The £10,000 Gamble: Why You Shouldn't Send a Crew to Film The Shropshire Wild Ponies (When I’ve Already Done It)
Let’s play a game. Let’s pretend you are a Producer at a London-based production house.
You have a brief. You need "cinematic, emotive shots of wild ponies in a rugged British landscape" for a television programme or a high-end documentary sequence.
Option A: You shoot it yourself. You hire a DOP and a camera assistant. You hire a van. You rent a RED and a set of long lenses. You pay for the fuel to drive up the M40 and M54 to Shropshire. You pay for a hotel in Church Stretton for two nights because you need to scout the location.
You get up there. You lug the kit up the Long Mynd. And guess what? It’s raining. It’s grey. The ponies are nowhere to be found because they’ve wandered into a valley three miles away. The light is flat and boring.
You come back with a hard drive full of grey mush. You’ve spent £5,000 to £10,000 in fees, rentals, and logistics. The client is unimpressed.
Option B: You buy my clip pack. You stay in your warm office. You click a button. You download Clip Pack 318. You get 181 clips of pristine, golden-hour footage, shot on an expensive Sony camera and lens combo by a bloke who was stupid enough to sleep in a tent in a gale to get the shots.
It’s a no-brainer.
The "Shoot in a Box"
I have just released Clip Pack 318 - Long Mynd Wild Ponies.
I’m not exaggerating when I say this is the most comprehensive library of Shropshire wild pony footage available. We are talking about 181 individual clips. That is 51.81 GB of data.
This isn't just a handful of B-roll scraps I threw together. This is a full location shoot, delivered to you as a "rushes" package.
I approached my shoots like a freelance cameraman on assignment. I don’t just point and shoot; I create the angles. I wait for the light. I haul the ridiculous Sony 200-600mm lens up the hill specifically to get that compressed, high-end documentary look that you usually only see on Netflix.
You can watch the full "Cinematic Short" here to see the quality:
Why This Footage is Worth Every Penny
The problem with most stock footage of animals is that it looks like it was shot on a phone, or it’s just a wide shot of a field.
To get emotion, you need reach. You need 600mm.
I shot this using the Sony ZV-E1 in 4K, utilising high frame rates for butter-smooth slow motion. The 200-600mm lens allows for that beautiful separation—the pony is sharp, every hair visible, while the layers of the Shropshire hills dissolve into a soft, painterly background.
My favourite shots in this pack:
The Sunset Scenes: I caught a brief, magical window of golden light. The ponies are backlit, with the sun flaring through their manes. It looks expensive.
The Portraits: Tight headshots where you can see the breath from their nostrils and the wind whipping their forelocks.
The Context: Wide shots showing the animals isolated in the vast landscape of the Long Mynd.
This is the kind of footage that anchors an edit. It screams "high production value."
The Guarantee: I Cut The Rubbish Out
When you hire a cameraman, you pay for the bad shots too. When you buy this pack, I’ve done the culling for you.
I’ve removed the camera wobbles. I’ve cut out the bits where I tripped over a rabbit hole. What you get is a timeline of usable, graded, ready-to-go footage.
And the best part? You can buy the entire archive—all 181 clips—for £2,495. That is a fraction of the cost of a single day’s kit hire, crew and travel. Or, if you just need one specific hero shot, you can use the "Select" option to purchase individual clips.
Take a look at the full 4K preview of every single clip here:
Build a Complete Sequence: Related Shropshire Packs
If you are building a project around the Shropshire Hills, I haven't just got ponies. My library is stacked with the textures and atmospheres of this unique part of the UK. You can combine the pony footage with these packs to build a complete narrative:
1. The Landscape & Scenery
Clip Pack #1 - The Shropshire Hills: If you need wide establishing shots to set the scene before revealing the ponies, this is the master pack. 21 minutes of sweeping vistas, hiking scenes, and the rolling landscape of the Long Mynd.
2. The Atmosphere & Weather
Clip Pack #152 - A Cold Night on the Long Mynd: Want to show the harsh reality of the environment? This pack captures the mist, the golden sunrises, and the deep countryside colours. It even includes some additional wild pony grazing shots if you need more variety.
3. The "Wild Camping" Vibe
Clip Pack #135 - Ashlet Hike and Wild Camping: If your narrative involves an explorer or hiker, this pack documents the journey. It includes 4 stunning timelapse sequences of sunsets and starry nights over the tent.
The Reality Behind the Lens
If you want to see the actual effort that went into getting these files—the freezing wind, the dead sheep, and the tent incompetence—you can read the wild camping blog post, or watch the Behind The Scenes vlog below. It proves that this footage isn't AI-generated; it was earned with sweat, shivering and a night and morning of heavy rain and gale-force wind gusts. Anyone interested in the gear that used, can check out wild ponies with a Sony ZV-E1 and Sony 200-600mm lens blog post.
Stop Wasting Your Budget
Don't send a crew to Shropshire. It’s windy, it’s unpredictable, and the ponies might not even be there.
I’ve already been. I’ve got the files.
Complete the Shropshire Story
Building a full documentary sequence? Don't stop at the ponies. My archive covers the geology, the weather, and the industrial history of the Shropshire Hills.
1. Iconic Landmarks
The definitive geology of the region. From the jagged quartzite ridge of the Stiperstones to the legendary silhouette of Caer Caradoc. Essential establishing shots for any Shropshire project.
2. Winter & Elements
When the weather turns, the footage gets better. Capture the harsh reality of winter with snow-covered hills, cloud inversions, and the raw wind on Callow Hill.
3. Industrial Heritage
Shropshire isn't just green hills. Document the industrial scars of Titterstone Clee Hill's quarries and the birthplace of industry at Ironbridge.