I spent two weeks traveling around Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan where I filmed and interviewed Eagle Hunters from all around these two beautiful countries for a feature documentary that will be out next year!
Here's my video blog from the adventure:
Eagle Hunting is an ancient male tradition that goes back thousands of years where nomadic Kazakhs capture a young golden eagle from it’s nest and train the Eagle to hunt for rabbits, foxes and on occasion wolves! How insane is that!
Hunting most commonly takes places in the winter when temperatures drop to -40 degrees celsius and food supplies are at an all time low. The meat from the animals caught are used to feed the Eagle Hunters family and the fur is used for the Eagle Hunters coats to keep them warm!
Tracking down and filming the Eagle Hunters was an incredible adventure and we met so many wonderful people on the road! I was blown away by the kindness and generosity of the locals who would offer us tea and food wherever we went.
The landscape of these two countries, especially Kyrgyzstan was breathtaking and at times felt like I was on another planet!
We were moving around lots so we had to keep the camera equipment to a minimum. I was filming with the Sony AS7 and Canon lenses using a Metabones converter. I also took the drone out there.
It was a lot of fun having the opportunity to fly it in remote villages and capture these dramatic landscapes from perspectives that very few people have seen before. A lot of the locals were very excited to see the drone in action and would often come up to us to investigate what it was.
