‘Forget nature as we know it’ says Scot who spent 40 years by David Attenborough’s side
“YOU never tire of watching a polar bear,” said Doug Allan, the Bafta and Emmy award-winning cameraman who has spent 40 years giving us a window into Sir David Attenborough’s eyes.
What fascinates him still is how perfectly adapted they are to the Arctic conditions.
“When you work with polar bears you have a certain respect for them,” he added.
“You are travelling in the spring and you haven’t seen a single other living thing, any seals are underneath the ice and then you find this polar bear striding along in minus 30, fat and well fed and settling down to sleep.
“A big polar bear will be about nine to 10 feet long. If it stood beside you on its hind legs it could reach about four metres.
“They absolutely typify the animal that people want to see and to be given the chance to see several hundred, to see them mating, to see them coming out of their dens to hunt, it’s a great privilege.”
There is a similar reverence when teh wildlife photographer describes filming whales underwater, where poor visibility means it’s necessary to get a lot closer than might feel comfortable.
“You can’t hide from an animal underwater,” he said.”If you can see an animal, the animal can see you. On land you can be so far away with a long lens – you don’t pose any threat to the animal. Being in the water with big whales is really exciting because you have to be on the same wavelength as the animal so they will carry on doing the same natural behaviour in front of you.
“When they do come close, it’s their choice. They can either come towards you or run away so if an animal chooses to come towards you in a non-threatening way, it’s incredible.”
Allan has just returned from a break at his cottage in Connemara, in County Galway, where he enjoyed the benefits of almost an hour of extra light in the day.
Having spent so much time in nature filming some of the world’s most enigmatic creatures at close quarters, he is furious about climate change Government inaction. “I am sort of lost as to what to do”, he said,
The world as we know it, insects, crops growing .... that shouldn’t even be a theory in a risk assessment. They are somehow imagining we can adapt to it. You have to think big. We are still not looking up
describing the Neflix black comedy Don’t Look Up as the perfect analogy of our unwillingness to contemplate what lies ahead.
Allan suggested most people probably don’t appreciate the implications of a four degree rise in temperature, which is what climate models predict the world could look like by 2100.
“You can forget about nature as we know it,” stated the Fifeborn photographer.
“The world as we know it, insects, crops growing ... that shouldn’t even be a theory in a risk assessment. They are somehow imagining we can adapt to it.
“You have to think big. We spent £400 billion dealing with Covid. We are still not looking up.”
In a filming career spanning four decades, Allan has worked for Discovery, National Geographic and the BBC, contributing to The Blue Planet, Frozen Planet, Ocean Giants, Expedition Iceberg, and Forces of Nature.
On Attenborough, he said the first 10 minutes of his most recent documentary perfectly capture his off-camera persona.
Allan said that in Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard, which was screened on BBC One in December, the broadcaster meets a couple who accidentally discovered a mammoth fossil in Swindon.
“What you saw is a different David from what you normally see,” Allan said. “The first 10 minutes of that he was classic David – he was spontaneous, he was friendly, he was funny, they had tea and cake, and he clearly got on with these two people right from the start. The reverence he showed picking up those bones was classic David but the David you saw there was the one I know.
“I count myself lucky to have met him a long time ago and we are still good friends. When you work with him on something he’s enjoying, he is very much like that off screen.”
Doug Allan will share insights into his experiences at events in Glasgow and Edinburgh in March, organised by Bookface Book Swap, where he will discuss his book Freeze Frame: A Wildlife Cameraman’s Adventures on Ice.
For tickets to the Glasgow event, on March 5, go to www. eventbrite.co.uk/e/ bookface-book-swap-brunch-inglasgow-with-doug-allan-tickets253007029837?ref=estw