PBS Nature Special: Big Bend – The Wild Frontier of Texas

This page is all about my experience as a field researcher, location assistant, animal wrangler, and time-lapse photographer for the PBS Nature Special, Big Bend: The Wild Frontier of Texas. My journey began back in March 2018 when I had my first introduction to and meeting with Skip Hobbie. Skip is the primary cinematographer and original idea behind the film and he resides in Austin, Texas. Skip is an Emmy award winning artist whose work has been featured on National Geographic, Animal Planet, Discovery, and PBS stations all over the world.

Skip learned of me through mutual friends, Jim and Lynne M. Weber who are very accomplished naturalists and authors. In March 2018, Skip contacted me and we arranged to meet in Pflugerville to discuss the possibility of my participation in the making of the film. To say I was ecstatic is a tremendous understatement. Participating in this fantastic film highlighting my favorite location is the dream of a lifetime. That day we hit it off and discussed a wide variety of possible “stories” for the film. We discussed mammals, birds, locations, insects, reptiles and amphibians; I was so glad to hear the film would feature all aspects of the park.

Over the next two plus years, I would serve in various capacities for the film. I spend countless hours on the phone, through email, and in the field with Skip and various other cinematographers and assistants on the film. As opportunities for certain stories arose and others met an untimely demise (i.e. the predation of the Colima Warbler nest I had discovered), our direction or emphasis would shift throughout the year. At times I was searching for gravid female Greater Earless Lizards, at others I was shooting time-lapse images of flowering cacti and night skies, and others I was searching for unique insects, reptiles and amphibians to be featured in the film. I assisted on building sets, arranging setups for certain shots, and ensuring the welfare of animal and insect subjects.

We filmed at locations throughout the Big Bend region including my yard in the Davis Mountains, my campground in Terlingua Ranch (Big Bend Glamping) and some really incredible private locations that I would have never been able to access without being a part of this film. Throughout the experience, I remained grateful every time I heard from Skip about what he needed or wanted me to do. One of my favorite memories is Skip telling me they needed an Elf Owl nest in a scenic location in the park. We already had one Elf Owl nest at Christmas Mountains Oasis, but the birds had changed nest cavities due to the Ash-throated Flycatchers taking over the existing nest cavity. On my second night of searching, I found a beautiful location in Green Gulch where the nest cavity height was conducive to filming! I will never forget standing in a spot for a few hours waiting for it to get dark enough for owls to begin calling and hunting.

It wasn’t long before I heard an Elf Owl but it seemed to be a distance from the cavity. I stood still and remained patient. Eventually I saw an Elf Owl pop its head out of the cavity and the male soon landed nearby. Success! In the film, you see footage from both nesting locations and the amount of time invested by Skip and the crew in filming these locations is testament to the commitment and patience exhibited by cinematographers. The image above was taken the very night I found this particular nest cavity.

Some of my favorite working roles was in setting up the high speed insects scenes and, specifically, the Horse Lubber jumping/flying scene. We were on a private ranch north of Big Bend National Park and it was in the mid-100’s that day. I had found three different individuals and was fortunate in that one would remain still, one would jump, and one would fly!  A perfect combination of individuals, and the following work would require a very expensive, high speed camera. We worked in segments due to the heat and the challenge of getting each shot. Watching Skip do his work is fascinating because photography and cinematography have much in common; yet, there are also some tremendous differences such as patience required is even higher, you are shooting at very slow shutter speeds so you are almost always relying on neutral density filters for a proper exposure, your gear is much heavier, and filming low requires a great deal of concentration.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION