00:00good boy good boy good boy good boy so hello my friends and welcome to another video um i'm back
00:07up at the uh picnic area um because it's a lot cooler for him to run around up here
00:12than it is down by the lake where i live uh and uh today i thought i'd present to you
00:19this video um sequence that i'm about to show you um which i was reminded of uh when i was
00:28digging through my things the other day and i came across this box that i had forgotten about
00:33and inside it is this uh rather nice set of waders um and this uh nice glass fish tank
00:45and um there's an interesting story behind it that i thought you uh might like to hear
00:52and basically a couple of years ago um when i was filming the um uh hidden wonders of europe
01:04uh greece episode um for nat geo wild um the production uh asked me if i would be able
01:15to film a sequence on these alpine newts uh which live in these um high altitude ponds
01:22in the mountains of northwestern greece a really stunning area and of course i i jumped at the
01:29chance um but the only issue being that i'm not an underwater photographer i don't have underwater
01:35camera gear and the issue was how i'm going to do these underwater shots
01:40so the idea was uh that get the fish tank the biologists that were helping us out with
01:48the science behind everything the biology of the newts uh would set up a habitat in the fish tank
01:54um they would catch some newts for us put them in the fish tank and then would film them
01:59uh through the glass of the fish tank um in the event that actually proved to be uh quite difficult
02:07um several reasons firstly uh the newts didn't uh acclimate very quickly or quickly enough
02:14to their um uh environment in the fish tank and so the behavior wasn't natural
02:21um the second issue was uh reflections um shooting it through the glass uh was really difficult out in
02:32the field sabi what are you doing um sabi give me that rubbish sabi come here sabi come here
02:41give me the sorry i just found this plastic um uh the second issue was yeah what was i saying
02:50shooting through the glass um and the reflections that that caused and the third issue was that uh
02:58things would stick to the side of the glass so little bits of silt and what have you
03:02uh you had that all floating around in the water
03:07uh and yet some would cling to the glass and although i couldn't see it when i was filming
03:12um when viewing it back uh on the laptop later you could see these little bits clinging to the glass
03:19and it just didn't look natural
03:20um plus the newts would actually climb up the glass so it was it looked really odd uh to see
03:27them
03:27their their little hands on the glass uh so it just didn't look natural at all
03:33um so that being the case uh that's where the waders came in
03:38and i decided i would uh wearing the waders i would sit in the water
03:43um and have the camera inside the fish tank itself uh which i would then lower into the water
03:51uh and film them through the fish tank but in the water that also presented uh its own problems
03:59um again reflections uh which i um basically the clips are still here actually um i clipped a towel
04:09to the front edge uh and then covered the lens so that it shaded the lens it shaded the glass
04:15and the lens so that i wouldn't it would cut the reflections the uh second issue was that i had
04:23to
04:23support the tank with one hand so i only had one hand to actually operate the camera
04:29uh and that meant uh start stopping the recording focusing zooming um all with one hand
04:37uh whilst looking through the evf that was really difficult as well and then thirdly i also had
04:44to be aware that i didn't go too deep and the whole thing flooded um and um would waterlog the
04:51camera
04:52so it was really difficult in addition as well i should say that every time i would get in the
04:57water
04:57it was a really sandy silty uh pond and every time i would get in i would the the sand
05:04and the silt
05:05would lift uh so i'd have and i'd have end up having to wait at least 20 minutes for everything
05:10to settle down and then i could start filming proper uh in as clear water as i could possibly
05:15manage uh because they're not super clear these ponds anyway so um i managed to get uh enough footage
05:26for the sequence thankfully um sabi you found more plastic give me it here sabi give me here
05:33give me the plastic
05:36leave the plastic alone
05:38um
05:40so what was i saying yes i managed to get the enough footage for the sequence uh for the
05:45production company to put the sequence together
05:48um i've put my own little sequence together for you which i shall show you now
05:53um i hope you enjoy it uh please do drop me any comments below any questions
05:58um and i look forward to seeing you again soon thank you so much for watching i really do appreciate
06:05it and i shall see you next time bye for now
06:25you
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06:32you
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