Indonesia Expedition
Before I started working professionally in film-making I would carry a small handycam around with me on expeditions. Although the image quality was poor, and my camera technique terrible, there was something special about those early expedition videos that I really valued. I would be the only westerner in the team, and we would spend many days away in the jungle at a time. I really got a sense of being somewhere completely dominated by nature and it exhilarated me.
I have been fascinated by nature ever since I can remember. As a boy, animals, fossils, crystals, volcanoes, stars and galaxies all amazed me because of their beauty, power and mystery. I even filled my room up with tropical houseplants to make it feel like a jungle. Thanks to characters like Tarzan of the Apes and Jacques Cousteau nature was firmly linked to adventure in my mind. I had to make this a career. To that end I studied biology at university and eventually got a PhD from adventuring in the Yorkshire countryside observing foxes. After a post-doc in Spain studying butterflies, I became a scientist for Operation Wallacea in Sulawesi, Indonesia. Now I’m a freelance documentary film maker, currently working for the BBC.