Kenya

Marc @ Red Earth Studio came across Luke Gamble back in 2007 while browsing on the internet one lazy day. Luke is a Somerset based Vet, who's charity Worldwide Veterinary Services (WVS) provides medication and veterinary help to those in need in all four corners of the globe.

We went down to meet him, took a little camera to screen test him and instantly we knew we had found a gem of a wildlife/animal presenter.

He had already done a cheap little video with a local production company which had been touted around broadcasters to no avail and that was a bit of a stumbling block as it took a lot of convincing from us to prove to him that we were the right company to make something with and this really tested his loyalties, but after much deliberating he decided to sign up with Red Earth Studio.

We knew that the video that we had wasn't good enough, despite the content being incredible, so it was decided that we go and shoot another promo.

In April 2008, Luke was asked by the Kenyan government to help out with the farmers who were now living in displacement camps set up after the political unrest in Feb 2008.

Thousands of people had lost their homes, farms and livelihoods as warring tribes fought each other over land and power around the Rift Valley region in Central West of Kenya.

It was a no brainer. We knew it would be a great backdrop to film a pilot programme about Luke's work. At the time we owned a Sony DSR 570 but we took the view that to make it have more impact we should film it on HD,  but we had to keep the costs down as we were paying this out of our own pocket. We did a deal with hammerhead.tv and they gave us a Sony 750 for the 10 days; so myself and Marc headed out to Nairobi with Luke and his good friend and assistant Clive for a bit of a kenyan adventure.

10 x one hour episodes of Luke Gamble - Vet Adventures will TX on SKY 1 in 2010

Luke vaccinating a dog

Marc and Clive vaccinating some cows

Marc happy in his new role

I love this pic. Myself, left, Luke and Marc, walking down the street discussing a piece to camera that we have just done, oblivious to how much we stood out and everyone staring at us.

Reality soon hit home once we set foot inside the camps. The conditions people were living in were dreadful. 

Funny, looking at these pictures, everything looks so clean. It doesn't look as bad as it was.

I haven't captured the grittiness of it. Shame there isn't a smell-a-camera.

Little boy collecting water

Interviewing one of the councillors of the camp who told us some pretty horrifying stories of violence and rapes, especially on children!!

Despite their suffering, everyone was welcoming and happy to see us and talk to us.

Take 87!!! We shot this scene so many times and we never used it!

Luke introducing the camp to camera with 20 kids in tow.

Beauty salon in an IDP camp

Marc filming the kids on a little camera.

A house destroyed in the troubles. 2 people were killed in it.

This woman threatened to spit at Luke, then told him she had HIV and cracked up laughing! Weird!!

Awful conditions in a camp near Mount Elgon, on the border with Uganda. 

The surrounding hills and land were some of the most fertile and beautiful I have ever seen. 

The crew, minus me, who is taking the picture.

Our trusty vehicle "Willie". That was its nickname.

Unfortunately, Willie had a tendency to break down a lot!

At least Willie wasn't as bad as this 3 wheel tractor!

Crossing the equator. Yes, we tested pouring water through a funnel to see if what they say was true about it going one way in the northern hemisphere and the opposite way on the south and on the equator it just pours straight out.

Its called the Coriolis effect

We had a morning off and decided to visit Nakuru National Park. An amazing experience.

We turned up at 6am, just before  sunrise. We were the only vehicle entering the park which made it even more special, it felt like we had the whole place to ourselves.

The flamingo's were disappointing, we were expecting millions of them, instead there were hardly any. We were told afterwards they the park had had a bit of a eco disaster from the surrounding factories pouring all their waste into the lake, thus killing all the birds!!