Selfie with emperor penguin colony
Through the BAS he met David Attenborough and worked on the documentary series Living Planet( 1984). The experience inspired him to buy a 16mm cine camera, which he used to film emperor penguins, selling the footage to the BBC.
That was his springboard for establishing himself as the underwater cameraman of choice when it came to working in the Arctic and Antarctic. Doug’ s career was garlanded with awards, including eight Emmys and four British Academy Film awards. In 2017 he won an outstanding contribution award at the British Academy Scotland Awards.
The cameraman’ s calling
I met Doug in the runup to the first Blue Planet in 2001, when he generously gave me a lengthy interview at his Bristol home. Among the sequences he filmed was something that had not previously been captured on film – a family of orcas hunting a humpback whale.
It was a punishing sequence to watch, but Doug’ s unflinching camerawork gave the world a new insight into the harsh reality of the orca’ s predatory intelligence. He was especially proud to have captured the footage after long weeks in the Pacific off California, while a rival team from National Geographic had a longer window but missed the action. The story was told with a familiar twinkle in his eye.
He had little patience for talk of‘ dangerous’ animals, maintaining it was the job of the production team to ensure that filming scenarios were appropriate. He told me:“ You always have to remember
" I’ ve had the extraordinary luck of working with Doug over many years "
Sir David Attenborough
as a camera operator, that your first responsibility is the welfare of your subject, the animal you are there to film.”
Doug knew his way around a camera – he was, after all, the son of a photo-journalist who ran his own photography shop in Dunfermline. Yet Doug wasn’ t quite as consumed by the technical aspects of the job as his colleague Peter Scoones, who went as far as making his own housings.
Rather, Doug was motivated by the connection between the cameraman and the animal. He once told me his‘ Holy Grail’ would be to encounter a‘ friendly’ narwhal. A telling moment came during his appearance on Radio 4’ s Museum of Curiosity in 2019. Asked to make a notional donation to the imaginary museum, his
choice was“ the feeling you get when a wild animal trusts you”.
Ultimately, Doug’ s legacy lies in helping the public attain a greater appreciation and understanding of the natural world. It was a world he loved and a challenge he relished. He was the subject of admiration and respect in the natural history filmmaking world, so we will conclude with the words of Sir David Attenborough.
“ I’ ve had the extraordinary luck of working with Doug over many years. There’ s just no-one else who knows these frozen worlds and their unique wildlife as he does. Over his long career in the polar regions, Doug has captured some of the most memorable wildlife images to have ever appeared on television... he has that mixture of physical bravery, technical skill and zoological expertise that you need if you are to be one of the greatest of natural history cameramen. Which he is.” �
Doug swimming with a friendly beluga whale
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