One of our hosts in Lumsden, Steve, is a tattoo artist and has welcomed us into his shop to film his process. His shop is a repurposed Masonic temple, redecorated with Retro Americana.
I shot on the Canon 7d with the Canon 50mm lens for a while but got the best shots when Steve let me borrow a 30+ year old 50mm pentax lens that doesn’t even attach properly to my camera body. I held the lens between the thumb and forefinger of my left hand moving it slightly away from the camera body to focus the shot. I borrowed the idea from here.
These are a few screenshots pulled from my test shoot. I was just trying to get a feel for how the camera would deal with light in the shop. As you can see, the light is gorgeous. I’m really excited to film more with Steve.
David and I harbor faraway dreams of being wildlife photographers. At Waipapa Point, our dream definitely didn’t come true.
Our first encounter came with a domesticated bovine standing just to the side of the gravel road we traveled to get to the lighthouse. While one might be inclined to believe that domestication precludes wildness, the way this cow, and all the cows behind it, turned towards me when I walked out of the car speaks to the species’ potential viciousness. You can see their readiness to charge in their concentrated stares and in the direction their spindly legs are pointed:
Next, after we made it to the lighthouse and had been scampering along the rocks inspecting algae and mildly disturbing the tide pools, we were alerted to additional wildlife just around the point.
“First cows, now seagulls?” I hear you ask. No. Looks closely at the pile of rocks just behind the sea gull, the ones that just might be shaped vaguely like the hooker sea lions that are so famed in this area around Waipapa Point Lighthouse.
Lacking in any adequately zoom-worthy camera lenses, as we had decided to travel lightly for our beach excursion, the lenses we did have on our cameras failed to capture the details of the sea lion pile. As the sea lions were basking in the sunshine, the largest one with its head under a rock to escape the sand and flies, David was braver than I was and snuck a few feet closer to capture the snoozing sea creatures.
A little dejected that the day was not one for our burgeoning wildlife photography careers, we returned to our tide pools and filmed a time lapse photography sequence of some snails and crabs (who are much easier to film from six inches away than the sea lions would have been).
David and I love to wander. Adventure. Travel. Explore. While we often conjure up our own ideas to fuel our travel, we also look outwards for sources of much-needed inspiration. The stories of filmmakers, conservationists, married couples, extreme sports enthusiasts, fellow travelers, and brave souls sting us at the core and make us want to get moving.
Since we could all use some extra inspiration to help us honestly pursue what fulfills us, David and I are proud to announce Wandering Study’s first weekly feature. Each Tuesday, we will share the movies, photos, websites, books, and other stories that make us take a look at what we want to do and how we want to be doing it. These inspiration snippets are ones that help shape how we spend our days, and our hope is that the fuel we gain from experiencing these stories will spread inspiration outwards to you.
First up, we’re talking about Alan Rabinowitz:
Dr. Rabinowitz, a zoologist and a wildlife conservationist, has several decades’ experience working to conserve the big cats around the world in places like Brazil and Burma. More than that, though, he is an explorer of the human spirit and has remained an intrepid adventurer even amid personal obstacles.
In some of the most remote areas left on the planet in northern Burma, Dr. Rabinowitz happened upon an isolated group of ‘Mongoloid pygmies,’ the Taron people, whose small population is nearing extinction. Despite needing three translators to communicate verbally with Dawi, one such Taron man, Rabinowitz’s life course changed after spending three days alone with Dawi in the remote mountains. Check out Dr. Rabinowitz’s interview on NPR to hear more of his amazing stories from Burma and around the world.
What stands out to me most in Dr. Rabinowitz’s interview is his marked patience when connecting with others. In the interview, Rabinowitz mentions how building a relationship with Burma’s reigning government so he could work and explore freely in the country took over a decade to achieve. I imagine his efforts to gain acceptance with the Burmese government meant complicated, frustrating logistics for years before Dr. Rabinowitz could even begin to pursue his original goals of exploring northern Burma and working to save the tigers in the country. As an individual who generally likes things done now, Rabinowitz’s words were a reminder that patience is often a necessary component to achieving amazing things.
Have a listen to Dr. Rabinowitz’s interview to hear more about his journey–it’s a fascinating story even for those who don’t hold Burma close to heart, have a sweet spot for big cats, or intend to do any remote traveling. David and I have been following his story for several years, and hearing about his adventures is a treat for anyone looking for a little inspiration to get out and do whatever it is you’ve been meaning to do.
Dr. Rabinowitz is also the author of several books that David and I are dying to get our hands, namely Life in the Valley of Death: The Fight to Save Tigers in a Land of Guns, Gold, and Greed and Beyond the Last Village: A Journey of Discovery in Asia’s Forbidden Wilderness.