Earth Touch Blog

From the field

Into the future with a ping Jan 30 2008

Can you imagine my alarm when I was recently informed that I would have to know how to “ping” a satellite as part of my job description?

My friends know that if it was left to me to invent the wheel, for example, humankind would have to wait for many more centuries. I am one of those people who are good at using technologies once I have been given the “know-how”. But I’m not good at inventing anything myself, nor do I have the patience to spend hoursworking out how to engage these systems.

So I was relieved to hear that I would be trained and equipped with the skills to do the pinging.

Earth-Touch in-house

Blog action day Oct 15 2007

The natural environment around us is not only the lifeblood of Earth-Touch, we feel it’s also the lifeblood of the planet. 

Featured on Earth-Touch

Tropical rainforests of Ecuador Sep 14 2007

We welcome footage of tropical rainforests shot in Ecuador, broadcast on Earth-Touch for the first time today.

Featured on Earth-Touch

Coming soon: Scenes from Ecuador Sep 13 2007

The culturally and environmentally diverse country of Ecuador in South America is the next location Earth-Touch will be screening footage from.

From the field

Do or die? Sep 10 2007

By Andy Crawford, field crewNature is harsh. Sometimes exceedingly so. This is obvious to anyone who has seen the Earth-Touch video clip of the nesting skimmer colony in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, entitled Tension mounts on skimmer bank. The seemingly senseless killing of a two-day-old skimmer chick by an adult skimmer is difficult to watch, and even more difficult to comprehend. Since mentioning this incident to a few people, the question most often asked is, “Why didn’t the film crew help the chick?”

Earth-Touch in-house

What’s in a name? Aug 31 2007

By Reina Luck, editorial team

One of the challenges the editorial team faces on a day-to-day basis is to get our heads around some of the strange and confusing names that we humans have given to the various species which our film crews encounter.

From the field

Hiding out Aug 27 2007

By Andy Crawford, field crew

Filming wild animals is often difficult as they tend to react to a human presence. In order to capture their ‘natural’ behaviour, one often has to find inventive ways of going unnoticed.

Featured on Earth-Touch

A swamp forest soothes dampened spirits Aug 23 2007

Listen to the sounds of a coastal forest in Earth-Touch’s clip, Soothing spirit of the forest.

Wildlife news from around the world

New footage from Florida, USA Aug 15 2007

Earth-Touch now has a crew in the United States of America. Yes, we have a field crew in the States who have already started delivering beautiful footage all the way from Florida.

Did you know?

Did you know? Skimmers Aug 8 2007

An African skimmer fishes by flying close to the surface of the water, scooping up unsuspecting prey with its lower beak. Watch the first of Earth-Touch’s coverage of these endangered birds this season: African skimmers return to Nxamaseri.

Did you know?

Did you know?  Starfish Aug 8 2007

A starfish that loses a limb can grow another one. See the four-legged starfish in today’’s video, Slithering on the sea floor.

From the field

Donna Summer and the Anaconda Aug 7 2007

Photo: Dawson/Wikipedia

The search was on. We were scouting for an anaconda to film and the light – and our hopes – were fading fast. The day had been spent tracking and filming birds in the Pantanal in Brazil and we were now racing to reach an area in which anacondas had recently been seen. We were hurtling along a tooth-shattering and butt-bruising dirt road in a pickup. I was clutching the camera in the cab but my laptop was doing double half twist somersaults on the back

Earth-Touch in-house

High definition rocks! Aug 7 2007

By Brian Palmer, head honcho

The Earth-Touch office has recently invested in a new Apple TV unit to download the HD Earth-Touch videos and play them back on a large screen.

Of course we are biased, but the videos look really awesome in high definition– so this posting is a reminder to those of you who have decent screens and internet connections to try to download a couple of the 720 HD videos and then you can sit back with your popcorn and enjoy Earth-Touch on a whole new level.

Earth-Touch in-house

Different by nature Aug 6 2007

By Reina Luck, editorial team

Just as the locations where Earth-Touch’’s field crews film are cross-sections of nature’s diversity, the Earth-Touch team is a microcosm of human diversity. We have an assortment of personality types working on the project. Daily we run the gamut of interacting with anxious over-achievers, cool-cat creatives, adrenalin junkies (the film crews), thinkers, doers, drivers, followers and the good old plaintive perfectionistas who keep us all honest and in line.

Admittedly this sounds like a bit of a motley crew – but, as in nature, it’s the very diversity of the team in this unique human ecosystem that is our biggest asset. One person’s weakness is another’s strength: together we are far more than the sum of our parts.

From the field

Ragged-tooth Romeos wait to mate Aug 5 2007

By Graeme Duane, field crew

The dud sardine run has triggered what seems to be a seasonal ragged-tooth shark migration to the south coast of KwaZulu-Natal, where they will mate. In recent weeks, we’ve come across growing numbers of these big sharks, which divers refer to affectionately as “raggies” in the deep caves of Aliwal Shoal, a sandstone ridge teeming with sea life about 5km (3mi) out to sea from the town of Umkomaas. The males seem to arrive first, almost waiting with bated breath for the females, who haven’t shown up yet.

Earth-Touch in-house

Another world Aug 2 2007

By Richard Frank, editorial team

It never ceases to amaze me how different life is under the water. Except for the effects of global warming, over-fishing and the odd shipwreck, the underwater world is untouched by humans. We are mere observers and are likely to always be – it’s just too difficult to colonise the oceans. Thank goodness.

Featured on Earth-Touch

What lies beneath … Jul 30 2007

By Tamar Blieden, editorial team

Ocean-dwelling species as diverse as great white sharks, rays, eels and the Disney-like devil firefish have become ‘regulars’ on Earth-Touch, introducing us if familiar characters in a children’s fantasy to an underwater world of wonder.

From the field

Travels with an iguana Jul 27 2007

By Pierre Minnie, field crew

My guide pulled me back to look at the beautiful iguana I had walked past without seeing. It was a perfectly camouflaged Guichenot dwarf iguana. The creature was motionless and hanging on a moss-covered branch, obviously confident that it was well disguised.

I am currently in South America and have been sent to North Eastern Ecuador to evaluate the potential to film here for Earth-Touch.

Earth-Touch in-house

Can you believe everything you watch? Jul 25 2007

By Brian Palmer, head honcho

I’’ve just read an article about a British TV show that was about surviving in the wild, using ‘nothing but a water bottle, a cup and a flint for making fire’. As it turns out the presenter was staying in hotels and being fed pancakes. The producers say that the show was a ‘how to’ and not an ‘observational documentary’ – but what they don’t say is that they happily misled their audience to believe that the show was real.

Featured on Earth-Touch

Sardines canned for this year? Jul 23 2007

By Reina Luck and Tara Turkington, editorial team

Sardines? What sardines?

It looks as if for the second year in a row, the anxiously-awaited sardine run up the east coast of South Africa is doomed to become a non-event. While the water stays stubbornly warm, the sardines stay put.

From the field

Feeding time Jul 5 2007

By Graeme Duane, field crew

Hmmm, time to feed, are we talking about lions, sharks or satellite dishes here? I guess all three if you’re in the field. For me the great whites are easier to deal with than Jacque’s dish, which I have to use to serve my footage.

From the field

On not using deodorant Jul 5 2007

By Pierre Minnie, field crew

It took me a while to realise why I had felt uncomfortable on my first filming assignment to the raw and natural environment of the Okavango Delta in Botswana.

Earth-Touch in-house

Welcome to Earth-Touch! Jul 4 2007

By Richard van Wyk and Brian Palmer
(Earth-Touch head honchos)

It’s taken many years to finally arrive at this point – the test launch of Earth-Touch.com, to a group of 100 friends, relatives and generally clever people we’d like to associate ourselves with, and whose opinions we value. Earth-Touch strives to connect people better with the natural world as it is now so that they can marvel at its beauty in a medium - the world wide web - that is more immediate, personal and interactive than a TV set or a cinema screen.