Microcosmos & Winged Migration

Recently watched two of the amazing documentaries thanks to Netflix. Microcosmos and Winged Migration. Both are from the same producers and have one thing in common. Excellent photography and a great treat for eyes.

Microcosmos - as the name suggests talks about the tiny wonders captured in big screen. There is no right word to describe the great macro photography. Even ants and smallest insects appear so detailed and are perfectly captured. Another interesting thing is the background score – instead of a boring narration, they left us to enjoy the sound of nature and some great piece of music at relevant places. But be careful, you might doze off at times as there is no music at times.

Winged Migration is a different subject and talks all about birds that migrate. I have never ever seen anywhere in such closeup birds flying. With vivid photography, the birds’ flight looks splendid but with zero or minimum information, it was kind of boring to watch birds just fly. The bonus materials was more interesting on how the movie was captured. It took 4 years for them to shoot the 2 hr video and they had to several techniques to make the birds fly. Imprinting was interesting to learn.

While both movies are a treat to eyes, I did not find much educational value for seeing a documentary. Very minimal information and the focus was only on photography and lacked clear purpose. In case of Winged Migration, what is the challenge? Viewing the birds fly in closeup and different backdrops? Or knowing why they migrate, how they migrate and where they migrate to? It would have been more interesing if we had followed a single bird – not sure if possible but that’s really challenging.