The first influence happened in February 2025, when I decided I needed to try and open some new creative doors as a means to find any some form of inspiration again and a much needed distraction.
I purchased myself a DJI Mini Pro 4, (a sub $1000 250gram drone), to get into the sky and explore creating imagery from above. Given I love both photography and cinematography – I felt this might be a good creative outlet. Also, the technology of these drones had now progressed to a point where I could produce works of a very high standard, but without it needing to be anything more than a hobby, given the low investment.
As soon as I started flying, I felt sparks of inspiration again. I really enjoyed once more exploring cinematic ideas, colour, editing and sound all in a low impact way.
Typically, my other areas of expertise like CGI simply can’t provide this without huge commitment and effort. One can easily spending weeks to just produce mere seconds of content. Long gone was a time where I had the drive to do anything like that for myself.
After a few test flights, and getting a solid imaging pipeline figured out, I set out to make my first cinematic short. It was still midst of winter, and the scenery where I lived was pretty awesome given a recent snowfall. After just a week I had shot, edited, grading my first proper cinematic short – A Winter’s Moment.
Even some more low key adventures surprised me, like how even a simple drive up the coast late on a week night to see the northern lights, become a enjoyable creative astrophotography session!
A New Path
As the weeks drew on, and this person was preparing to move on to there next chapter, I really began to feel concern. I feared that I would simply slip back into my old ways. That the pursuit of adventure would die out. That my creative expression would also fade. Now was the time to really commit to the changes I had made so far, and ask myself – what was my next chapter? What does my version of such a journey look like? I drew inspiration from what had brought me joy over the prior months, and came up with a plan for what I could scale into until I found my fulfilment, or maybe even a new way of life.
From everything up until this point, I always enjoyed exploring. I loved finding amazing landscapes, and the creative rewards that could bring. I wanted to film and photograph, rather than being at a computer for the entire creative process. I wanted to continue the experience of my growing appreciation of the wilderness here in BC and mountains here in BC , and the good they have brought me in recent times of my life. With my vision returning, I was presented with an idea of a new path.
My thought was to embark on a wilderness adventure, ranging many weeks or even longer, camera and drones in hand. I would aim to travel the west coast of North America, experiencing everything this land has to offer. I truly feel this is up there with as one of greatest areas to explore in the Americas, largely unaffected by modern man, expansive, rich with wildlife, and cultures that are connected to the earth and the life within.
A New Blog
So here you are, on a new blog I’ve created for exactly for the purpose of capturing this journey, sharing with others the process of preparation of the adventures that will follow. There will be lots of learning, journaling and content around anything related to my plan. This blog will be my space were I can share with your stories of my experiences, people and wildlife I’ll met on the way.
How big my adventure ultimately will become is yet to be determined. So will if I’m any good at keeping up with a blog! My path will probably change over time again, or perhaps – I find my equilibrium just somewhere along the way. That’s going to be my discovery, but I’ll share it all right here if you wish to follow along.