wildlife cinematographer – film maker
Graham Horder
wildlife cameraman
About Me
I’m an experienced cinematographer, editor and writer recognized for multiple skills in blue chip wildlife series, presenter-led programmes, and documentaries for award winning international TV series and film projects. I have developed worldly experience through extensive travels. With a solid background in directing and producing, I am a self-sufficient team player, motivated, and always delivering to meet the production’s demands. Through creative exercise and experience I’ve developed extreme patience, ability, and tenacity under demanding conditions to delicately handcraft a production which will yield technically and artistically excellent results. I take pride in every aspect of production.
BBC Natural World – ‘Cork in a Bottle’
“The results of Graham’s camerawork for this project are really excellent, with some lovely images throughout the range of subject matter. Furthermore, maybe because he is also a professional picture editor, there is always a nice range of shots to make the sequences work in the cutting room.”
Loving the work
I love filming wildlife and I can’t imagine living without it. Like many colleagues I sometimes do it for nothing, as a hobby. I make conservation videos in my spare time, often for free. It’s like paying a little back on a massive debt. After all, without a thriving natural world there would be no natural history TV business, and what would we all do then!
Getting On
Camera teams can spend a lot of time together in the field so you have to be able to get on with people. If you can keep your head when all around…and all that. The letter that I have put on this site as a testimonial still holds true – probably more so now with the benefit of accrued life experience.
Change
Modern cameras deliver superb images. Innovation is often rooted in wildlife filming. Low light and no light filming is possible. Computer driven tracking time lapses are the norm. Lenses are sharper and faster, though they’re never light enough. Tripods heads rarely change. Most of us fly drones. Movs, Ronins, Cineflex, Shotover… need I go on. Equipment is the tool for telling a tale, but story and content are still king.
Editor
I’m certain that people get fed up with me banging on about this, but having a solid editing background is a huge asset for any cinematographer. I have been a full time editor in the past and still edit now. Putting together sequences in the field is wired in – I don’t have to think about it. “I can always count on you to bring back sequences.”
the cuckoo cometh
favourite shot
Filming Eurasion cuckoo egg predation wasn’t in the script – it was egg laying that we were after. What I filmed in the end was better. I heard a soft landing in the reeds and a female cuckoo moved through to perch on the edge of the reed warbler’s nest. Hold breath. She dipped her head into the nest – came up with an egg – swallowed it – and flew away. The reed warblers had no idea what had happened.
There are times when you wish you could have witnessed an event with the naked eye rather than through a viewfinder – but then there would be no proof that it had happened, and I need that proof, because I still find it hard to believe that it did happen. GH