Hapa na Sasa

"Our trip through Tanzania still feels fresh, even though it's been three months. It took longer than expected to complete the film I wanted to dedicate to it."

Briefly back...

Our previous trip to Switzerland remained undocumented. For months before, I had a complete video in my head. With the music chosen in my AirPods, I visualized every shot, every cut, every transition every morning on my way to the train. The "script" was completely in my head, only the locations needed to be filled in.

But reality turned out differently. Bad weather, drone bans, circumstances that didn't fit my plan. And I had a hard time accepting that. It cost me so much energy that I hardly had any fun. At one point I even stopped filming.

Later I realized that this was not about creativity, but about expectations - and the inability to let go when those expectations fall apart. Once I had that realization, I began to relax. I shot some images anyway, even though I knew the film I envisioned might not come to pass.

Once home, I tinkered with a rough edit anyway, with a message that was about letting go and accepting. Ironically, a mistake caused me to lose most of the original footage, so the video was never finished. Perhaps that was also the lesson; that it wasn't about the film, but what I learned from it.

Tanzania: a different experience

And then there was Tanzania. Again, my creative brain started spinning months in advance. During walks to the station, another plan emerged: a series of five episodes, prologue and epilogue, complete with music and concept. How that concept should have looked I won't dwell on for once, but the bottom line is that it was quite ambitious. And, looking back, totally unrealistic. If I could have stayed there for a few months, then maybe....

But this time things turned out differently. Despite my ideas and expectations, I allowed myself to move with reality. And because of that, the fun remained intact; we enjoyed every minute.

And even though I had to adjust my ambitions, a film came out of it that is dear to me. Because I was ready for what was coming in that moment. And I was aware of the privilege of being able to be here.

Memories that remain

The memories, the impressions, the people, they stay with you. How you hold your breath when, for the first time in your life, you see a herd of wild elephants walk by you just a few feet away and see so much more in them than just animals.

The inner excitement you have to contain to get that one shot of that leopard in a tree. The surreal feeling when you have the king of the animal kingdom in your camera frame for the first time and the lump in the throat when you float in a balloon dozens of meters above the Serengeti and for a moment everything seems to make sense.

The moral of the story; life is so much more rewarding in the here and now. And I need to keep reminding myself of that. Much more often than I do. That is what the wonderful animals we have seen also live in.

That's why, unlike us, they are truly wild and free.

And this is why photography and videography fascinate me so much. Because it brings me back to the moment and shows me what is real, between expectation and reality.