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rachelsarahm

Environmental and outdoor filmmaker - specialising in adventure and our relationships to the natural world 🎥 🏔️ 🌊

Just so psyched to have worked alongside the @cold

Just so psyched to have worked alongside the @coldhouse_ team on their latest release with @berghausofficial - featuring the extremely talented @hamishfrost.

This film felt pretty special for a lot of reasons, of course a brilliant team, but also Hamish’s story and the purpose behind the video felt incredibly personal, with so many sentiments shared in the film echoing my own experiences throughout my teenage years and my life in the outdoors. I also absolutely loved being able to balance creative freedom and direction throughout our time in the city - running around Glasgow and playing around with slow shutter speeds to try to give a real sense of unique style to this adventure film. I have fond and funny memories of trying my very hardest to balance filming and keeping up with Hamish’s jogging pace on a cold, icy winter morning. He’s fast. Even when just jogging.

And then seeing how all of these city scenes married up with the winter climbing scenes in the edit - it’s just turned into such a beautiful film with a powerful message.

A true joy and I feel massively privileged to have been a part of it.

Produced by @harrietforpm and Tim Burton
Directed by @emmacrome and @mattpycroft
Filming by @matthardymedia , @rachelsarahm , and @darkskymedia
Edited by @total_run_time
Photography by @tgkwan and @itsadamraja

#adventurefilm #scottishwinter #climbingfilm #queerfilmmaking #lgbtqiafilm #outfoorfilmmaking #adventurefilmmaking #glasgowfilm #glasgow

I don’t really like taking people’s photos wit

I don’t really like taking people’s photos without consent, which can make my job a little tougher when I’m traveling and shooting documentary style. It’s not a hard and fast rule so sometimes I will just go for it, but in the majority of cases I’ll find a way to get consent - sometimes with non verbal communication like catching their eye, raising my camera and tilting my head questioningly or, if it’s somebody selling something I can easily afford, like food or a piece of small art, I’ll buy from them before asking if I can take a portrait. I’ve found my own little ways, subtle and not, of seeking that permission.

- photos of Yuto Opacho, a young Shingon Buddhist monk, practicing at his temple in Mount Koya (高野山, Kōyasan). Yuto asked for the photos I took of him, and was excited to be able to send them to his family, a way for him to connect with them and show them, from afar, what his life looked like up in the mountains.

@flashpack #japantravel #koyasan #koyasantemple #freelancephotographer #travelphotography #documentaryphotographer #japanculture #shintobuddhism #shintobuddhist #documentarystyle #seeksimplicity #choosemountains #staywild #shecreates #femalefilmmaker

Content curled up in the corner of my sofa, and sa

Content curled up in the corner of my sofa, and sat behind my familiar desk. My heart and head are absent of any post-shoot blues, and not because I didn’t love being away, but probably because I no longer feel like going away is escaping, like I did when I was younger. No expectation or a need for fulfilment or being fixed. What a lovely realisation, to feel more contentedness in the every day, even if my last week has been spent doing some incredibly tedious admin, and plenty of tidying and tending to struggling houseplants, as well as some final edits from this shoot.

(One thing I will always miss, though, is the sound of waves. I will always miss being by the sea.)

- some moments of blue in Vietnam, shooting for @flashpack and, once again, finding myself launching and landing the drone from a gently moving boat. Feeling quite practiced at it now.

#adventurephotographer #travelphotographer #freelancephotographer #femalephotographer #shecreates #femalefilmmaker #adventurefilmmaker #outdoorfilmmaker #outdoorphotographer #explorevietnam @vietnamtravelers #vietnam #vietnamtravel #exploremore #staywild

Some moments from yesterday. I spent the morning e

Some moments from yesterday. I spent the morning exploring the temples around Angkor Wat with my camera. Just going at my own pace whilst trying not to melt into a puddle on the floor, and checking the time to see when my next dose of cold and flu medicine was due.

It’s low season at the moment which means it’s incredibly hot, but it also means that it was so quiet; often I had these spaces completely to myself. Despite the difficult experiences of this period of solo travel there’s been enough good to balance it out - meeting a fellow solo traveler at a pottery class and heading out to dinner and then yoga together, witnessing Angkor Wat at sunrise, friendly folk in this city, handmade markets and some insanely good vegan food. I just wish I had a little longer here but my shoot in Vietnam awaits in a couple of days, which I am so excited for. I’ve recharged my introvert soul and I’m ready for some @flashpack group fun 🌞🌴 🚤

#angkorwat #solotravel #siemreap #travelvideography #travelvideo #cambodia #visitcambodia #vegantravel #sheexplores

The highs do come with the lows. This morning my a

The highs do come with the lows. This morning my alarm went off at 4:15am. There aren’t too many reasons that get me up that early but the promise of a sunrise with my camera in hand is up there. A slow eyes-closed brushing of teeth and then a tuk-tuk ride later, and I was blearily joining a crowd of other people arriving at Angkor Wat for the sunrise. I don’t really like going to the well trampled sightseeing spots, all ready to get the same shot, but honestly I didn’t really have any kind of feelings like that this morning. I didn’t care, it was nice to be there, sat surrounded by quiet talking and gentle light.

I stayed there at the shore of the reflecting pond in front of Angkor Wat for an hour, watching the light change, taking photos. The sky started with dark blues and a sliver of the moon, then lit up with pinks, and then to more muted tones - people began to slip away elsewhere thinking the best of the show was done. Then the sun finally crept up, lighting everything in a golden glow. It was just magic and it was exactly what I needed.

Such a beautiful morning and a really timely reminder of why seeking new places is something I really do love to do, camera in hand, and appreciating a culture and history so different to my own. Thank you universe 🌙

- just a few gems from that short space in time. So many beautiful photos to look through from the rest of today’s wanders. Captured with @sonyalpha a7riv

#solotravel #siemreap #travelphotography #angkorwat #freelancephotography #freelancephotographer #cambodia #cambodiatravel #southeastasia #travelstories #freelancefilmmaker #travelvideographer

I am in my thirties and I am stronger for it in ma

I am in my thirties and I am stronger for it in many ways. But I’m also way more wary. It’s something I didn’t quite appreciate or realise until this last week when I embarked on some solo travelling in between shoots.

On my first day in Vietnam I was grabbed by a man whilst I was walking down the street, and then followed by another, and then yelled at. This morning, a man raised his hand as if to hit me as I walked to breakfast, and then a couple of hours later another man spat on me and insulted me - all of these things out of the blue. It was all a bit too much and I ended up sat on a bridge in Siem Reap having a cry to a couple who’d stopped to check on me. I think I’ve just been massively unlucky to have all of these things happen in short space of time but it’s really made me think about my relationship to travel, and my own awareness of my safety.

It has all shook me so much more than I think it would have when I was younger - back when I felt invincible when, actually, *worse* things happened to me whilst travelling. Back then my version of feminism was thriving in risky situations because I was a strong woman.

I’ve sat with myself this week and wondered if I’d gone soft, lost that strength that has carried me through so many solo journeys in many different countries.

But it’s not about being strong or soft, it’s more that I’ve learned from all of these experiences how important it is to be wary, and I just assess risk a lot more sensibly these days, especially when travelling alone. But there’s only so much I can do to mitigate these things happening to me, because they can happen in broad daylight, in front of others, in safe, touristy areas. Reminding myself to check in on others if they seem upset because that really helped me today.

I’m feeling a little better after an afternoon failing to make pottery with another lovely solo traveler -talking about our boyfriends at home, and travelling in our 30s. And from having some great veggie food. 🌱

A tiny joyful snippet from my recent shooting for

A tiny joyful snippet from my recent shooting for @flashpack in Japan.

I’ve been thinking a lot about shifting goals and not really quite appreciating where you are. Because my own goals have changed and grown in the last few years, it’s been easy to not quite realise all the progress, and that a few years back I’d be pinching myself if I was doing this, and (mostly) making it work.

I’m so incredibly grateful to those brands who have truly supported me over the last couple of years - at the moment I’m on this long trip away, linking two shoots together and it’s because @flashpack have invited me back to work with them so many times, supporting my career as a creative, and allowing me to have experiences I’d never be able to have otherwise. It’s a pretty incredible job and that’s something I never want to take for granted 🌞

#visitjapan #japan #japantravel #adventurefilmmaker #travelphotographer #travelfilmmaker #outdoorphotographer #shecreates #staywild #exploremore #adventureawaits #stayandwander #visualsofearth #hellofrom #thegreatplanet @visitjapanjp

I’m off! After spending the best part of the win

I’m off! After spending the best part of the winter here, I’m leaving bonnie Scotland (and the UK in general!) for a good six weeks today. It’s quite daunting, but also so incredibly exciting as it’s been aaaaa lot of years since I’ve been away from the UK for such a long amount of time. Actually, it was when I was in my early twenties! I’m in my thirties now, and the way I travel has certainly changed and become more complicated. I’m far more appreciative and grateful - it’s a huge privilege to travel; I think/ worry a lot more about my impact, and am really exploring my relationship to the concept of ‘home’. My whole life I have never really felt at home anywhere, so there’s so many thoughts and feelings bubbling up at the moment.

When I’m able to get back here, the hills will be green and it will well and truly be midgie season, and I keep having to remind myself that I actually still technically live in Leeds right now, and when I’m back there will be a huge amount of life admin to do alongside @michael.fleming as we look to change our lives up 🌞

- a joyful photo of @neonstash and @lynders from last summer whilst shooting A Land For Everyone, supported by @mpbcom

#alandforeveryone #scottishhills #scottishsummer #scotlandhills #scotlandmountains #choosemountains #wildskate #skating #skateboarding #adventurefilm #shecreates #femalefilmmaker #femaleadventurefilmmaker #scotlandtravel #scotlandexplore #adventurephotography

The Ice Mile is now online! The last official scr

The Ice Mile is now online!

The last official screening happened a couple of weeks ago at the @curzonclevedon and it was the biggest screening we had, with 284 people (!!! what!?!!) there.

From that initial message from Becca asking if I wanted to make a film together, to finding our concept together on that first zoom call, to me being ready to call it when we couldn’t find funding, to both of us burning out, supporting each other through not just the project but just our lives over the last couple of years. Becca and I's friendship began with that message on instagram, and I’m grateful every time I get one of her voice notes pop up in my notifications. We feel so overwhelmed - the packed screenings, the @sidetrackedmag cover, festival wins - I didn’t expect The Ice Mile to have the impact it has had and I’m so grateful for that, because it has all been down to the support that Becca and I have had from everybody around us. I feel incredibly grateful to everybody who has watched, shared, sent a lovely message, just supported us!

And, of course, it isn't over. I’m excited that The Ice Mile will be showing at the @scottish_adventure_film_tour in Fort William in a few weeks' time, and, of course, it’s now online for £6.00, with £1.50 from each purchase of the film going to the charity @beachaccessnortheast

Just a huge thank you from both of us, we hope you enjoy(ed) the film. It’s got a lot of our love and relationship woven throughout, and we’re really proud of it x  The @vimeo link is in our bios - vimeo.com/ondemand/theicemile

🎥 A film by @rachelsarahm
Additional camera by @michael.fleming @nightowl__creative @jessielphoto
Featuring @becca.harvs

#theicemile #theicemilefilm #coldwaterswimming #coldwater #openwaterswim #swimfilm #ukswim #outdoorswimmermagazine #outdoorswimming @sidetrackedmag #peopleofadventure #staywild #coldwaterswimminguk #coldwatertherapy #icemileswimming

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