The thought of spending the whole of January in Melbourne, Australia might sound very appealing to most people and I have to confess I have been lucky enough to do just that for the last three years whilst working on the Open Tennis. However when the temperature reaches 42 degrees celsius it changes from being pleasant to down right unbearable.  This year was my fourth time looking after the 30 plus remote cameras used for all the outside courts on the event.  This method of providing coverage continues to grow and develop with new technology playing a key role.  So what do you do if the heat is too much?  Jump on a plane and head straight to South Korea where the temperature is a chilly -15 to -20 degrees C. Lets just say packing for these two trips was a challenge.  This is my 6th Olympics and my third winter games, this time I am working with a small team of experts at the Sliding Centre.  This is where the bobsleigh, luge and skeleton events take place and our role involves rigging...

After several months of development and testing the new MkII 'Cambush' Tigger is here. This latest version of the active infra red, beam break trigger boasts a range of new features and improvements.  Gone are the rubber toggle switch and mode button, to be replaced with a fully IP67 rated membrane keypad.  The receiver now has an external 1.3" OLED display allowing full access to all settings through a simple and intuitive menu system.  No need to open up the case in the field any more apart from to change batteries.  The OLED screen is easily woken with a button press and displays trigger counts, sensitivity and battery status.  Inside a fully redesigned circuit board and new battery enclosure with an easy to open, clip in lid to retain batteries whilst in transit. Battery life is also improved and a set of alkaline AA's can now last as much as 120 days or up to 150 days if using lithiums. These triggers link to the trap wirelessly and provide the most reliable and tuneable form of t...

Its certainly been a busy few months with new kit developments going on, including a new wireless remote for the 'Cambush' system and several new projects kicking off all of which require some degree of specialist camera design.

On top that there have been a number of, shall we say, more conventional camera jobs with variety being the name of the game.  The latest was a quick trip to Athens to film a special Foo Fighters concert in the Odeon of Herodes, an ancient amphitheatre which sits in the shadows of the Parthenon.  The concert was as you'd expect, pretty amazing but the location made it quite spectacular and a real privilege to work on.

On Thursday I attended the annual Big Cats talk and discussion at the Royal Agricultural University as their guest speaker.  I had met the organiser, Rick Minter last autumn at an event in the Forest of Dean and was interested in his use of camera traps and his longterm project to record and document sightings of big cats in the UK.  Naturally I was very pleased when he asked if I would give a talk on my experiences of filming with my own camera traps which include filming tigers, though not in UK!  The evening was very interesting with some fascinating eye witness encounters being shared.  My thanks to Rick for inviting me.  

 Once again the nation has been gripped by the latest amazing series from the BBC Natural History Unit, Planet Earth II, and I am very proud to have played a small part in the filming of it. At the very beginning of the production I was asked by 'Mountains' producer Justin Anderson to build ten specialised camera traps to film grizzly bears in Canada.  We modified the 'Cambush' system to work with Canon 6D's and with the help of fellow cameramen Dawson Dunning and Darren West,  eventually deployed them in May 2014.  With the help of Glen Naylor and John Paczkowski of Alberta Parks and their team of dedicated volunteers we scouted the best locations and after 5 months of the traps being out in the mountains we finally had enough footage to put a sequence together.  The resulting edit brings a wonderful moment of lighthearted humour to the film and the Jungle Boogie version has taken the internet by storm.  A big thanks goes out to Justin and everyone who made it happen....

Welcome to my new site and my first Blog.  Thanks for taking the time to have a look at what I do and what Meta Films has to offer.  I have to confess to being new to the whole blogging thing so please bear with me as I venture into uncharted waters.  It just so happens that the launch of this site (which has taken just a little longer than planned...) coincides nicely with the release of the first trails for the upcoming 'Planet Earth II'.  I was fortunate enough to be involved on a couple of shoots and was very pleased to see a few of my shots make it into the trail.  The first is a tracking shot of a baby Elephant and then a trio of shots of a grizzly having what can only be described as a damn good rub on a tree. These were caught with the 'Cambush' camera trap system designed by me. Not the most spectacular shots but satisfying none the less.  . The rest of the trail is nothing short of amazing and I can't wait to see it when it's released....