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Surderban destroy JV's EX1
Picture Daryl Balfour
Together with professional photographers
Daryl & Sharna Balfour, I am moving along the floor of a
deep canyon at Tiger Canyons in the Free State of South
Africa.
Three 10-month-old tigers run, stalk,
pounce, and play in front of us.
On the 10th of January 2009 two normal,
and one white tiger had been born to tigress "Julie".
Unfortunately she had abandoned the cubs soon after
birth and now I was rehabilitating them, preparing them
for a life in the wild.
Tigers love the water and two of them;
Shine (the white female cub) and Zaria (the normal
female cub) were swimming in the pool.
The tigers were beautifully back-lighted
so with the Sony EX1 in hand I moved down the bank
towards the water and began filming. Through the lens,
the back-lit water looked spectacular as the two tigers
romped together.
Although I have Andries and Richard
assisting me, and watching my back as I film, none of
them saw the attack coming.
The male, Sunderban, saw the
opportunity. I was below him and facing away. If he
could knock me over into the water he could be on top of
me before I had a chance to recover myself. I felt the
full impact of the 60kg male tiger as he hit me at
shoulder height. I had no chance, myself, and camera
flew through the air landing in the water. Fortunately I
missed the rocks otherwise it would've been more than
just a broken camera. The EX1 was completely submerged
and being electronic, there was no way it could've
survived.
As I tried to dry the camera in the sun,
the horrible truth hit me. I was expecting the birth of
tigress Julie's 3rd litter. Now I was without a camera.
Accidents always seem to happen on
Friday's so I would have to wait two days to get help.
The wait could be costly, I may miss the birth
completely.
I phoned Alan Worsley of Magnus / Visual
Impact and he told me that he had some new EX1's but
they hadn't cleared customs yet.
My assistant, Jade de Klerk, drove the
EX1 to Jo'burg on Sunday, and by Monday morning it was
with Gordon...... The Magnus visual technician who
confirmed that corrosion had set in, and that the camera
was beyond repair.
I immediately phoned Andy Dougal of
Crawford Douglas, the insurers of the camera. They paid
up in record time and Alan's new EX1's cleared customs
and Jade was heading back to tigers by Thursday in time
for me to capture the birth of Julies 5 cubs (4 normal,
and 1 white) on the Sunday.
For 30 years I have filmed around Africa
using the Arriflex SR2 movie camera. At one stage I
owned six Arriflex cameras. I had Masai, Shangaan, and
Zambian camermen rolling the Arries. My library
currently stands at 4.5 million feet of film, the
biggest private Super-Sixteen wildlife film library in
the world.
The ability to shoot at 150 f.p.s
remains one of the greatest features of the Arriflex
camera and it remains one of my favorites.
In 2002 I converted to video camera, and
in 2008 I was introduced to the EX1. I can say without a
shadow of a doubt it is the finest camera I have ever
possessed.
Much of the work I do with tigers is on
my own. Where I go I cannot take crews with me. I crawl
into dens, I hunt on foot with the tigress Julie, and I
have a very personal relationship with many of the
tigers.
The EX1 is light, I can walk, and run
with it.
The EX1 has proved reliable and rugged.
It has frequently withstood the impact of the tigers
jumping on me and it.
I have never regarded myself as a
film-maker. Rather I am a communicator that commentates
what I see in front of me. The reversible screen enables
me to do self-interviews in the heat of the moment, and
if I don't like the delivery, I can simply delete it and
do another one.
I never use radio-microphones, as they
simply wouldn't last long around the tigers. Instead I
keep my mouth close to the camera and it produces audio
which is pure and crisp.
The EX1 shoots full high definition and
has a "silver status rating" with the big television
broadcasters.
Recently, using the EX1, I shot the
birth of two tiger cubs at 10:30am. By 19:00pm the
sequence was on YouTube and by the following morning I
had 10,000 hits. This truly is communication at its very
best.
Sunette Fourie has delivered hundreds of
sequences straight from the camera without having to go
through the Avid system.
For any film-makers / communicators
working alone under difficult circumstances I can highly
recommend the EX1.
If Sony brings out a light, rugged EX1
with inter-changeable lenses, it will be the absolute,
ultimate camera for me!
In the meantime, I can safely say that I
have had more fun and more success with the EX1 than any
camera I have possessed.
I would like to thank Alan Worsley and
Gordon. of Magnus Visual Impact for securing me a camera
so quickly.
To Andy Dougal of Crawford Douglas for
paying the insurance swiftly, and to Jade de Klerk for
driving to Jo'burg and back (1300km) to get my camera
back in time for the birth of the next litter of 5
cubs.
For sale:
Shingalana, Living with Tigers, Jamu, Perfect Mothers
contact us
[email protected]
YouTube movie clips
John Varty also made wildlife
films. As part of his filming projects, he
introduced cheetah, a lioness, two leopards and
two tigers to the wild. He came to realize these
magnificent creatures are no less complex and
intelligent than we are. JV believed that
through film he could make people concerned
about habitat destruction which was resulting in
more and more species dying out every day. “I
wonder if my children will ever fly in the dust
of 1500 elephants, or half a million wildebeest
migrating from the Serengeti or see a jaguar
swimming across an Amazonian river. I hope so."
His films have achieved top ratings on US TV
channels and have been seen by millions of
people and, he hopes, have resulted in a greater
reverence for our planet and all living things.
He has won many top documentary honors such as
the New York Gold Award, the Film Festival of
Montana Best Independent Program and American
Cable TV's Ace Award. Major international
customers include Walt Disney, The Discovery
Channel, Time Life, Reader's Digest and Turner
Original Programs (TOP).
Shingalana
JV believed that through film he could make
people concerned about habitat destruction which was resulting
in more and more species dying out every day. He believed that
conservation tourism could provide the income to make the
wilderness a self-sustaining business. JV realized that he could
communicate far more effectively with a camera in his hands.
Filming is incredibly hard physical work and there is always the
element of danger. He has been charged by a lion, even to the
point of being knocked down. He narrowly escaped being gored by
a buffalo. He just managed to side-step the vicious jaws of a
crocodile on the banks of the Sand River when his attention was
on filming a giraffe on the opposite bank. He has been caught in
a wildebeest and zebra migration in the Masai Mara and he has
literally crawled away from a helicopter accident.
Over the years his productions have taken him
all over the world and he has built up a network of contacts in
Kenya, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, South Africa, the United States,
Canada, Australia, Peru and the Amazon. His films have achieved
top ratings on US TV channels and have been seen by millions of
people and, he hopes, have resulted in a greater reverence for
our planet and all living things. He has won many top
documentary honors such as the New York Gold Award, the Film
Festival of Montana Best Independent Program and American Cable
TV's Ace Award. Major international customers include Walt
Disney, The Discovery Channel, Time Life, Reader's Digest and
Turner Original Programs (TOP).
Filming has done two things for JV. Firstly is
has opened doors all over the world for him. Secondly, it has
broadened his horizons to the ecological disasters that man
perpetrates globally.
JV's Films:
Living with Tigers
Shingalana
Ambush in Paradise
Troubled Waters Swift and Silent
The Super Predators
Defining Moments
Super Hunts Super Hunters
Survival on the Savannah
Wet and Wild
The Tracker
Sense and Scentability
Horn and Claw
Londolozi's Africa
Hunters
Savannah Cats
Hyaena the Great Opportunist
Cycle of the Seasons
Brothers in Arms
The Mating Game
The Silent Hunter
River Dinosaur
Savage Instinct
Perfect Mothers
Perfect Predators
A Secret Life
Jamu the Orphaned Leopard
Return of the Kings
The Brotherhood
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