BBC Wildlife Magazine have just launched a new YouTube channel, hosted by award winning wildlife photographer, best selling author and TV presenter Mark Carwardine. The channel is geared towards helping wildlife photographers of any level with practical tips, interviews and advice from top wildlife photographers and fresh, creative ideas to help them relish and master their craft. For the launch episode, Mark interviewed me to find out how I went about crafting my image of a red fox in front of the Clifton Suspension Bridge (or “the best urban fox picture ever taken” according to Mark!!). To find out the story behind the image and how I went about planning from concept to execution, watch the video below and make sure to subscribe to the channel.
INTERVIEWS
BBC COUNTRYFILE - NATURE IN THE CITY
I’ve had a few TV spots recently, including this great feature on Countryfile about urban wildlife at London’s Woodberry Wetlands. Countryfile is regularly the most watched programme on the BBC, so it’s great that they dedicated a whole episode to nature in the city. I was interviewed about my urban wildlife photography by Anita Rani, who was pretty excited to see all of the wildlife thriving at this wetland in the UK’s capital city. Sony lent me an A9 for the day and Laowa did the same with their crazy 15mm macro, which I used to capture a few images, which featured in the piece.
I also recently featured on a spot on the One Show with Mike Dilger about urban foxes. It was great fun and we lucked out when a fox walked directly between us and the camera operator…
It’s also worth checking out my interview with fellow fox photographer Matthew Maran. The podcast is here on his site and here on the main Apple Podcasts site. Matt’s website is worth checking out if you’re into foxes too!
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC COMMISSION - BIG CAT WEEK
in URBAN NATURE, RADIO, PRESS, INTERVIEWS, CONSERVATION
I was recently commissioned by National Geographic to shoot a rather unusual model after dark on the streets of London...
To launch BIG CAT WEEK in the UK, Nat Geo WILD had a fully animatronic leopard built by John Nolan Studio and I had one night to photograph it in iconic London locations. The idea was inspired by Nat Geo Wild TV episode Mission Critical: Leopards at the Door. Wild leopards roam the streets of Mumbai but the people who live in the city and the leopards have found a way to coexist. There are of course occasional conflicts, but Mumbai is a great example of how people and wildlife can share urban areas - even if that wildlife is a big cat or other top predator. Read the full story here: Learning to Live with Leopards.
As it was such a complicated build, the leopard wasn't fully finished and operational until the night before the press release, so we had to work through the night to create a set of publicity images ready to go to press in the morning. Assisted by the talented Josh Perrett, we spent the night driving "Lily" all over the city, from Brick Lane, to the Gherkin and Tower Bridge. We got some pretty funny looks and had a great time watching people's reactions to seeing a life-size and incredibly realistic leopard on the streets of London. The story was picked up by a few major news outlets and with the accompanying tv programmes will hopefully help to raise awareness of the threats facing leopards and other big cats in the wild.
INTERVIEW: BBC Radio 2 - The Radio 2 Arts Show with Jonathan Ross
As mentioned in my previous post, I was recently interviewed by Jonathan Ross on BBC Radio 2 - the most popular national radio station in the UK. I was pretty excited to get the opportunity to spread the word about my wildlife photography and promote the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition to such a wide audience. You can listen to the full interview below...
MEDIA COVERAGE - INTERVIEWS WITH NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, JONATHAN ROSS AND WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR
in INTERVIEWS, VIDEO, RADIO, TELEVISION
Since the announcement of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2016 (WPY52) winners, I've had the opportunity to promote the WPY competition / exhibition, wildlife photography and my own work across many platforms. Here are some of my recent favourites...
During the WPY52 results week I was interviewed on the National Geographic Facebook Live channel by my good friend Bertie Gregory. Above is a pic of the interview at the Natural History Museum in London by amazing underwater photographer / photo-naturalist and all-round great guy Tony Wu, with a couple of screen grabs from the interview, which had 62,681 views!!! If you don't already know Bertie's work, check out his series for Nat Geo here - it's awesome.
I also did a couple of TV and radio reviews including this interview for ITV News to promote the opening of the WPY exhibition at the M Shed in my home town of Bristol and a #WPYinsights video at the Natural History Museum about how I work, with some tips for nocturnal wildlife photography.
Perhaps my most fun interview though was with Jonathan Ross on the BBC Radio 2 Arts Show, where I got to bang the drum about the importance of urban wildlife photography and Jonathan made me do a pretty embarrassing / amazing impression of a fox. It was pretty cool, if not a little surreal hanging out with Dame Vivienne Westwood and John Simpson, whilst Jarvis Cocker complained about the broken coffee machine and Mr. Ross informed me that he's a big fan of my photography, but all in a day's work and great fun :)
Iplayer link here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0848ybt
GUARDIAN INTERVIEW - WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE
I was recently interviewed by the Guardian Newspaper about my photography and particularly why I choose to focus on urban wildlife. You can read the full story on the Guardian Wildlife Photographer of the Year Microsite here:
Where The Wild Things Are: Discovering Urban Wildlife With Photographer Sam Hobson
ADORAMA TV INTERVIEW
I'm a bit behind with my latest posts as I've been taking some time for paternity leave. It's been a roller coaster but tons of fun and I'm really enjoying being a dad for the first time. I've been working on some local projects in the background, so will catch up with things on here when they are published in the coming weeks. For now, here's an interview about my work that I did for Adorama TV at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Exhibition at the Natural History Museum.
nb. The black-headed gull image at 1:34 is not mine - I was showing the interviewer some techniques after the interview and I set up the camera, but she took the picture!
WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR BLOG CONTRIBUTION
The "Urban" category is making a comeback in the 2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. To celebrate this, the organisers asked myself and two awesome wildlife photographers - Alex Badyaev and Pål Hermansen, to share our thoughts about urban wildlife. I am a big believer that wildlife should not be seen as something that exists outside of the city and that urban wildlife photography plays a big part in helping people realise that humans and wildlife must coexist. The piece can be found on the Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year site here..
