Being on a film production was a new experience for me, and I loved it. The collaborative dynamic felt like something that I was designed for. The project was an incredible opportunity, and I hope to do a lot more of this kind of thing in the future. This particular story and setting, as well as all the moving parts involved, were so energizing to me and right up my alley of passions. I also love how our team was so young but so dedicated and mature in their roles. It was so special to meet a lot of the wildlife rangers from Big Life Foundation and Ol Pejeta, and of course Sudan, the last male northern white rhino in the world. I'm a huge animal lover, to the point where I can't vocally keep it in; I just melt. With the time I spent with the rangers, I got a taste of some of their backgrounds and stories and got to know their personalities. I wanted to pour as much warm attention and passion into our time together, whether it was a few hours or a few days. We had a lot of fun.
I wasn't with the team as they filmed the majority of the time because it's important to keep crews small and intimate with who they are filming. Since I was doing photos, we worked at separate times. I did miss them during the days we weren't together, but looked forward to them coming home every day to hear about all the stories and people. I learned a lot from them simply by listening and observing, whether it was through talks in our rooms or while they were filming. The whole time, I was eager to contribute as much as I could, so if I wasn't on location during filming, or on days I wasn't doing ranger photo shoots, I tried to look for other ways to help in any way possible. Honestly, it felt great and inspired me to want to learn about filmmaking, which I hadn't thought much about before this project. I would really love to expand my skill set to be able to offer a broader value to projects such as this. Overall, I've learned more from this project than any project I've worked on by far, in terms of what goes into productions, the skills required, and all the moving parts. I'm really grateful to be on board with this incredibly talented group. Can't wait to see all that this beautiful project becomes... here's just a snap of some days there, filming, playing tag, drone flying, etc.
