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Rachel Sarah on Twitter

Pretty psyched to have said goodbye to the solstice up in the mountains and woken up to a cloud inversion on my thirtieth birthday a few hours later 🌙 pic.twitter.com/cMWQIwPutI

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Chasing the last of the day's light on Little Tryfan 🌞 balancing work and play is going well so far. pic.twitter.com/ukwObLlSMk

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La Boca, Argentina pic.twitter.com/7wrcZNKI5U

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Follow @rachelsarah_m

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Rachel Sarah on Instagram

rachelsarahm

Freelance filmmaker + photographer 🎥
Vegan 🌍 | always with a camera in hand

Said goodbye to the solstice, looking out to paste

Said goodbye to the solstice, looking out to pastel skies over the mountains and the sea, before waking up on my thirtieth birthday to the most beautiful cloud inversion. Gentle rolling clouds scattered in the valleys, just enough breeze to keep the midgies away- only getting about an hour of sleep doesn’t really matter when everything else aligns 🌞

📸 @michael.fleming

In my free time I like long, slow days in the hill

In my free time I like long, slow days in the hills. A backpack full of camera kit and lots of time to capture the light in just the right way. No stress, no summit goals, just the aesthetics and feel of where I am. It’s an antidote to the often fast-paced (and slightly panicked) run and gun style I’ve adopted when solo shooting on jobs.

But @michael.fleming likes light trail packs, counting kms and trying to do things fast. His long legs suited to trail running and speed. It’s really hard to find compromise when we are away together, because we have such different approaches to how we enjoy the outdoors. But we managed it just perfectly this week as we moved both fast and slow on the Snowdon Horseshoe at sunset. We scrambled, ran, but carried my a7r with a pancake lens to stop now and then to photograph our little adventure. Michael counted the kms and tracked our progress on his watch whilst I just watched the light fade from golden hour to blue hour as we sleepily ran back down, headtorches on and slightly aching feet.

And we also rescued a really tiny baby mountain goat, reuniting them with their mum, which was, honestly, the highlight of the entire evening 🌞

Chasing the sunlight up Little Tryfan last night,

Chasing the sunlight up Little Tryfan last night, getting used to some gentle slab exposure and testing my head game for air beneath my feet.

Slowly but surely that little voice in my head that tells me that I have to be always going flat out is getting quieter and quieter.

Finding this balance is realising it’s completely acceptable to be building this business in a slower, more chilled out way, so I have the time to take care of my body, and spend time with people who bring the joyful and fun part of me out. Instead of the sad, stressed and anxious Rach that seemed to appear more and more over the last year.

And what joy it is to be back climbing again, finally, after so long struggling with my body, and my confidence on rock. I’m nowhere near wholly comfortable with either but I’m really trying.

📸 @michael.fleming

First time I’d been on a glacier, first time I’d even seen a glacier. I was a little overwhelmed to be honest, there are a lot of conflicting feelings of awe, and eco-anxiety.

More and more, I’m finding it easier to slip into feeling like I am this tiny, insignificant person, looking up at events, at a future that feels impossible to change or affect positively. But I’ve also been talking to myself a lot, talking at the inner pessimist to remind myself that small things do have impacts, and it’s better to do something, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, than absolutely nothing. And that experiencing joy and doing things for yourself is not a betrayal, it is simply a necessity to keep going.

Tiny group of people on the bottom right for scale. Shooting for @flashpack in Argentina.

My eyes were welling up a little as we drove furth

My eyes were welling up a little as we drove further and further away from this view. I remember so vividly that feeling of standing there, looking across the landscape and remembering that only a day or so ago we had been up there in those mountains, up in the swirling of the new snow, unable to see the mountains clearly as we stood at the base of Fitz. I was so in awe, up there in the mountains, but also a little disappointed that the autumnal Patagonian weather had sent snow our way and eclipsed the peaks from view all day. But that’s just the nature of this job, it isn’t always going to be the perfect conditions.

Stood at the roadside, looking out at the mountains, hoping to be back here one day, but feeling so privileged and lucky that my job brought me here this year. A real pinch-me moment in my career. And also a turning point in my own mental health this year as I still continue building myself back into feelings happiness and joy.

- on assignment for @flashpack in Patagonia, Argentina.

Capturing moments, most of the time, is a lot of p

Capturing moments, most of the time, is a lot of practice, patience, and real intention to find the perfect angles in a very short space of time. Especially when documenting moments that can’t be redone or posed. In this case I was blearily trying to shake the tiredness of a bad night’s sleep, squeezing myself into a wetsuit, stuffing my drone into a dry bag, and jumping into a kayak - so so hoping I’d get a good view, whilst the clouds swirl and obscured the mountains I’d been dying to see and capture. I caught up, hung back, filming and kayaking, then furiously kayaked ahead to find a spot to jump out of the kayak so I could launch the drone to try and get a shot that could turn out pretty rad.

What an absolute rush of joy when I found this perfect angle. If only they’d spaced themselves out a little more evenly 😉

- Shooting for @flashpack in Patagonia, Argentina

I often talk about the hard side of being freelanc

I often talk about the hard side of being freelance, and can find it really difficult to celebrate myself, my work, and my progression in this world. But today, I’m celebrating 🥳 . This time last year, like many people, I was coming out of lockdowns with very little work, wondering if I could sustain my career. I still sometimes wonder whether I can juggle commercial work and film projects in a sustainable way. Now, I’m so excited to say I’m booked up until October and, after months of rest and recovery from burnout, this year of work is really kicking off with the most exciting shoot of my life.

I’m currently writing from Patagonia, a place I’ve dreamed of for such a long time. And I honestly just can’t believe I’m here.

Thanks to @flashpack for asking me to be their lead shooter this year after being in Peru with them in 2019. Here’s to savouring this beautiful adventure and to more this summer. Hard work sometimes does pay off 🌞

A year ago, I began creating a documentary film wi

A year ago, I began creating a documentary film with @harvmania. She sent me a message after seeing the short film Drifting, and felt there was something about it (a feeling?), and wanted to make a swim film with me. As in, with me. Collaboratively - about some other swimmer.

But.. I completely misunderstood and thought she wanted me to make a film about her!

After getting onto zoom and talking, I immediately loved her energy and we didn’t even really say “yes let’s do this”, we just knew, and immediately and naturally began planning what this film could be.

In the space of this one call, we decided we would work on a long-term documentary about her ice mile training. I think I must have been so excited that she just never corrected me about her original intention to be the producer of this project and that her being in the film was not at all in the plan… and that’s how the ice mile was born.

(And I actually didn’t find out any of this until really recently!)

Well I’m really glad that I completely misunderstood and she never corrected me, all that time ago when I had no idea what an ice mile was. Because it’s been a year now - filming is wrapping up, and I have a wonderful, funny, and inspiring friend from all of this. And so much footage. And a craving for cold water.

Congratulations for completing your ice mile Becca ❄️ you so, so, so deserve it.

Over the last year I’ve dipped my toes into the

Over the last year I’ve dipped my toes into the world of outdoor swimming. Wetsuit firmly on and camera in hand. I used to think this part of the outdoor scene was all about solitude and experiences like these in the mountains. Slowness and stillness and cold water solving bodily aches and pains. Almost religious experiences in icy water. But I’ve found that there is such an aspect of fun and silliness, a whole community of wonderfully supportive people who chill out by lakes and lochs lidos and oceans eating cake and drinking winter spice - doing handstands in the water and not taking everything so seriously. Lots of expletives and laughing getting into baltic waters. It’s been refreshing. And I think it’s been a large part in why I’m trying not to take myself quite as seriously anymore, too.

Of course there is still beauty and stillness and seriousness, but that’s just a little part of it.

- stills of @harvmania and @oceanicwhitetipward from ice mile 🎥

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