Ten years ago I spent a month in the Swiss Alps with Dean Potter, his partner Jen, and their dog Whisper. When Dogs Fly is what we made together.
When it came out it caused a media firestorm. People absolutely lost it over the idea of a man wingsuit flying with his dog. What I actually witnessed was Whisper making it perfectly clear to everyone that she loved jumping with Dean. And Dean had zero concern about what anyone thought. That was just who he was.
My experience of Dean was narrow in comparison to folks like Timmy, Jim, and others. We had one intense month, holed up in the mountains together. Tempers flared. Someone died. We made art. I didn't know the full arc of who Dean was at that time. HBO's The Dark Wizard changed that. Watching it gave me a whole new context for the man I spent that month with. And seeing my footage woven into that much larger story — understanding finally what piece of the whole of Dean Potter I had actually witnessed — was more moving than I expected. Huge respect to the team at @senderfilms behind #TheDarkWizard.
Running Wild: Return to the River is now playing in IMAX theaters and I’m thrilled about how it turned out. My connection to this film goes back a ways. In 2019, Wild Salmon Center tapped me and my amigo Adam Bagger to make River Tigers — a film about giant taimen (a salmon cousin) in the Russian Far East. In 2020 Wild Salmon Center and I collaborated on the first teaser for what would eventually become this IMAX film. Then things went quiet for a couple of years the way projects do. Sometime in 2023 I got a call from Director Myles Connolly, production happened in the summers of 2024 and 2025, and now here we are with a 3D film playing on the biggest screens in the world.
Wild Salmon Center, especially the legendary Guido Rahr, got this film made — without them no layer of this would have been possible. The relationships they’ve built across the Pacific Rim—from commercial fishermen to indigenous groups and everyone in between—brought this story to life. I treasure the relationships that were formed during the process, especially with Myles, who I now call a good friend.
I was the cinematographer on several of the key shoots: the Dean River, the Great Bear Rainforest, and the Skeena watershed in BC, and the Smith River in Northern California. The (legendary!) Dean River fly fishing shoot was just two of us — Myles and me: there were just two seats in the helicopter and two beds at the fishing camp (figure it out!). The material we brought back from that physically grueling week helped build Guido’s character and is some of my favorite in the film.
These places, these species, these people, deserve the biggest screen. I can’t wait for everyone to see what we made together.
We recently moved the @atwillpilates_ studio into a beautiful new space and that finally inspired us to do a quick shoot. So here’s Colleen herself uniting the worlds of Pilates and ballet. Lots more to come from Atwill’s new home!
🎥: 🙋‍♂️ + @isabelazawist
Something magical is happening in our little community and I’m very proud to be involved. The seeds are planted, we have the best gardeners tending, and what grows is going to bring big change. I’m here for it.
All because of @bellehahn1 & @lilyhahnshining đź’š
@oliver_english@ablacksmith
Some snaps from earlier this month on the central BC coast, made during the production of my latest IMAX project. This area, dubbed the Great Bear Rainforest, is one of my favorite places on Earth and I’m so freakin lucky that I get to keep coming back and spend time. Big thanks to our new friends from the Heiltsuk Nation for all of the hospitality and stories around the fire.
Good times in Texas for Tesla Energy. Not always do I find myself swayed by the commercials I help make but they’re getting me with this campaign. Looking forward to the day that I too cut fossil fuels out of my monthly diet.
We’re sinking our teeth into an IMAX film this year, and it’s taking us on some pretty fun adventures. IMAX is a wildly different medium to shoot for than traditional documentaries or commercials—it’s a whole new style guide and rule book. Fun to see life at f/8 when your lenses are normally pegged wide open. And when every shot you make will end up being a VFX shot. And converted to 3D and viewed on a 100 foot wide screen instead of a 5in wide one. Shake up the perspective, shake up the creativity, keep it interesting. 💚🎥
“Unleaded” for PBS
Premieres July 8th
Image #3 by @trippedavis 💪🙏
In Montana, we explored how lead that enters the environment via hunting ammunition has unintended consequences, and what a group of scientists and hunters is doing to help. While we were there, we checked in on a collaboration between scientists, NGOs, and tribal members who are working to bring back a population of black footed ferrets once thought to be gone.
@raewynngrant for LinkedIn. Rae is co-hosting the latest iteration of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, the latest adventure in her career as a biologist studying large creatures around the world. Great to collaborate with you, Rae!!
