On this movie I share my journey from a boyhood obsessive about nature to globally recognised wildlife documentary maker and artist.
As a boy I spent most of my time observing wildlife and documenting it in work and drawings and by my mid-twenties my dream of proudly owning my very own gallery was a actuality.
The story behind the work
I choose an in depth, practical model and to attain this I spent most of my time watching, photographing and filming the animals round me. From mallard geese to kingfishers and puffins on the coast, my focus at first was native.
My backyard
To make this doable I turned my residence right into a wildlife haven, planting wildflower meadows and placing up nest packing containers to draw owls and kestrels. I even constructed a badger sett to observe these animals underground.
Kingfishers
Considered one of my greatest initiatives was to observe kingfishers inside their nests. I made a synthetic nesting financial institution rigged with hidden digicam and over the course of six years I filmed each stage of the breeding course of, from egg laying to the chicks’ first flights. Following the lives of particular person animals It wasn’t lengthy earlier than I had cameras in all of the nest packing containers in my backyard and shortly I used to be following the day by day lives of tawny owls, barn owls and kestrels – attending to know their particular person characters.
Wildlife characters
From a tawny owl named Luna, who adopted two chicks when her personal eggs failed, to a male kestrel who shocked wildlife specialists in every single place by elevating his chicks alone, the tales saved on coming.
Sharing the tales
I started sharing these tales on social media in 2010 and shortly afterwards caught the attention of the BBC who invited me to co-present quick movies for The One Present.
TV work
A couple of years later, I my observations of stoats and weasels had been filmed for a worldwide program co-produced by PBS in America, and the BBC Pure World.
Social media
By February of 2020, we practically had 100,000 folks following our social media, however after the UK went into lockdown in March this soared. I started livestreaming the wildlife cameras and the viewers grew so quick we needed to make use of a bunch of moderators to observe the group. On-line group Individuals from around the globe received actually concerned, even voting to call the owls and kestrels and the emails of appreciation started pouring in.
Media storm
When Niels, a bartender from the Netherlands who shared the livestreams on the massive display screen behind his bar as a substitute of sports activities, the information went international.
Collaborations
The curiosity led to collaborations with corporations I admired like Sony, DJI and Swarovski Optik. I additionally started a brand new partnership with a UK based mostly tour operator, Wildfoot Journey.
Journey
With the help of Wildfoot Journey I started to observe wildlife additional afield. Filming sloths in Panama, polar bears in Svalbard within the Arctic and lions in Zimbabwe.