Emmy Nomination

July, 2009. When nominations for Best Cinematography in the News and Documentary category were announced recently, National Geographic’s Explorer episode Gorilla Murders garnered four nods – Outstanding Investigative Journalism, Best Documentary, Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Editing and Cinematography. Gorilla Murders investigates the execution-style murder of six mountain gorillas in Virunga National Park. Their search reveals corruption and how Virunga has become one of the most dangerous places on earth.

I traveled to Rwanda to film the Wildlife Cinematography for Gorilla Murders. I worked in Volcanoes National Park climbing with local trackers into the rainforest every day in search of Gorillas. Erin Harvey shot the principal photography and the film was produced and directed by Mick Davies. They had the dangerous and difficult job of filming the story.

September, 2009. Gorilla Murders won an Emmy for Outstanding Investigative Journalism. The documentary won the Outstanding Achievement Award at Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival.

Title: Wildlife Cinematographer
Project: Gorilla Murders
Client: National Geographic
Location: Rwanda
Date: 5/08

National Geographic sent me to Congo to film lowland gorillas. I worked with WCS primatologist Thomas Breuer who has been studying gorillas at Mbeli Bai, Ndoki in northern Congo for the past 7 years. Until very recently Ndoki was considered one of the most remote and difficult places to get to on earth. Now, due to logging which will take most of the Congo Basins forests, trucks and chainsaws can be heard at the park's borders. Gorillas and elephants are still plentiful in Ndoki, but the ivory and bush meat industries are beginning to have an impact. For the moment, the gorillas are safe, and the focus of the film is on new research that shows that there are possibly thousands more gorillas that we thought living in the area. Primatologist and host, Mireya Mayor, and Producer, James Manfull, joined me toward the end of my shoot. It took over a week of travel in Congo to reach Ndoki; overland on logging roads for three days, and in dugout canoes for two more days, then finally they reached the small camp where I was based. The photo above shows Mireya arriving at the platform on the edge of the Bai, or natural clearing, where the gorillas can be observed and Thomas conducts his research.

I traveled to Mali to film researcher Jake Wall as he followed the migration of the northern- most herd of African elephants. The 350 to 400 Mali elephants follow an annual migration route over a 34,000 square km range in search of food and water. Five of these elephants were collared with GPS transmitting devices which give the scientist the elephant's coordinates at intervals of nine hours. Our job was to follow and film the elephants on their way and see first hand what the habitat they traveled to was like. This process is called "Ground Truthing" the GPS data and is critical to understanding what the elephants need to survive. Daytime temperatures in this part of Mali average 120 degrees and water is very scarce. There are almost no roads and the elephants avoid the rough tracks that human traffic move on, therefore, we traveled overland in our Landcruisers carrying all our own water and fuel. At night we camped in the desert and picked up the elephants' trail again in the morning

Mozambique survived years of civil war to emerge as one of Africa's poorest countries. Gorongosa National Park had one of the richest concentrations of wildlife anywhere in Africa. During the war the Park headquarters became a stronghold occupied by one side of the conflict after another. Its wildlife fed the troops. When the war was finally over, so were the animals. I am the Director of Photography on a film and made three trips to Mozambique in 2008. I returned in 2009 for the last shoot. The film is now in post an will be finished in 2010.

Title: Cinematographer
Project: Dynasty
Client: Warren Milller
Location: Idaho
Date: 5/09

Title: Cinematographer
Project: Science of Migrations
Client: National Geographic
Location: Kansas
Date: 5/09

National Geographic film crew members Charlie Miller, from left, Eddie O’Connor and Bob Poole grab footage as Martin Wikelski, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at Princeton University, and Chip Taylor, director of Monarch Watch, attach a radio transmitter tag to a monarch butterfly Wednesday at the Lawrence Municipal Airport. National Geographic came along to film the tagging and tracking process for a segment on migrations.

Title: Cinematographer
Project: Natural History Series
Client: National Geographic
Location: Africa
Date: 2008 - 2010

National Geographic is producing a global natural history series and I am shooting several episodes in Africa.

Title: Cinematographer
Project: Ruaha
Client: Nature Conservation Films
Location: Tanzania
Date: 2008

Ruaha National Park in Tanzania is a vast wilderness; off the beaten path of tourist routes. The Ruaha River, which all but vanishes during the dry season, is the lifeblood of the Park. Wildlife have to come to its banks to drink where the Park's famously huge lions lay in wait to take down big prey like giraffe, buffalo and even elephant. I spent a month in Ruaha shooting a film about this fabulous wild place in East Africa.