Sunday, 22 December 2013
Saturday, 21 December 2013
BCO broll-Manitoba Late November Bowhunt
I've been a little bored and have been messing with some broll content. Here's a little clip from a few years back.
Thursday, 5 December 2013
Life Lessons With a Camera In Hand
Well happy holidays folks! Deer season
has wrapped and I'm transitioning to hard water fishing as I write
this. Filming for Blue Collar Outdoor TV was a complete success and
I'm in the process of pitching season two of BCO TV to the network,
as well as starting to work on another media type project. So all is
well. Filming and post production schedules kept me from writing
throughout the fall, but I now have the time to start hitting the
keyboard again with all work being done on the show. The last eight
months has been quite the journey and I've decided to use this post
as an opportunity for me to share what I've learned over the last
twelve months as it applies to life working in outdoor media.
Mother Nature Runs The Show
We all know those types of hunting or fishing situations that are “sure bets”. For me it's fishing late ice stocked trout lakes and bear and turkey hunting in the spring. The plan was to film ice fishing for trout in early April, then scout and prepare for the coming deer season while the ice was going off, then prep bear baits and finally hunt turkeys in late April. I'd then hunt bears in late may early June.
Well, mother nature had other plans. I started to get worried at the end of march when the snow kept building up instead of melting. April came and I started hitting the trout lakes hard, with little to no success due to the colder than normal water temps and late thaw. I came out of early April with absolutely zero content for the show. Filming strike one.
I then sat at home waiting for the snow to melt so I could scout and prepare for whitetails. This was a long wait as the snow didn't melt until April 20th. I then needed to make a choice, ether film turkey hunts or prepare for whitetails. The choice was simple, for me whitetails always take priority so I ditched my sure bet turkey hunt to make the time to prepare for fall whitetails right. Filming strike two. Then it was time for bear hunting at my north camp. Up there I use lakes for access to my bait sites. Well, the baits were late going in due to the delayed ice off. This wasn't a huge issue as plenty of bears had found my baits by the first week of June. I set up camp and got ready for what I thought was going to be a great adventure type hunt for BCO TV. WRONG! I had hit green up to perfection and my baits went dead literally overnight due to the abundance of food everywhere. I hunted HARD for the entirety of the nine day hunt, with two whole encounters to show for it. I went home with an un-notched tag in my pocket, filming strike three.
Mother nature kicked my butt in the spring of 2013, plain and simple. Many would have thrown their hands up and walked away. But I always look for an upside, another way to make things work.
Making The Best Of A Situation.
I'm an outdoors man first, and a cinematographer second. During my bear hunt I woke up the morning of June 5th to an amazingly beautiful day, clear, calm and warm. I had brought my kayak along to use to quietly access my bear baits. But this day the kayak would be used in more of a traditional way. I knew of this little lake back in a creek system that held amazing numbers of pike and figured I'd go have some fun catching them. I had mounted two cameras on my kayak and decided to film the impromptu fishing trip more for fun more than anything else. I loaded the boat up on the box of my truck and headed for some fishing. I slipped into the water around 10:00 am and after a short row was ready to fish. Now I'm not lying when I say I caught ten fish in ten casts, then proceeded to slam pike for three hours.
I captured some of the best fishing content I had ever filmed, all on a “fun” fishing trip. I might have gone home without a bear hunt on film, but instead had an amazing day on the water to edit into a show instead. I had made the best of a bad situation. While I was up there I was able to do some prep work for whitetails and film some technical segments as well.
Work Hard Towards Goals, Believe In Yourself.
I mentioned earlier that I worked hard in the spring of 2013 to prepare multiple locations to hunt whitetails. This includes creating edge cover, prompting new browse and mast to grow, dig in water holes and to fine tune my stand sets in regards to access and scent management. Most of this work was done on one specific farm in the south west corner of Manitoba, and I had plans to hunt it hard the first 14 days of the deer season. I went into the 2013 deer season more confident than ever before.
September 2nd found me sitting 20 feet up in a burr oak tree waiting for a shooter deer after returning home from a quick elk hunt. I was ready to give up by the 4th, the deer simply weren't on the farm like I had thought they'd be. I had thoughts of heading to other farms I had hunted in the past with great success, but decided to hold off for a few days and give these particular spots a good run. I had my first encounter with whitetails the morning of the 5th, two does slipped in from an alfalfa field towards their bedding area, and right past my stand. This boosted my confidence a bit. I then slipped into my favourite set the evening of the 6th and checked the scouting camera that was hung in there. One of my target bucks had walked passed the camera's the previous two evenings during daylight hours, and the confidence went up a little more. With 15 minutes of filming light left I caught a noise to the east. It was the other shooter buck on that farm, and he was going to walk right in-front of me. After a few minutes the four year old 4×4 stepped out with another two year old and finally gave me both an ideal shot for the camera and bow. I laced the buck and he ran 40 yards, then piled up in a huge crash.
That was a wrap on my 2013 Manitoba deer season. Preparation, patience and persistence paid off in a big way. 28 hours of hunting produced two encounters with four deer, far from what I had expected. But I had faith in my set ups, my techniques and didn't give in to the negativity that was trying to creep into my thoughts.
My 2013 hunting season went much smoother after that. I had an amazingly rewarding whitetail hunt in Saskatchewan that turned into the best episode of BCO TV. I filmed some good friends having a blast shooting waterfowl. I then captured the mentored youth waterfowl hunt and took a first time deer hunter out on a hunt. I went into the fall not knowing what would happen, and came out of it feeling more secure that BCO is on the right path, and that I have what it takes to make a career in outdoor media work.
So where am I going with all of this? Well I learned first not to count my chickens before they hatch, the spring filming session was a bomb and I almost threw in the towel right then. But through sheer determination and sacrifice I was able to make six episodes of BCO TV come together. I simply wanted it bad enough and took the measures to make that happen, a great lesson for anyone. Then there's the technical side of filming and editing, I made huge gains in my skill to turn raw content into an enjoyable watch for all. Finally, I never once forgot what being in the outdoors is about, having fun, staying humble and not once stepping outside of personal ideals and ethics to ensure I had enough content for BCO TV. Going into this journey I was adamant that this be the case, and it was in the end. Filming season one of BCO TV has been a rewarding experience, one that I will use to improve and grow BCO because of the lessons learned this year.
Hi All
Hi all
First off I’d like to take the time to personally thank you for checking out my blog and to welcome out all to check in on a regular basis. I will be posting the links to this blog through Blue Collar Outdoor Media’s Facebook page and I’ll encourage you all to go and join. With this blog I’ll be sharing not only my adventures, but thoughts on conservation, wildlife and much more. But before that I feel the need to provide you all with a little history on how my passion, Blue Collar Outdoor Media came to be.
Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to have a career in the outdoors. In my youth the dream was being a professional fisherman, teens it was to be a guide, and writing and videoing was the goal of my twenties. There just never seemed to be an easy way to get started though. I tried writing in my mid-twenties………and failed miserably. Shortly after though, 2006 to be exact, my path towards an outdoor career took a major turn. I was going into my second year of bear hunting and had been amazing people with the stories from my first year. There had been a fire smouldering within me to start videoing my hunts in the past, to show my friends and family that I wasn’t full of it and that these things I told them were really happening. That winter I had purchased a point and shoot digital camera….and this camera had a video function. So off I went into the woods with my good friend Trevor Fisher to video his first bear hunt with my little point and shoot Kodak.
The hunt was amazing, two days of hard hunting produced an amazing encounter that ended with Trevor making a great shot…..and it all was captured on film. The fire that had been smouldering now burst into a flame and that very week I went and purchased a Mini-DV video camera.
The following years were a whirlwind of hunts and learning experiences. I threw myself into filming in 2008 with a serious goal of producing a video product. Blue Collar Outdoors Volume I was released on DVD in the spring of 2009, 14 hunts on a 90 minute DVD. It was a great start and many hunts were filmed for volume II in the next year. But then life got in the way in more ways than one, first a falling out with my partner and friend over creative and personal differences with BCO in 2010, then a major back door type of investigation into my hunting style and success by Manitoba Conservation in 2011 (more on that later). These two life events really put a damper on that flame. But a couple of good hunts and a verbal butt kicking by now "pro staff" Ty Pettyjohn really put things back into perspective for me. In 2012 I re-evaluated, re-focused and rebooted BCO. I took the events of the past two years and learnt from them not only to become a better outdoors man, but a better person as well. I began to take my experiences and write, becoming a featured writer for Manitoba Outdoors soon after. I then secured a 6 episode contract with MTS TV to produce hunting and fishing variety show for their on demand "Stories From Home" channel. So now here I am seven long year after I started working towards a career. I’m taking an extended leave of absence from my job to film this fall, and hopefully lay the foundation for many years of outdoor media work. It’s been a long haul, but one that’s now showing some promise as a way to earn ends meat.
To get to this point in my outdoor media career has been a long journey, one with many ups and downs, supporters and haters. I want to first acknowledge the haters. I know there will always be those who are jealous anytime a person has a higher level success, and those people will always try to knock you down. I want to single out two in particular and thank them. The former wildlife "biologist" and his buddy, thank you. Thank you for showing your true colours, thank you for providing me with the motivation to prove you wrong in more ways than you can ever imagine. Your assumptions of my activities, jealous attitude then the subsequent "investigation" by the Manitoba Department of Conservation brought me more stress and pain then I can tell you. I had made mistakes for sure, and I own them, now the question is are you willing to own yours? During your tenure at Manitoba Conservation wildlife numbers have plummeted to lows that haven't been seen in 40 years. Any time we talked all I ever heard was excuses. To think, all this could have been avoided if someone had just simply talked to me. But I’m kind of glad you didn’t, so thank you.
Finally, I need to genuinely thank those who have been supportive in my life and have helped me become the man I am today.
Trevor Boake, you rode the wave with me for the first five years man. I know our lives have gone in different directions but without you I wouldn’t be writing this. Thanks dude.
Gerry Oliver, man we need to do some hunting together some time soon. Thanks for being that guiding voice when I needed it, and thanks for everything you’ve offered me.
Andrew, Muriel, and the late Jack Boake, thank you for taking me into your family and your lives for those early years. I miss you guys, you still are and will always be my second family and I wish I could visit more often.
Melissa Ericson thanks for being so understanding and supportive. I know that the outdoor lifestyle is all new to you and a little tough to grasp. I love the fact that you’re giving me the time away and leeway to work on my projects. I love you babe and I’ll make it up to you, thank you.
Finally, Bev and Dennis Yaskiw, a huge thank you! It took me a long time to find a direction in life and that whole time you’ve been there for me…..and still are. I know I don’t need to say it, but I love you.
So as I write this final paragraph it’s now 17 days away from formally starting my outdoor career. In time I will go deeply into explaining what BCO stands for, but for now I’ll close by saying this. Being a Blue Collar Outdoorsman isn’t about what gear we use, or how what one person does is better than anything else. It’s about having a positive attitude towards others that share the outdoors with us and a desire to give more back to nature then we take. Nature and thus our lifestyle will thrive if we all make a point of thinking and acting this way.
First off I’d like to take the time to personally thank you for checking out my blog and to welcome out all to check in on a regular basis. I will be posting the links to this blog through Blue Collar Outdoor Media’s Facebook page and I’ll encourage you all to go and join. With this blog I’ll be sharing not only my adventures, but thoughts on conservation, wildlife and much more. But before that I feel the need to provide you all with a little history on how my passion, Blue Collar Outdoor Media came to be.
Ever since I can remember I’ve wanted to have a career in the outdoors. In my youth the dream was being a professional fisherman, teens it was to be a guide, and writing and videoing was the goal of my twenties. There just never seemed to be an easy way to get started though. I tried writing in my mid-twenties………and failed miserably. Shortly after though, 2006 to be exact, my path towards an outdoor career took a major turn. I was going into my second year of bear hunting and had been amazing people with the stories from my first year. There had been a fire smouldering within me to start videoing my hunts in the past, to show my friends and family that I wasn’t full of it and that these things I told them were really happening. That winter I had purchased a point and shoot digital camera….and this camera had a video function. So off I went into the woods with my good friend Trevor Fisher to video his first bear hunt with my little point and shoot Kodak.
The following years were a whirlwind of hunts and learning experiences. I threw myself into filming in 2008 with a serious goal of producing a video product. Blue Collar Outdoors Volume I was released on DVD in the spring of 2009, 14 hunts on a 90 minute DVD. It was a great start and many hunts were filmed for volume II in the next year. But then life got in the way in more ways than one, first a falling out with my partner and friend over creative and personal differences with BCO in 2010, then a major back door type of investigation into my hunting style and success by Manitoba Conservation in 2011 (more on that later). These two life events really put a damper on that flame. But a couple of good hunts and a verbal butt kicking by now "pro staff" Ty Pettyjohn really put things back into perspective for me. In 2012 I re-evaluated, re-focused and rebooted BCO. I took the events of the past two years and learnt from them not only to become a better outdoors man, but a better person as well. I began to take my experiences and write, becoming a featured writer for Manitoba Outdoors soon after. I then secured a 6 episode contract with MTS TV to produce hunting and fishing variety show for their on demand "Stories From Home" channel. So now here I am seven long year after I started working towards a career. I’m taking an extended leave of absence from my job to film this fall, and hopefully lay the foundation for many years of outdoor media work. It’s been a long haul, but one that’s now showing some promise as a way to earn ends meat.
To get to this point in my outdoor media career has been a long journey, one with many ups and downs, supporters and haters. I want to first acknowledge the haters. I know there will always be those who are jealous anytime a person has a higher level success, and those people will always try to knock you down. I want to single out two in particular and thank them. The former wildlife "biologist" and his buddy, thank you. Thank you for showing your true colours, thank you for providing me with the motivation to prove you wrong in more ways than you can ever imagine. Your assumptions of my activities, jealous attitude then the subsequent "investigation" by the Manitoba Department of Conservation brought me more stress and pain then I can tell you. I had made mistakes for sure, and I own them, now the question is are you willing to own yours? During your tenure at Manitoba Conservation wildlife numbers have plummeted to lows that haven't been seen in 40 years. Any time we talked all I ever heard was excuses. To think, all this could have been avoided if someone had just simply talked to me. But I’m kind of glad you didn’t, so thank you.
Finally, I need to genuinely thank those who have been supportive in my life and have helped me become the man I am today.
Trevor Boake, you rode the wave with me for the first five years man. I know our lives have gone in different directions but without you I wouldn’t be writing this. Thanks dude.
Gerry Oliver, man we need to do some hunting together some time soon. Thanks for being that guiding voice when I needed it, and thanks for everything you’ve offered me.
Andrew, Muriel, and the late Jack Boake, thank you for taking me into your family and your lives for those early years. I miss you guys, you still are and will always be my second family and I wish I could visit more often.
Melissa Ericson thanks for being so understanding and supportive. I know that the outdoor lifestyle is all new to you and a little tough to grasp. I love the fact that you’re giving me the time away and leeway to work on my projects. I love you babe and I’ll make it up to you, thank you.
Finally, Bev and Dennis Yaskiw, a huge thank you! It took me a long time to find a direction in life and that whole time you’ve been there for me…..and still are. I know I don’t need to say it, but I love you.
So as I write this final paragraph it’s now 17 days away from formally starting my outdoor career. In time I will go deeply into explaining what BCO stands for, but for now I’ll close by saying this. Being a Blue Collar Outdoorsman isn’t about what gear we use, or how what one person does is better than anything else. It’s about having a positive attitude towards others that share the outdoors with us and a desire to give more back to nature then we take. Nature and thus our lifestyle will thrive if we all make a point of thinking and acting this way.
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