22 Nov 2015

Peaceful Autumn

by TheSilentWatcher | posted in: Blog | 0

For my first 4K autumn video, I (no surprise here) chose the beautiful old forests of the Central Balkan National Park. Primarily consisting of beech, oak, acer, hornbeam and other broadleaved trees, the forests of this park turn into different shades of warm colours in autumn – from deep red or magenta, through orange to bright yellow. Added to that, the plants that were still green and the evergreen trees, make up for a colorful palette that is a joy to the eye. Hiking up along one of the many crystal clear streams in the mountain, I was able to also include in the video the relaxing sound of the water cascading down the rocky bed. A magnificent place of pristine nature, that always evokes awe in me, soothes my mind, and purifies my soul. A place that I will always be going back to. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/czCHvDY23fc

I also produced two videos of long loops of a single unchanging scene, that are suitable for sleeping and don’t distract the listener with the changing sounds of different scenes. Those videos are available here: https://youtu.be/IadsLclBOS8 and here: https://youtu.be/6uhRxK_EOm4

Me njoying the enchanting landscape…
… and happy with life 🙂
The cosy hut where I slept for two nights during the shoot.

12 Oct 2015

Campfire by the River

by TheSilentWatcher | posted in: Blog | 0

For this video I traveled and hiked with a friend of mine to one of my favourite spots in Strandja Natural Park, Bulgaria. I wanted to record a video of a campfire near a river, that had both the sounds of the crackling fire and tricking water in it. I found this perfect place and started to set up the campfire. The water looks still in the video, but it is actually moving and just behind the camera there are little rocky rapids, that produce this nice bubbly sound of gently flowing water. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/Ftm2uv7-Ybw

I wanted to record the video at dusk, so we camped and spent the night there, sleeping in our hammocks. In the middle of the night I woke up with the sound of some heavy steps moving towards us. In my mind I constructed an image of an elk, crashing into the hammock of my sleeping friend and got really worried. I turned my headlight on and looked around, but couldn’t see any creature whatsoever. I could still hear the sound of something moving in the forest not far away from us, but gradually it moved away and I fall asleep again. My friend didn’t wake up at all and slept really well, unlike me that woke up a few times more during the night listening for strange noises.

Campfire ready to be lit.
Me stoking the fire.

17 Jan 2015

The North coast of Devon

by TheSilentWatcher | posted in: Blog | 0

Evening falls at Watermouth Cove, North Devon, England

Watermouth Castle, North Devon, England.

Every morning at low tide the boats are sitting onto the bottom of the sea and then gradually by the evening the water fills the bays and canals again.

Lynmouth.

In Devon you can see this quite rare in the south of England view – wild grassland.

Climbing on the top of this hill raising high above the sea near Combe Martin I felt a very special (and spacious) powerful feeling of vastness.

Poppies instalation acting as a memorial for Remembrance Day at the coastal rocks of Ilfracombe.

The bay of Ilfracombe.

The controversial sculpture standing on the pier in Ilfracombe is called Verity and was created by Demian Hirst. The name of the piece refers to “truth” and Hirst describes his work as a “modern allegory of truth and justice”

9 Oct 2014

UP to Paradise

by TheSilentWatcher | posted in: Blog | 0

Central Balkan National Park is one of my personal favourite pieces of pristine nature to visit. On one of my hiking trips to Paradise Hut, whilst taking the usual photographs, I decided to try experimenting with more video and to film different scenes on the way. In the end I had a large enough collection of them to make a short film. The video is following the path towards the “Paradise Waterfall” in Bulgaria. “Raisko Praskalo” is the highest waterfall on the Balkan Peninsula. It falls from a height of 124,5 metres and is situated right under Botev peak (2376 m) in the Central Balkan National Park. The area is a reserve, protecting a rich diversity of wildlife, plants, majestic old natural forests, pure mountain streams, waterfalls and impressive rock formations. “Paradise Hut” (“Hizha Rai”) is the name of the tourist lodge situated under the waterfall, that is only accessible by foot. You can watch the video here: https://youtu.be/2eAdXwZjHNA

Me posing for my camera on a tripod.
The way down…