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    IMG_3638
  • tree snail

    tree snail
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  • deer

    deer
  • yellowpan1

    yellowpan1
  • dry mangrove

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  • img_1286panD

    img_1286panD

WILD TALES ON SOCIAL MEDIA


25 days

  • Wednesday, 02 October 2013

I really hate the emotional rollercoaster side of the wildlife filmmaking…
In July I was so happy to find her nest in a hammock forest.
gator female
The “Queen” as we call her…
She hasn’t got babies last year so hopes were high that she was going to become a mother this year and we could follow her adventures of raising gator babies in the cypress dome.

We started to check back on a regular base from the 22nd of August to catch the moment of hatching. We drove out every morning around sunrise and spent some time out there.
Gator hatching usually happens at dawn so if there was no activity until late morning we left.
She got used to us so so much that she didn’t care about us anymore and we could approach the nest very close… I mean really very close. It’s always so touching to earn the trust of a truly wild predator! You just stand there, she stares at you as she could read your mind… well, at least she knew well that we didn’t mean any threat.  Actually I think at some point she even might have been quite bored of us!
But as September was approaching I felt that something must be wrong, but I just couldn’t give it up and I always extended the deadline of shutting down the whole operation.
Then 25 days after that we started the checking, she has abandonded her vantage spot. Finally we could walked up right to the nest and opened it up.

Well, the eggs were bad, never have been fertilized… 25 days, 5100km (3200miles) driving for nothing…
You still want to be a wildlife filmmaker?!

Anyway, I think we will tell the real story of this female in the film not making it up as if the babies were hatched.
Also the summer sunrises in the Everglades were unforgottable, we captured more than enough of them for the film.

Vultures and iguana

  • Sunday, 30 December 2012

Well, it’s shocking to see that my last post is dated February 2012… and soon the year is over! It has been a busy one with the usual ups and downs of wildlife fimmaking. Plus a family moving from Sweden to Florida to shoot the Everglades film that I am working on until 2014. I was thinking about restarting the blog a couple ot times but somehow I have been waiting for a big thing to post. But what the heck is a big thing?? Missed a couple of opportunities for sure…

So, instead of waiting and always postponing the next post I just start again right now. And I promise regular updates in the coming new year…

Here we go. Deer carcass story.

I heard from a biologist, who is a great photographer as well, that iguanas eat carcass. It was hard to beleive as they are herbivorous lizards, the kind of salad eating beasts. But he has even documented and published it!

Well, I immediately started to vision a scene with vultures and iguanas competing for the carrion… or at least the two species interacting. It’s always cool to have such behavior in a wildlife film.

Here are the preparations, remote camera, dead deer, blind.

I have spent two days in the tent and I was lucky enough to have an iguana already in the second hour! Well, then for one and a half day nothing, only vultures and of course the nice smell of the dead animal (I was under the wind) and warm beer. I have a feeling that I know the secret how to really enjoy holidays!

And here are some shots from the blind, raw footage. Turkey vultures and a Black spiny-tailed iguana at a Key deer carcass.

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

 

Wild Hungary hits the wildlife film festivals across the globe!

  • Tuesday, 09 August 2011

We are delighted (and pretty amazed) to see how much the audience and jury members love our film “Wild Hungary – A Water Wonderland”. It has been awarded already on eight festivals, please check the list in the Awards menu. I am upgrading it regularly.

And we have just received the fantastic news about being nominated in the Best Habitat Program category in Jackson Hole! I have never ever expected to be a finalist in such a strong competition… We are competing with ORF’s thrilling film about the radioactive wolves of Chernobyl and BBC’s blockbuster production about Madagascar.

Honestly, quite different ones than our lovely small swamps back in Hungary…

Flashbacks

  • Monday, 08 August 2011

Before starting to post about new projects and until our website develops please read two ”flashback posts” below. Learn about our adventures with a reindeer herder family in the heart of Siberia and the struggles with the elusive otters of the Carpathian Basin!

The Making Of the Otter Man film

  • Tuesday, 02 August 2011

I thought this was going to be the easiest film project I have ever made: a portrait film with some wildlife in my home country, Hungary.
As a wildlife filmmaker I used to travel to the most remote places of the planet with enormous equipment. This time it was only jumping into my car and driving to a relatively close place that I knew pretty well. It seemed to be an easy task especially that in this case I had plenty of time: almost a full year!
Well, I just could not have made a bigger mistake… Read more…