Is it not enough to have your heart in the right place?

At the beginning of the year I got to meet Andreas Kieling, an absolutely fascinating man. How to describe him. I suppose wildlife film-maker is probably how he is described most often. But it is normally rather silly to try to sum complex people up by a description of their job, so I'll try to share something of what I felt of him. A complex man who, in person, is rather quiet and unassuming. But the man has spent such a huge amount of his time over the last 20 years just being in nature, that he is filled with an awe for nature. He oozes it. And people around him feel this and if you have any remote interest in our planet and her complexities, then you cannot help but being drawn in to his bubble of nature appreciation and adventure.

Now, I am quite certain that he is not perfect. His feet probably smell. And I would imagine he farts when he eats too much cabbage. He almost certainly has something about him that would annoy me. And if we ever spend enough time together we will find something to disagree on. With absolute certainty. 100%

Because neither of us are perfect.

When I reach the state of Buddhahood, or a complete understanding of Lord Jesus, I will be able to completely accept him as he is.

But the thing is, the man has such a deep love for nature, that I cannot imagine anything less than granting the man a great deal of respect and trying to accept him for who he is. On top of that, he has dedicated much of his life to not only understanding nature, but also to sharing his passion with others: to bring his appreciation and caring to a wide audience around the world.

Watch Andreas Kieling telling stories around a campfire (on Nat Geo)

And info about the "World's Wildest Encounters" series (Nat Geo)

So why am I blabbing on about Andreas Kieling and when am I going to get to saying something of remote relevance to my title?

In April, I made a little movie with Andreas Kieling in eastern Austria (Burgenland). We had gone out to photograph and film Great Bustards displaying, and what a sight that was! Crazy birds. Crazy crazy crazy.

Anyhow, so we put the movie on Youtube, along with some of the footage of the Great Bustards displaying taken through the spotting scope. It seems most people liked the video, until the other day some guy wrote a comment that offended me (and some of my colleagues). I mean, what is with people and critical, negative comments. So what if you do not personally like this man and the video and think someone else is better.

A (very) rough translation:

He's a 5 star farcical big-head. Played up and senseless drivel on every corner. This has nothing to do with serious documentation. I think Heinz Sielmann's documentaries are 1000 times better.

What would drive anyone to write this. I just cannot for the life of me figure this out. Heinz Sielmann has some wonderful documentaries too. This is not a serious documentary. Yup, yup. You do not like Andreas Kieling. Fine. But he has helped thousand (millions?) appreciate nature in a much stronger way (especially bears, his first love).

So, after sleeping on it, we wrote a softened response.

But I suppose this "problem" has been seen many many times before. I would imagine that most bloggers who have been doing it for a while have been through moments of self doubt, thinking about throwing in the towel. Because the thing about blogging is that we open ourselves up to the world. We lay our thoughts and hearts on paper and spread them open for the world to see. And sometimes there are people who take objection to that.

But please, if you think my feet are smelly or my ideas/videos/blog posts/photos/hair are silly, just mosey on over to another better smelling blog.

I love life. I love nature. the mountains. my family. birds. plants. blue skies. rain. mist. my job. digiscoping. art. sport. smiles. laughs. life. And I hope I am in some small way able to share my love for all that. And that it is in some small way contagious.

Happy days,

Dale Forbes