BBC Filming!

So these last couple days have been pretty exciting! A Planet Earth film crew from the BBC is working literally right across the hall from our lab! Right now, they are diving and filming underwater lifeforms living in the extremely cold ocean environment. These guys are spectacular cinematographers, world renowned, and right next door! I've had a pretty lucky streak going lately...



Everyone on the crew is incredibly friendly, and pumped to hear that I'm a film/geography student (working as a biologist?!?)...So today, I was invited to be their dive tender while they set up a time lapse camera at the ocean floor! Quite the jump-start to any film career! I headed out to the scuba shed (IMAX camera in hand!) with underwater cameraman, Norbert Wu. Once out on the ice, I helped the guys suit and glove up before they plunged into the frosted over dive hole! The water is 28 degreesF and covered with 15-20ft of ice!

Being a dive tender was a pretty sweet gig. Hopefully, I'll soon be the one swimming in the water with a camera though. Like Norbert said today, "just that much closer." Anyways, were gonna check out the footage tomorrow, and I'll officially be a part of a BBC production! Crazy!
Here is one of Norb's famous photos:


Antarctica, a frozen over continent at the end of the world, has proven to present itself as much more than a mere chunk of rock and ice...