Celebrating Our Red Kites!

What a hectic couple of months it’s been – tying up the spring run of Living World, running a brilliant week-long Wildlife Video Pioneers workshop up in the Scottish highlands, and producing, directing and shooting a new short film on red kites.

View the film On Red Kite Wings here

I’m particularly excited as the film is the first chance I have had to do aerial photography - to give a kite's eye view of its north east home. It is also set to the music of a talented young composer called Ian Fleming, and will have its premiere at Sage Gateshead this Saturday July 5th.

It will be shown as part of the Friends of Red Kites celebration event. The group are celebrating ten years since the return of red kites to our northern skies, after an absence of nearly 200 years. The birds - as common in Shakespearean days as pigeons are now - were persecuted to extinction in England in the 19th century.

Thanks to Northern Kites, now Friends of Red Kites, the birds have been successfully reintroduced over the last ten years, and have repaid all the hard work by becoming a beloved sight and sound across the Derwent Valley.

In fact they have more than paid their way: inspiring artists, enhancing our kids education, helping our health and even enlivening the local economy. They deserve to be celebrated in style!

And they will be! More new pieces of classical music have been commissioned, traditional favourites dusted off, and members of the Royal Northern Sinfonia will play them in the north’s most stunning music venue for audiences on Saturday. Local music groups and schools will also play and sing specially written pieces to pay tribute to the birds and their impact on our community.

As well as contributing visuals to the show, I will be dusting off my best frock and hosting the event. As Patron of Friends of Red Kites, Saturday will be a very proud day all round for me.

If you’d like to join me for this wonderful afternoon a few tickets for 1.30 and 3.30pm concerts are still available from Sage Gateshead box office and online, priced £8, concessions £6 – hope to see you there!

My Kit List (excluding archive clips)

Nikon D800

Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8, Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm F2.8, Nikkor 200-400mm F4,

Sigma 150mm F2.8 macro

Manfrotto Hi Hat 529B and Simpla support system componants

Miller Solo carbon fibre legs

Vinten Vision Blue fluid head

FotoDiox WonderPana Polarising Filter

Cokin filters various

Go Pro Hero 3 Black

DJI Phantom 2 drone

Zenmuse H3-2D gimbal