Tales by Light

Six-episode photo documentary mini-series a behind-the-scenes look at the origin of "National Geography like photos" that doesn’t have clear objective, in other words doesn’t now what to focus on. Within the time frame of twenty five minutes, each episode tries to cover to many aspects, so as a result most of them are not covered. Even though each of the episode is focused on a different top photographer (it is exclusively about natural history, travel and outdoor photography, not art), it is not so much about photographers themselves, nor about what shaped them or about their work. Maybe only a little bit. Although each of the episodes is filmed while they were working (swimming with cetaceans, photographing a fire festival in Bhutan, mountain gorillas, etc.), they try to squeeze in a bit about them, a bit about how to photograph that particular situation what photo techniques they apply (and technology), a bit about the particular place and their motivation "why are you taking photo of this", bit about the global ideas of the given photographer, a bit about the pitfalls of the given location and... A bit about this and about that. As a result, not many specific details mentioned, it's too hasty for that (three photoshoots in each episode, i.e. about eight minutes per segment), but we must admit that it´s really nice, even if the pompous soundtrack doesn’t match. The concept is unquestionably excellent, but what would be reasonable to do for the seasons to come would be to determine, whether it will focus on photographers as such and their work or on how the most breathtaking photos of nature are created, how much hard work is hidden behind all this and how the best photos are simply results of good luck and coincidence. (03.12.2016)