Yesterday evening I attended with a small gathering Ian’s evening, where some of the contributors spoke of their stories that led to their pictures, we also watched the very first viewing of Deya Wards ‘Lost Person of the Forest’ a touching film which I would encourage anyone to watch given the opportunity, we also saw top secret footage of a new BBC documentary, featuring the newly discovered but already critically endangered Tapanuli Orangutan
We were shown this lovely slideshow set to Eva Cassidys ‘Somewhere over the Rainbow’ collecting together all the pictures from the book
I have to say though, one of the highlights for me was Ian reading from his ACTUAL field notes from his time with Dianne Fossey, he had the carbon copy, as the top copy had to be stored on the project, but these are his notes from THIRTY years ago ~ it was quite precious.
An unexpected aspect, I introduced myself to Ian when I arrived, as he had already, amazingly agreed to be a part of my #TEAMEARTH Conservation Day 2019, it seemed the right opportunity to put a face to the name he was going to help, however lol, that backfired a little as he said it would be great for me to tell the audience about my event, TOTALLY unprepared, I stumbled out the information (I hope) got applause & at the end one of the photographers came with his wife & said he would love to come, a lady who works with Bristol Zoo, came & offered the Zoo’s support & a student said she would happily gather up a team to help on the day if needed, so I guess I did something right lol
It was a great evening, the second event of Ian’s I have attended & from which I learn alot, I would encourage ANYONE to attend any of his events if they get the opportunity as it’s a privilege to be surrounded by people actually ‘walking the walk’
Thank you Ian
The Wildlife Volunteer 