The Sunday Post (Dundee)

BIG FRAME HUNTER

- By Murray Scougall mscougall@sundaypost.com

He is one of the world’s most celebrated photograph­ers with a stunning portfolio of pictures taken around the globe.

David Yarrow has gone to the ends of the earth, risking life and limb for the perfect picture and will now tell the incredible stories from behind the lens in a podcast series.

The 54-year-old, originally from Kilmacolm in Renfrewshi­re, said: “I’ve been a guest on about 15 different podcasts and it made sense to have my own. I’m a storytelle­r, and whether it’s tales of photograph­ing Maradona way back or Cindy Crawford or Cara Delevingne more recently, there are stories to tell, and maybe lessons on what I got right and wrong.

“I think the world is a bit bored of ‘I went to Africa and took some pictures of animals’.

People want to know more, when things went well and when they went horribly wrong.”

In Focus is a six-part podcast telling the stories behind some of his favourite photograph­s. From capturing an elephant charging at his lens and taking a selfie in the eye of a polar bear, to wading chest-deep into crocodile-infested Nile waters shooting Sudanese cattle camps, falling overboard photograph­ing orcas, and setting up Cindy Crawford with a wolf in a bar, his tales are as fascinatin­g as the pictures themselves.

Speaking from a mining town in the middle of the Rockies in Montana, where he is currently shooting, David says he has found a way to keep working despite the difficulti­es of travel during a pandemic.

“We’ve been quite resourcefu­l. Every morning the first thing we do is check internatio­nal travel restrictio­ns and what we can and can’t do,” he explained.

“To get into America, we had to spend two weeks in Mexico, but we didn’t just spend the time on the beach, we found things to do in Mexico like photograph­ing whales in the Pacific Ocean.

“Now that we’re in America, we want to stay here and film. While Covid is bad here, it’s not in lockdown and it’s very much state by state. California is bad but places like Texas are very much open. We just need to be resourcefu­l.

“I’ve had Covid, all of our team got it. We were working with Cindy Crawford – she’d already had it – and about 10 of us went down with it the same night. Once you’ve had it, the hope is it’s out of the way and you can work with a bit more freedom.”

In Focus launches on February 3 and is available on Apple, Google, and Spotify

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David Yarrow

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