Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

400,000 cool characters and a camera

24/06/2019

Bertie GregoryFollow Bertie : Facebook LinkedIn Twitter Instagram

Bertie Gregory, Nat Geo Wildlife Cameraman, Demands the Most Reliable Gear When Shooting in Rugged and Remote LocationsWild_Life with Bertie Gregory, the first-ever all-digital wildlife series from National Geographic, takes its young host to some of the world's most spectacular and remote wildlife destinations. For the current season, Bertie and his crew voyaged to the inhospitable Subantarctic island of South Georgia to document the remarkable recovery of the wildlife there. And once again, Bertie turned to rugged, reliable, and high-quality gear from Anton/Bauer, OConnor and Sachtler.

Kit List

Dionic XT 90

OConnor 2560 fluid head

OConnor 60L tripod

OConnor HiHat

OConnor Cine HD aluminum baby legs

Sachtler flowtech 75

Hunkered down with 400,000 penguins on a cold and rugged outcrop miles from civilisation would be an unusual day for most people - but not so for Bertie Gregory. At the age of just 22, he made history with the debut of Wild_Life with Bertie Gregory, National Geographic's first-ever all-digital wildlife series and the cornerstone of its YouTube channel.After a successful first season, in which Bertie focused on the coastal fauna of Canada's Vancouver Island, Season Two of Wild_Life premiered last October with five online, 10-minute episodes and a one-hour TV special on the Nat Geo Wild channel. Entitled Wild_Life: Resurrection Island, the latest season places Bertie on the island of South Georgia, a tiny speck in the South Atlantic ocean nearly 1,000 miles from the nearest mainland. The full five-episode series, together with a selection of bonus content, is currently available through National Geographic's online channels including natgeo.com, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.

South Georgia is the holy grail of wildlife filmmaking, and it's teeming with one of the highest concentrations of wildlife on the planet. It's living proof that it's not too late to save wild places.

After a rough-and-tumble, 870-mile sea voyage aboard a 50-foot sailboat from the Falkland Islands, Bertie and his three-person Nat Geo film crew fetched up on South Georgia.For several weeks, the crew would live at anchor and spend every day on the island, getting up close and personal with macaroni penguins, wandering albatrosses, fur seals, and other remarkable wild inhabitants.Bertie's mainstay for shooting on South Georgia was a RED HELIUM 8K cine camera and Canon Cn20 50-1000mm zoom lens, supported by an OConnor 2560 fluid head and an OConnor 60L tripod. This camera-lens combo is massive and heavy, but the great thing about the Oconnor setup is that it's relatively lightweight, Bertie says. That made the whole rig a lot easier to carry around to rugged spots and then move in and set up quickly and quietly, for those times when we were sneaking up on an animal and hoping to catch it before a particular behavior finished. To film the smaller animals such as baby fur seals and penguins, Bertie used an OConnor HiHat with 150mm bowl to get the rig as low to the ground as possible. And when the unforgiving polar winds for which South Georgia is famous made simply standing up a challenge, Bertie turned to a set of OConnor Cine HD aluminum baby legs.

When you're on the end of a long and bulky lens and the wind is roaring, you need as much stability as possible - and the OConnor baby legs are built like a brick out-house.

Rock star. Bertie meets the neighbors

For the times when light weight was paramount and kit space was minimal, Bertie turned to the game-changing flowtech 75 tripod from Sachtler.Bertie relied on flowtech75 to create motion-controlled, time-lapse video, including stunning images of clouds rolling in and out of South Georgia's glacial mountain landscapes. The flowtech75 is perfect for this type of shot, since it can go very low to the ground without the use of baby legs or a high hat. That's important in time-lapse imagery, because you want to capture changes in the foreground in the frame, he explains.

Bertie captures stunning images of clouds rolling in over South Georgia's glacial mountains.

flowtech75's extremely light weight made it a welcome addition to the Wild_Life crew's gear list. Since flowtech75 is super-lightweight, we were able to take it along without really adding to our load. That's important, because when we were trekking across the island, we had to carry all our gear on our backs, Bertie comments. It also meant we could use a tripod that was really fit for purpose, instead of trying to make one of the other tripods do such a specialized job.

Anton/Bauer's Dionic XT90 on-camera batteries were another critical element in Bertie's kit. At the time, the Dionic XTs were prototypes, so we were slightly nervous about using them in such a remote spot. After all, South Georgia is a long way from the nearest camera store, Bertie says. But the batteries worked flawlessly, and we love their nice, compact size. That makes them really easy to stack and pack what we need for a full day's shoot without taking up too much valuable space. Another key factor was the Dionic XTs' performance in cold conditions, which can seriously hamper battery life. Although South Georgia wasn't terribly cold (hovering around zero Celsius for most of the shoot), Bertie reports that the batteries performed beautifully at the undisclosed location for his next project - where the temperature would often plunge to minus 30 Celsius. No batteries work quite as long as they might in warm weather, but the performance of the Dionic batteries was pretty crazy in such a cold climate, he comments.

Bertie is currently shooting Season 3 of Wild_Life, highlighting a location that will remain under wraps until the show premi
LINK: https://www.antonbauer.com/en/applications/400-000-cool-characters-and...
See more stories from antonb

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

09/06/2026

Two Alumni Win Tony Awards

Two Alumni Win Tony Awards Mike Morris and Cedric Leiba Jr. won awards for Best Orchestrations and Best Play, respectively. June 8, 2026 By Tori Donahue ...

08/06/2026

SVG Sit-Down: FIFA's Oscar Sanchez and HBS's Paul King on Deploying 16 Production Teams in 16 World Cup Venues

The two execs discuss the goals and the challenges of building a huge multi-cult...

08/06/2026

SVG All-Stars: Judi Weiss, Senior Manager, Remote Operations (Studio), ESPN

This industry legend has been a road warrior since the early '90s and is, today, a lynchpin on College GameDay The sports-production industry continues to ...

08/06/2026

DAZN Extends Combat Sports Portfolio with EFC Partnership

DAZN has agreed a multi-year rights partnership with Extreme Fighting Championship (EFC), expanding its global combat sports portfolio. DAZN will broadcast EFC...

08/06/2026

Whitepaper: TVU Networks Tackles the Future of Sports Production

As fans move across broadcast, streaming, social, mobile and creator-led platforms, and they expect every angle, in real time, TVU Networks has released a new e...

08/06/2026

Infront Strengthens Diamond League Global Broadcast Network Through Spate of New Agreements

Infront has further strengthened the 2026 Diamond League's international bro...

08/06/2026

Grass Valley Appoints Sam Craig as Vice President, Global Pre-Sales

Grass Valley has announced the appointment of Sam Craig as Vice President, Global Pre-Sales. Based in the United States, Craig will lead Grass Valley's glob...

08/06/2026

SMPTE Announces Summer 2026 IP Networking and ST 2110 Course Lineup

SMPTE has announced its summer 2026 education lineup covering IP networking and SMPTE ST 2110, including two standalone courses, a 13-week boot camp, and a hand...

08/06/2026

Sportradar and Kalshi Announce Multi-Year Data and Infrastructure Partnership for Prediction Markets

Sportradar Group AG has announced a multi-year global agreement with Kalshi, a p...

08/06/2026

FIFA and Gamefam Launch FIFA World Cup 2026 Event on Roblox

FIFA and Gamefam have announced the launch of a FIFA World Cup 2026 event on Roblox, running June 5 through July 31, 2026. The event centers on FIFA Super Socce...

08/06/2026

Stanley Pup 2026: Fun Is the Goal When the Rescue-Dog Competition Returns for Year 3

A collaboration of NHL Productions, Monumental Sports, and Michael Levitt Produc...

08/06/2026

Bryce Adair, CBS Production Assistant, Dies in Car Crash at 31

CBS Sports production staffer Bryce Adair has died at the age of 31 after sustaining injuries during a car accident on Wednesday while in Ohio working the the P...

08/06/2026

Behind the Mic: Russell Wilson and Kyle Long Join CBS Sports The NFL Today

Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, including new deals, departures, and assignments compiled from press releases and repo...

08/06/2026

WMT Digital Launches Sports Customer Data Platform Built to Turn Fan Intelligence into Revenue

WMT Digital today announced the launch of WMT Fan Intelligence, designed to unif...

08/06/2026

Miami Heat Ink New Deal With WPLG Local 10, Join NBAs Growing OTA Crowd

The Heat are the seventh NBA team to air their games over-the-air next season...

08/06/2026

Paramount and UFC Expand Media Rights Partnership to Canada Beginning in 2027

Paramount and UFC have announced an expansion of their media rights partnership making Paramount the exclusive home of UFC Numbered Event main cards in Canada ...

08/06/2026

Qatar Football Association Deploys Virtual Advertising Technology for First Time with Sponix

The Qatar Football Association (QFA), in cooperation with Sponix and broadcaster...

08/06/2026

Project B Appoints HBS as Official Host Broadcaster for Global Basketball Circuit

Project B has announced the appointment of Host Broadcast Services (HBS) as Offi...

08/06/2026

Ohio State's Marco Fragale on the Growth of On-Campus B1G+ Productions and StudentU

The Buckeyes now produce and stream upwards of 200 sports events annually with a...

08/06/2026

Meet the New GLOW Ambassadors Leading Spotify's Global Pride Celebration

At Spotify, our commitment to the LGBTQIA community is year-round. Through GLOW, our global music program, we celebrate and amplify the contributions of queer ...

08/06/2026

GearExpo UK: Keyboard & Synth Update

Get Hands-on With Keyboard & Synth Brands GearExpo UK wouldn't be complete without some synth action, and we've got some of the industry's most ...

08/06/2026

IK Multimedia's ARC On-Ear gains IEM support

50 popular in-ear monitoring system profiles added The latest update for IK Multimedia's headphone-correction system has just arrived, and introduces ca...

08/06/2026

Audeze announce the MM-520

Manny Marroquin signature cans upgraded with SLAM Technology The flagship model in Audeze's Manny Marroquin Signature Series has just been treated to an...

08/06/2026

Air domain supremacy redefined - New counter UAS, space solutions and directional communications from Rohde & Schwarz debut at ILA

Air domain supremacy redefined - New counter UAS, space solutions and directiona...

08/06/2026

BBC announces Hercule, starring Edward Bluemel as Agatha Christie's legendary detective Hercule Poirot

he BBC and BritBox have announced that Edward Bluemel (We Might Regret This, My ...

08/06/2026

Sam Craig Joins Grass Valley as VP, Global Presales

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/06/2026

SMPTE Sets Course Lineup With ST 2110, IP Networking Focus

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/06/2026

Glensound puts practical audio connectivity centre stage...

Dante interfaces, intercom and control systems for modern AV environments Glensound will showcase a focused range of networked audio and intercom solutions fo...

08/06/2026

Bminty and T18 celebrates the channel s 1st anniversary -...

Bminty is proud to celebrate the first anniversary of T18, the new free national French DTT channel launched on June 6, 2025. This symbolic milestone also marks...

08/06/2026

DaVinci Resolve Used For Global Collaboration on Tony Foster Documentary

DaVinci Resolve Used For Global Collaboration on Tony Foster Documentary Brie Clayton June 8, 2026 0 Comments DaVinci Resolve Studio and Blackmagic Cl...

08/06/2026

New York Cracks Down on AI Bots

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

08/06/2026

Sky introduces Real Time feature on Sky Glass and Sky Stream to bring fans closer to the World Cup action

Plus, 20% off TVs ahead of kick-offMonday 8 June 2026 Sky introduces Real Time...

08/06/2026

FOX Secures Live NFL Game Package in Mexico Starting in Fall 2026

FOX Secures Live NFL Game Package in Mexico Starting in Fall 2026 Agreement Features Thursday Night Football, Sunday Games Package, Thanksgiving Day Games, al...

08/06/2026

FOX One, FOX Sports and Indeed Name Austin Franklin and Kevin Akoto as FOX One Chief World Cup Watchers

FOX One, FOX Sports and Indeed Name Austin Franklin and Kevin Akoto as FOX One C...

08/06/2026

Hamburg Open. Hamburg. 14-15 January 2026

Meet us on the show floor Stand #286310 Discover Nara, the media management tool used by major facilities including Harbor and Molinare. Nara v2 introduces re...

08/06/2026

Micro Salon. Paris. 5-6 February 2026

L'art de l'Image dans Reflet dans un diamant mort' Une conversation avec le directeur de la photographie Manuel Dacosse, SBC et l' talonneur Pe...

08/06/2026

HPA Tech Retreat. Rancho Mirage. 15-19 February 2026

Embracing today's modern media workflows: FilmLight presents Nara 2.0, with FilmLight API Designed to support the growing demands of today's production ...

08/06/2026

Beyond the prompt: Colour grading in the age of AI. Berlin. 18 February 2026

Moderated by Andy Minuth, FilmLight's Colour Workflow Specialist Wednesday 18 February 6:00pm / Doors open 7:00pm / Presentation in German 8:00pm / Drin...

08/06/2026

Modern workflow simplified: FilmLight presents Nara and Daylight with FilmLight API. London. 14 April 2026

Join us on April 14 at 10:00am for a technical roundtable with the Filmlight dev...

08/06/2026

The Fundamentals of Coding and Machine-Assisted Development. London. Various

You're invited to FLAPI Classroom The fundamentals of coding and machine-assisted development These sessions will help you build the skills needed to cre...

08/06/2026

Colour Masterclass at MELS. Montreal. 9 May 2026

With Sylvain Canaux (St Louis, Paris) and J r me Cloutier (MELS, Montreal) Wednesday 6 May Pick your time: 1:00PM / 5:00PM Note: The presentation will be hel...

08/06/2026

Simplify your workflows with FLAPI. Los Angeles. 9 June 2026

FilmLight, 1107 N El Centro Ave, Los Angeles Doors open at 3:30pm Join the FilmLight team on June 9th at 4pm to learn how FilmLight products and APIs can stre...

08/06/2026

The Creators List launched to Help Brands Connect With Top Creators In Cannes

The Creators List launched to Help Brands Connect With Top Creators In CannesThe curated directory launched by Tubefilter, Comscore, Whalar Group and Gospel Sta...

08/06/2026

It's almost kick off time! RT KIDS show Total Football returns for a second season with a brand new co-host

Irish YouTube star DavidMC joins Aisling O'Reilly to tackle all things socce...

07/06/2026

Decksaver's Sping 2026 Drop

Company introduce 21 new protective covers Decksaver have just announced their Sping 2026 Drop, which sees a total of 21 new models added to their ever-grow...

07/06/2026

How to Recreate the Star Trek TNG jump to warp in After Effects

How to Recreate the Star Trek TNG jump to warp in After Effects Graham Quince June 7, 2026 0 Comments In 1987, John Knoll at ILM had to use labor-inte...

07/06/2026

Filming Coffee Communities with Blackmagic PYXIS

Filming Coffee Communities with Blackmagic PYXIS Brie Clayton June 7, 2026 0 Comments Remote travel, fast setups and hard sun shaped this documentary ...