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Review #940 - Dated: 2nd of November, 2005 Author: tigger |
Allison Balance’s very readable and humorous book of her adventures as a wildlife film-maker holds appeal in such different areas as travel, wildlife, and film-making.
She gives the reader an armchair traveller’s glimpse of parts of Mongolia, India, and New Zealand. The details of the animals, lifestyles and customs in Mongolia and India were very interesting and informative, and a nice contrast with the more familiar section on the kakapo in New Zealand.
Never again will I think of wildlife film-making as glamorous! Well, I still do, but I now have an idea of the huge amounts of time spent waiting for those interesting, glamorous moments to happen. If that wasn’t enough, there’s the frustration of never before seem moments finally happening but just off camera (repeatedly!), as in the scenes with the nocturnal cameras set up to try and capture kakapo mating. Behind the scenes frustrations are common as well and are humorously captured by the author. E.g. car troubles in the Mongolian desert. Successes are captured passionately and joyfully.
It would be interesting to see the films Allison and her teams worked on in this book. There are two sets of photograph inserts though, so we can see some of the animals filmed and put a face to the Mongolian support team and others that we meet in the book.
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