The Cold Wild, The Warm Fire

34, British in Northern Sweden, Wildlife Cinematographer (camera person) for BBC, Net Geo & suchlike. Mostly original content, film & phone photos. Occasional reblogs. Life in rural Sweden & around the inaccessible parts of the world.

[vixvigil]

it’s never a normal temperature anymore it’s always some fucking bullshit

[cold-earth-connection]

hej! cool blog, looking forward to seeing your work on svt😁 Har du lärt dig svenska? do you intend to stay long? What picture is your proudest work?

Hej hej, thanks!! Yep, learning Swedish at the moment and VERY keen to become fluent, but it's difficult as we live in quite a remote corner of Jämtland, so very few people to speak with regularly, and we're quite broke at the moment to afford a private tutor! (Sweden does not want immigrants from ANYWHERE, it's cost us everything we have financially and a two year visa wait...) But, we're trying our best! Hopefully we'll be able to live here forever 🤞(if we don't get kicked out again by Migrationsverket in 18 months when we have to renew visas...). Proudest work is hard, I've been lucky enough to work on several big BBC series, but they're not always the most fulfilling. I filmed polar bears on a place called wrangel island which no one gets to go to, especially now, for Frozen Planet II and an Imax film and won some cinematography awards for that which was nice, and one of the most special places I've ever been to, but it's hard to feel like you've ever done justice to places that special you know?

[cold-earth-connection]

Mountains, coffee & Cloudberry season has begun. A stormy summer in the north, but a lovely one nonetheless.

[cold-earth-connection]

After 6 months, a solid shoot at last for a new Landmark series for SVT (basically BBC sweden, doing a big 6 part nature show). Hell of a first shoot, 16 hour days, 35kg packs, hiking 16-17km off trail and shooting all day. Helicopters, fancy cine lenses, Blisters, dreaded hair, aches and damn it feels so good finally doing my job again!

[cold-earth-connection]

Day 1 in the books...

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Holy shit guys, it's taken 6 months (since we moved to Sweden) but I finally get to go do my actual job today 😭

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Demo time! We bought this stupidly large place in Northern Sweden because it had this apartment as the top floor, so though the whole place is much too big for two of us, it meant it paid for itself, heating bills etc so far... It's in really good condition, but also kind of dated, now we have two months to turn it around before the next folk move in, so i've ripped out the kitchen, gone open plan, got rid of all the old horribl brown/grey lino, and just started on the bluest bathroom ever....

[blckgirlacid]

I need my weird alone time or I will explode

[cold-earth-connection]

Car failed its MoT (Bilprovning) here on a load of T I N Y but difficult things. E.g. the bottom cm snapped off the suspension coil, brakes were 1% out of balance at the rear. Don't have the money right now to pay a garage to fix it (this is the life of a wildlife cameraman...I'm triple emmy nominated whatever that means, yet I can barely afford to eat right now, the industry is vile) so just borrowed some tools from a friendly neighbor and rebuilt the suspension and brakes on the whole car the last two days. Good fucking god I'm tired, now for two hours of lawn mowing...

[cold-earth-connection]

No point having all this camera kit around if I can't use it to shave the back of my head

[cold-earth-connection]

Tis the season of the bugs. Oh boy, do you like bugs, coz we got BUGZ

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So we're looking after this dude for a friend... He's got a lovely personality, but god damn I'm even more in love with our dogs now. We are not small dog people, he's just in everyone's face/arse the whole time, and can't leave him alone with our two for a second or he humps them or licks their faces so obsessively. Gonna be a long 10 days...

[cold-earth-connection]

It may well be a grey mid-summer here, but the nectarines have arrived in northern sweden, and they go damn well with the local mountain honey.

[cold-earth-connection]

Really need to move some of the mirrors up in this house

[vilf-deactivated20210205]

cannot emphasize enough how good it is for you to make something with your hands. whether it’s cooking or knitting or drawing, it will nourish your soul. every time i cook i feel so much more energized and present, no matter how complicated or simple the dish is. and to hold the thing you made yourself in your hands, even if it didn’t turn out perfect, is even more beautiful. i promise that whatever you choose to make, it will help you in so many ways

[cold-earth-connection]

The big guy won't let me watch my tv programme in peace

[cold-earth-connection]

Northern Hawk owls, 6 babies at the nest this year!