Wildlife cameraman UK
I am a wildlife cameraman UK. That might sound really odd, because it is. I’m only writing it that way because SEO tells me it is a good idea! Foreign trips have escaped me for a couple of years. Everyone asks, ‘Have you been anywhere nice lately?’ To which I usually answer, ‘Yes. The Brecon Beacons. Dungeness. The Cotswolds. A gravel pit next to the M6 in Lancashire.’ And so it goes on, depending on who is asking. If you’re interested in natural history you would find all of those places interesting for one reason or the other. There’s a link below that takes you to our latest Welsh series with Iolo Williams. It’s a six part series. Each episode is based on a different region in England. The programmes cover The Cotswolds, Dorset and the New Forest, Kent, Dartmoor, West Lancashire and The Yorkshire Dales. If I had to pick a favourite sighting is would be the otters at RSPB Leighton Moss. However, I was also fortunate enough to see and film large blue butterflies in the wild. In the late 1970s I actually remember it being announced that they were extinct in the UK! Reintroduction programmes are proving to be successful. Back to the otters. Visiting a place like Leighton Moss reminds me why I am a member of the RSPB. There is a new viewing tower that overlooks the largest area of open water, and I suspect that if you stay up there long enough on most days you will see otters. It was a little windy on the day we were there, so not favourable to long lens filming, but it was a nice hour or so.
You can watch ‘Natur Gwyllt Iolo’ on BBC iPlayer. The subtitles will help you to learn a bit of Welsh too. They’re quite a challenge to film. The schedule for each is 5 days, but when you take the travel into account it is more like four. The production team has a tricky job researching locations that will actually deliver filmable wildlife. It doesn’t always work out. I also film most of the pieces with Iolo and the contributors so there’s a lot of lens changing going on. The director constructs a ‘flavour’ of a place, which includes Iolo, people, landscape and natural history. It is always interesting to watch these programmes after some time has lapsed since the filming. My impression of Dartmoor, at the time, was that it was really hard work in terms of the natural history content. When I watched it the other day I thought the director and editor had made a programme about somewhere else. It was much better than I ever remembered. Hats off to them.