To be a woman cinematographer

I often get asked what it’s like to be a woman cinematographer in the natural history world?

To be honest, I feel amazing because somewhere I think I’m silently defying the notion that the natural history world is cut out for men - because it involves a lot of roughing it out, toughening up and being physically strong to carry around heavy equipment.

I agree we have to work harder than men in building those muscles because women in general don’t put on muscle very quickly.

I’m someone who trains regularly to keep fit - I do a lot of strength training, I deadlift twice my weight, I surely press more than my body weight. I do this, not to prove something or to look big and strong. I do this simply because I want to be efficient on field and I want to enjoy filming animals as opposed to it feeling like a task.

(And I really don’t care if that camera looks as big as me, as long as I’m doing my job well 😉)

Coming back to the question -

I love being behind the camera because you can shut people up without saying anything, really. You just have to show up and do your job (and ofc have fun!).