voiceovers describing the scene, pith helmets and monocles.
Hopefully there is more to come from dragoman and I get to know more about this interesting company.
Dragoman’s site - http://www.dragoman.com/
Sim.
Northumbria & Borders Biking Expedition
Last week I joined Dom Bush and three awesome guys (Knowli, Donny and Michael) on a 3 day biking expedition cycling round the scottish borders and northumbria. We were filming for one of the last projects of my degree course, the aim of which was to capture the expedition experience while filming a 3rd party expedition. Over the course of the 4 days in Northumbria and the borders we were blessed with the best spell of March weather and expedition filming partner that could’ve been hoped for.
Dom Setting up a dolly shot.
Lugging tripods dollies and cranes around made for an exhausting experience, but it was one of the best few days of filming I have ever had. Having to be on top of logistics and timings, combining the usual outdoor activities of hillwalking etc with the added pressure of when you get to the top you have to be fit enough to keep in mind all the usual film bits was such an enjoyable an rewarding experience. Expedition filming stretches your ability to arrive at a location and quickly be on top of gear causing the minimum about of hold ups and , interacting with those that your filming and
Knowli sorting out the GoPro HD on his bike.
One of the best things that we did was giving the 3 guys who were biking the GoPro camera and allowing them to just play with it, while some of the shots worked better than others, giving the 3 the freedom of their own camera really paid off and got them more interested in the filming process. We were really conscious of not inflicting too much on their experience, from the feedback they gave we seemed to achieve this however for me and dom who went from filming in one location, bundling back in the van then meeting them at the next location and filming again. Full on but great fun.
A still from a time lapse that i’m particularly pleased with.
The edit process is on hold until the other uni projects are out of the way but come may then I will in the edit suites sorting it all out. In the mean time my laptop is doing night shifts processing through some of the 10 time lapses we shot over the 4 days.
The van needed some back door tinkering in order to avoid having to dive through all the kit to open it. Inside the van left camping kit, right media kit (tripods dolly crane and various other bits) underneath food + ‘refreshments’.
My f-stop gear bag holding up well with all the kit needed to film inside, a 4 meter collapable crane outside and video tripod balanced on the top!!
Meeting back at the van often meant it was time to refuel, a welcome break for everyone.
A rough start to the morning,
The late cure to boggy ground – Drying shoes round the fire.
Part of the expedition experience summed up with the objects in each of knowli’s hands.
Waving goodbye as Dom clearly misses the bikes already.
Looking forward to starting the edit.
Sim.
All Photos are ©Sim Davis and Dom Bush
Top films of ShaFF 2011
This weekend was the Sheffield Adventure Film Festival. Like Kendal it was packed with a variety of great films, some which I had seen at Kendal, some new ones and some which I just didn’t mind watching again and again. I’ve been really happy to see the quality of kayaking films has made a jump and the quality is catching up with other areas of adventure sport. Continue reading