You can watch this Episode on Vimeo:
Part 1 - 20.13 - https://vimeo.com/910284028/
Part 2 - 33.33 - https://vimeo.com/910289722/
Raymond Besant is a wildlife cameraman and photographer from the Orkney Islands in Scotland. He regularly films as a long lens cameraman for both the BBC and National Geographic, in far reaching locations such Arctic Norway, Gabon, and the Tibetan Plateau. In this conversation, we spoke about his experiences out in the field with animals, and the quiet, still, sometimes ‘un-nerving’ quality of the landscape that opportunes the difference between simply ‘looking’ and truly ‘seeing’; the ‘paying attention’ that is essential to his craft. We spoke about the rare and precious moments of connection with an animal, of the respect, honour and privilege of having an animal settle in your present enough to groom themselves, in one case a wolf mere meters away on the high Tibetan plateau. We also spoke about the essential nature of guidance in the field, of experienced trackers and the research of, and collaboration with, scientists, as together, a team seeks to bring the visceral behaviour of an animal body in its ecosystem, to a wider audience, through the engaging immediacy of film. Most recently this way of working has found its voice in Raymond’s collaboration with Project Seagrass in filming seagrass meadows of the Orkneys, and the information of both visual beauty and data, that might assist policy makers in preserving, managing and encouraging these meadows in the face of development, agriculture, wind turbines and salmon farms. Please join us as we dive in.
After graduating from the Robert Gordon University with a Bioscience degree (Hons) Raymond embarked on a career as a press photographer for the Press & Journal newspaper in Aberdeen, his interest moving towards photojournalism and people, leading to travels in Europe and Africa as well as documenting stories closer to home.
His work now focuses his first passion; nature. His debut film,’The Flying Dustbin' documented how the Fulmar, a seabird related to the Albatross is affected by plastic pollution in the North Sea. He filmed, produced, edited and narrated the film which won two awards at the International Wildlife Film Festival in Montana and a finalist at Wild Talk Africa in 2009.
Raymond specialises as a long lens wildlife cameraman, filming a wide range of programmes for the BBC Natural History Unit and BBC Scotland. He has filmed as one of two principal cameraman on 'Highlands - Scotland's Wild Heart' with Maramedia for BBC Scotland and 'for two years went up freezing mountains, camped on uninhabited islands and walked through ancient woodlands filming Scotland's most charismatic birds and animals’.
With a long list of credits regularly filming for both the BBC and National Geographic, Raymond’s work has taken him to the Norwegian Arctic and Wadden Sea in western Denmark filming wading birds for ‘Wild Scandinavia’; to the rainforest and savannah in Gabon filming elephants; filming with Grey Seals and principle actor underwater in the Orkney Islands for 'The Outrun' feature film Brock media; the Shetland Islands, Scotland, Greenland, Zambia, Sri Lanka, and the high Tibetan Plateau, filming behavioural sequences of animals that include orca, otters, dolphins, wildcats, wolf, chirru, reindeer, red deer, and a wealth of bird species, together with seagrass meadows and kelp forests. He has also filmed sequences of extreme weather and storm conditions and is a CAA certified drone pilot with a commercial licence, and a PADI Rescue diver qualification in scuba diving.
Raymond has published two books, 'Naturally Orkney’ and 'Naturally Orkney - Coastline’. Both are available on his website.
https://www.raymondbesant.com/about
https://www.orkney.com/news/wild-orkney-february-24
https://www.instagram.com/orkneymondo/
The Saltwater Songlines Project:
www.saltwatersonglines.com
