Tales by Light Season 1 Netflix Series Review

Tales by Light (2016-)
Season 1 - 6 episodes (2016)

Tales by Light Season 1

Watch Tales by Light on Netflix

Created by:

Starring: Art Wolfe, Peter Eastway, Richard I'Anson

Rated:TV-PG/PG (See my notes for episode 6)

Plot

Follow photographers around the world as they capture the natural beauty of this planet.

Verdict
This is really fun to watch. Each twenty minute episode profiles a single photographer and their current projects. We get to see how they capture images and what drives them. Go behind the scenes, see pretty images, or see an area or culture you may have never seen before.
Watch it.

Review
This is an easy watch with great images. Each episode provides a little history of the photographer, letting you know their focus. We've all seen amazing pictures, and I love this shows you how photographers actually get those images. What camera did they use, how do you photograph something on the bottom of the ocean, and how close do you have to get for pictures of lions?
Even if you don't care about the process, you get to see how vast and beautiful the world is.

Episode 1 - A bi-plane at the bottom of the ocean.

Darren Jew captures a 70 year old bi-plane on the ocean floor, a volcano, and humpback whales. The plane is the main features, and the process to capture it is fascinating. He used a tripod weighted to the ocean floor with a long exposure camera setting at night. He then swam around the plane with a light which provided all of the illumination in the image, It's amazing what he did to create this image. I always thought of long exposure as a way to get blurry image images as the aperture is open much longer, obviously I've been doing it wrong.

Episode 2 - The Himalayas

Richard l'Anson captures travel photography. He first photographs a fire rite, where people run underneath a burning structure for luck. In the Festival of Holi which is a festival of color, he bags his camera as paint and colored powders are thrown at people in a religious ceremony. When the ceremony concludes he is covered in color. His final set finds him trying to capture a Himalayan Snow Leopard.

Episode 3 - A paraglider.

Krystle Wright is a sports photographer. She photographs free divers, high liners, and para gliders. High liners in essence string a strap across canyons and walk along it, Though they are lined, the ground is hundreds of feet below them.

Episode 4 - A brown bear in Alaska.

Art Wolfe aims his camera at brown bears in Alaska and gorillas in Uganda. It is amazing how close he gets to these animals. He's taking pictures of bears standing right next to them. He uses a remote control car with a camera strapped on top for a pride of lions. The cubs play with the car, rendering the camera useless.

Episode 5 - A derelict boat at Elephant Island.

Peter Eastway follows in the footsteps of famed explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica from 1914-17. Shackleton's ship was crushed by an iceberg, and his crew made their way to Elephant Island. Eastway doesn't just take photographs, he states he interprets, as he calls it, or alters them digitally to make them succumb to his vision,

Episode 6 - The mud tribe.

Art Wolfe is featured again, this time focusing on Huli tribes of New Guinea. This episode does include primitive tribes that don't wear many clothes. You will see everything.
The body modification in this episode is unsettling. The women of this tribe originally pierced their lip so that they would become unattractive to slavers. It transformed over time to signify beauty. The women pierce their lip and slowly stretch the opening, in essence making a handle of their bottom lip. It may seem horrific, but the U.S. has many plastic surgery centers that modify physical form. There is no difference.
Wolfe feels obligated to capture images of a vanishing culture. These tribes may not exist much longer. Think about the fact that you are reading this on a phone or tablet and there are still primitive tribes in the world. What a vast divide.

Episode 6 - The lip ring is a sign of beauty in this culture.