Forgive me for being flippant, but sometimes I can’t help it. Are other wildlife camera people like this? Probably. In fact most of the ones I know are.
It’s just too much for me to write a piece covering all aspects of wildlife cameraman careers advice, so here is another of my bite-sized snippets: –
You really do have to be able to get along with people. That goes for many careers, but I think it is especially true of a film crew, particularly one that specialises in wildlife filming. Invariably you spend a lot of time in the field together, eating together, living together, obviously working together and frequently travelling together. If you’re not ‘together’ you don’t have a team. If there is a job to do, offer to do it, be it making the tea or getting rid of the rubbish. I know there are occasions when you will be a lone cameraman existing independently in the field for weeks at a time, but that is only one part of the job.
I took this recently on a filming trip to the Yorkshire Dales. What a happy crew we are. Of course, it’s not always like this, but even when the rain is pouring down it’s remarkable how you can keep each other’s spirits up just by laughing about the situation. If you were working on your own under duress you only have yourself to rely on. On the other hand, and I don’t want to get too crude here, and mentioning no names, but you also have to put up with each other’s bad habits and rantings. If you can’t stand having the mickey taken out of you, endless discussions about football, or diabolical smells in a confined space, then you are probably better off deleting ‘wildlife cameraman’ from you career list.