"Protecting Biodiversity: Documenting Wildlife Amid Climate Change" with Brian Matthews (UK)

"We spent a week on St Kilda which is known as the islands at the edge of the earth, which are the most westerly point in the UK. So you have to get to the Western Isles of Scotland and then keep on going west to get to St Kilda. And on the island, in addition to 300.000 puffins, many, many gannets, fulmars, and all the other seabirds that you see, there's basically a million seabirds on the islands and there's one snowy owl, called Snedge, who got presumably blown off course from Greenland or somewhere like that, and has lived on the island because there's very, very large mice that live there that are endemic to St. Kilda, the St. Kilda field mouse. And thus he's probably the loneliest owl in the world. So you pick up these weird and insightful stories."

Intro:

Greetings everyone, and welcome to another episode of The Camera Cafe Show, your go-to podcast for all things photography with amazing guests. I hope you had a marvelous week and you all have been busy with photography and growing new skills or mastering old ones!  I'm your host, Tom Jacob, and thanks first for all you folks writing us emails and leaving us reviews, it's amazing to hear you're all enjoying the show.

Today we were able to capture for you (never better said) and take him out from floating in the waters around the Farne islands in the UK with his camera and puffins for a talk with us, the renowned wildlife photographer and passionate nature conservationist, Brian Matthews. As you will see on his social media accounts, Brian is known for captivating nature images from all those wild places around the world and his innovative thinking in underwater photography.

Shooting pictures for 20 years, following the path of animals for book projects or assignments, being published along the way in numerous magazines, Brian was also, again, highly commended in the prestigious 2023 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. Today, we'll explore Brian’s unique journey, from his early days with an engineering background to becoming deeply committed to conservation efforts in and outside the UK, using his art to raise awareness and inspire action to protect our natural world.

Grab your favorite drink, sit back, and get ready to be inspired by Brian Matthews on The Camera Cafe Show today. Let's get rolling.

Tom: ​Good evening, Brian, AKA Puffin Daddy. You made me smile when I read this on your Instagram profile.

Brian: I can't claim that unfortunately. That was one of the UK papers who christened me that a few years ago. I think it was either the Daily Mirror or the Daily Star, which are like tabloid newspapers that like to run my photos quite frequently. So, they picked up on that and enjoyed the Puffin decoys and went with Puffin Daddy.

Tom: I was going to ask, have the puffins been behaving this week while you were floating in the sea Brian?

Brian: The puffins have been great. The Puffins, Gilly moths and Razor Bulls. At the minute, there's lots of really young puffins about. They sort of come around. They're not breeding, but they're trying to find a partner. And as I found out yesterday a few of them thought my puffin decoys might be a mating option, but they eventually left me alone. But I had literally puffins within 30 centimeters of me yesterday. It was pretty incredible.

Tom: We will come back to this amazing story a bit later in the show, but now Brian, we're going to start with the big one, highly commended in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year and having your image ‘Storm Warning’ in this exhibition that will go around the globe, we will also talk in depth a bit more later about this, but I want to know what goes through your head, Brian, when you get the email or they phone you to say you have been selected.

Brian: It's pretty amazing, you know, to be selected out of that volume of people. I think there were nearly 60.000 images entered and ultimately, they pick 100. So, it's pretty special just getting in. I've been lucky enough to be in three times now. Recently it's been very, very tough to get it or get through. And what was really good, it’s in line with the work I've been doing around the UK coast and islands, to talk about the impact of climate change, global warming and the need to do something about it.

The image had all the qualities of being a good image and being a really poignant relevant story at the time it was taken during the very, very hot summer of 2022. Where even the UK got warm, in fact it exceeded its hottest temperature, got over 40 degrees. And all of those temperature and weather related changes resulted in this bizarre tropical storm off the Scottish coast.

So it was actually between two islands, Mull and Tyree, off the west coast of Scotland, a bit north of Glasgow. I wasn't expecting to photograph a tropical storm. I was trying to photograph basking sharks, but we didn't see any. But you just always have your camera out, don't you? And I was fortunate enough to press the shutter at the right time and ended up with a really impactful shot that has gone from the National History Museum all around the world and was actually at COP28 last year as well, as part of the UK delegation over there used it to talk about climate change net zero and the need to do something about it.

So it was nice to see it having a positive impact in that way.

Tom: You see, we always have to be ready with our camera because a good picture can come at any moment Brian.

Brian: Yeah. And equally, so we've all missed many, many good photographs because we've not been ready!

Tom: Exactly Brian.

I am going to read this a moment here: your working life brought you senior roles as running nuclear power stations, developing plans for new nuclear energy projects, teaching and inspiring people into the fusion of science, technology and engineering. Founder and managing director of Terra Ursa, a company focused on climate change.

So the question, Brian. Your wildlife photography, it came as a result of things you saw in your work or you have been always fascinated by photography since you were a kid.

Brian: No, I've always, well, I've always been fascinated by wildlife. So, I think when I was about four years old my parents lived near a farm and there was a gardener on the farm called Jack, and he gave me a bird book. And I've still got it, actually, in the other room. And ever since then, I've always had an interest in birds, and my dad was particularly interested. I remember climbing up a ladder when I was about four or five, and looking into a barn owl box. And ever since then, it's been a factor in my life, but didn't become really important until I finished school. I went to university and as the little intro suggests that I did a more of a sort of scientific background.

So, I've got a physics degree after I finished school, but after that I went traveling, bought an SLR so first proper camera back in the good old film days. I did some traveling, focused on wildlife, sort of linked it to my bird watching. That was in 2001, and then it sorts of perpetuated from there with me either doing lots of photography or doing work in the sort of science and engineering world to save up some money, to buy some more camera kit and vice versa.

But I was just fortunate enough to be able to weave the two together. I've not worked on a nuclear power station quite a number of years, but I was lucky enough to be part of the team that ran one. Really, really interesting, as you can imagine, from an engineering physics point of view, but with a backdrop of a climate change, positive benefit and I've been able to then weave the two, the photography and my knowledge in that area together into various projects, working with various people, like linking COP28 to The National History Museum and having that climate change imagery and storytelling as an important factor in what I do.

Tom: So, we are talking now about 20 plus years wildlife photography, Brian, you have visited in the meantime multiple countries, you have won a lot of awards, you've done multiple projects. You have noticed in all these years a change in wildlife yourself?

Brian: I've certainly seen a shift in species and numbers of species and where they're found, but also the sort of more general impacts of climate change, either being sort of the change in weather patterns, the retreating of glaciers, the reduction of snowfall and the increase in rainfall.

The warming of the seas, you know, might not feel like it in the UK when I'm diving in sort of 13, 14, all the way down to 10 degrees. But last year, at one point, the sea off the west coast of England was heading towards 20 degrees, which is just unheard of. And of course, that has an impact. So, one of the things we've observed and we talk about a little bit, is as seas warm, fish move, and the easiest way for a fish to move that likes a certain temperature is to move down. But if the birds feed at the top of the water and can't divem like a bird called the black legged kitty wake, it can't get access to that food anymore. And it's those sorts of things that we've seen over the last 20 years, you know.

A really simple example, could be linked to climate change, could be linked to natural sort of movement of glaciers, but the Fox Glacier in New Zealand on the west coast of the south of the island. I remember visiting that about sort 12 years between and the car park had moved like a kilometer up the road type thing. So you see a lot of these observations as you go around and equally so the image in Wildlife Photographer of the Year, you know, I think if anyone had told me that in 2022 the UK would see temperatures over 40 degrees and you'd be recording tropical storms off the west coast of Scotland, you would've said you're a lunatic. But the fact is, is was, and you can almost directly line it up with the increasing concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

So, we do stuff yes. And I think sometimes the images can add something to the storytelling and make it a little bit more relevant. One of the big shifts I've seen personally is the need to sort of have video alongside the image, you know, some sort of documentary of how you did it, what it looked like type thing. We managed to get some video of this, of the storm in Storm Warning, literally engulfed the boat we were in into like a, one of those typical, if you've ever been to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, that sort of area where you get these incredible just deluges, like literally the water drops out the sky. It was like that across the boat. And it was pretty warm water. So it was a bit unusual, but we have seen quite a lot of impacts as a result of some sort of climate change.

It's always hard to quantify because climates assessed over 30 years. You know in 2023 we saw a temperature increase of 1.48 degrees against pre industrial levels, but that that it could be a blip. It probably isn't, but climate is going to be assessed over decades rather than individual years.

Tom: And if we talk about animals Brian…Because I remembered when I talked to Moose Peterson, of course he shoots longer, maybe 40 years, but I remember that he has in his files pictures of birds, in his case, that don't exist anymore now.

Brian: Yeah. So, well, certainly even in the UK I've spent a lot of time photographing common starlings in the massive murmurations, you know, when they dance across the sky and blacken the sky in the north of England. There used to be a number of big starling roosts and they've literally disappeared. We've seen a decline, I think of 85 percent of the starlings over the last 30 or 40 years in the UK. That could be linked to temperature induced food changes, so they've not got the food or just impact from other things like toxins associated with chemical industries or cars and even garden birds, you know, you look at the, the RSPB do an annual garden survey as a sort of a science project. And if you took one bird like the green finch, which used to be pretty common 30 years ago in everyone's feeder. The decline on that's been pretty stark equally. The common house sparrow that everyone thinks is everywhere, actually, the numbers have gone down an awful lot, and we've seen similar things for different reasons with seabirds.

So, you've got a climate change impact, but equally, I've been sort of chasing the bird flu pandemic around the UK. And I was in South Georgia before Christmas and unfortunately saw it move through South Georgia. And that ultimately came from a duck farm in China, I think, best part of 20 years ago. It sort of just moved around the world.

You're seeing these human impacts with climate change alongside a number of other things. In truth, I think one of the biggest impacts on wildlife I've seen is habitat loss. You know, you'll revisit a place and it'll have starkly changed, particularly when you go to India or Africa. Madagascar was pretty bad. You know, you just, there's just nowhere for the animals to go in certain places. And that's getting smaller and smaller and smaller. And that's probably the thing I see the most.

Tom: One of the best ways of course to tell a story like this is not single pictures, but in projects. And it’s something I wanted to discuss a bit with you, Brian, because you did many projects. List us a bit through the ones you remember the most, except your project Genesis on which we will come back later.

Brian: Well, over the years I've done a number of things with, and we're going to talk about my work with charities and NGOs, but often they're quite project related. So, looking at how things change. I actually met with the Orangutan Foundation last week in London. I worked with them about 15 years ago. And that project was around how you give sustainable livelihoods to people who live in or near forests to remove the need to cut the forest down. And this included digging ponds to allow them to have fish. So they had something to eat and equally so something to potentially sell. And that then resulted in a bit of a buffer onto the forest and an opportunity for the orangutans and other species.

And this was in, Southern Borneo in Kalimantan, the Indonesian side, in Tanjung Puting National Park and a place called Lemandau, and to see both the sort of conservationist work, the work to try and support the local communities in a positive manner, and then either the development of forest to support orangutans. Sun bears, monkeys, gibbons, clouded leopards, which was recently spotted in one of the areas they've been working in, that that's been really, really cool. So I enjoy particularly doing those sort of things.

Some of the things that I've started and not succeeded with, a few years ago we started a project called The Last Eight, which was around photographing and storytelling on the last eight bear species. So we started working around that. We were working with polar bears, I was in Canada and then I came back on the day of lockdown in the COVID pandemic in the UK. And that project hasn't restarted, though I have started reading a new book about a journalist who's just traveled and recorded the eight bear species in the sort of socio-economic context, the impact from a conservation point of view, how they're held in regard of the local communities, etcetera.

So it's been a bit of an inspiration and I might rekindle that one and see if there's something we can do particularly if we can get some support from a foundation or something to work on that.

I mentioned the bird flu. I did some work, both on seabirds and geese in the UK that wasn't particularly nice. That was taking photographs of dead birds and that ended up in a BBC article. So I try to do little projects alongside something quite large and then have a bit of an overlap as well, where you get a bit of mutual benefit for them both and then see if there's a step towards another project. So the project we're doing at the minute in the UK hopefully will lead to another project which we'll talk about to in a second.

Tom: Brian, when you start a project, you already have like a certain audience in mind to who you can publish it or you start them like personal projects and you look for the funding afterwards.

Brian: It depends. Sometimes I'll get invited to do things that then either grow or exist as a sort of project there. More often than not, certainly with this UK project it started actually as a result of the Bear project finishing, only being able to travel in the UK, so it was out of opportunity. But sometimes there is a, sort of, real end point with a personal project like The Last Eight where I would try and get either funding through images or the project is ultimately culminating in something of use at the end, which would be say a book or a short film or something like that.

Tom: And would you say that even a little thing would make an interesting story you would work on?

Brian: Yeah. I mean, during lockdown, I spent a lot of time photographing things in my garden just to pass the hours a little bit, but also, when you start digging into something and spending time on something you learn a lot, you develop photography techniques, you identify lots of little bugs, you know, even in the smallest gardens, you'll find hundreds of different things attached to different plants and under different stones. So you can identify all sorts. And I'd always advocate to people if they're, you know…one of the things we're going to talk about is how would you suggest people get images good enough to have a chance of getting into big competitions like Wildlife Photographer of the Year, and certainly if you're not lucky, like you and I have been to travel a little bit and see the world a little bit, and you've only got your backyard or your local area. If you spend the right time doing the right stuff in a small area, you can get surprisingly good results and you don't need amazing camera kit either. So I think really focusing down on something, you'll be surprised on what you can do and find and get a little bit of inspiration from. So even the small things are quite good.

And I spent a lot of time, as I mentioned, doing starlings and that then resulted in working with different charities on how they've been impacted over the years and these sort of things, rather than just the pure sort of art of the images. But it's nice to have something at the end of it. Even the work with the National Trust of Scotland, I did as part of the coast and islands project was just being able to support the storytelling and educational work and engagement with images, stories, and video. Sometimes that’s enough as long as, you know, you're getting a little bit of money along the way.

Tom: And how have been your experiences with working with charities and NGOs, Brian?

Brian: It varies if I'm honest. I think if you can get yourself in front of them, in person, you have many, many, many more times chance of doing something with them. I think nowadays getting your message in front of the right person is really difficult. Even if you're fairly well established. And you need to use the links the best you can and it does vary. In general, the larger the charity, the larger the NGO, it's much, much harder to get in and find the right person to talk to. That's why sometimes some of the sort of government trade events are like the bird fair in the UK, which is a big sort of wildlife holiday, charity, nature event going to things like that and talking to people, I find is the best way of doing it.

And the only other thing is a bit of speculative. Sometimes you get the odd email based on social media. So as an example recently the National History Museum of Iceland has been in contact with me to use some of my puffin images and videos for a project that they're pulling together. That was directly through a social media channel and an email. That happens a bit, but not much, if I'm honest. And I think you have to be pretty well established and have some very, very good images to do that and, and hope the weird algorithms on social media work for you, which 99 times out of a hundred, they do not work for you. So, you have to be real clear.

One of the things I would say is develop yourself a rate sheet. So how much you charge either for image use or use of your time. And lots of charities and NGOs will ask for that rate sheet. They'll give you some feedback on it. So, you know, if you, if you say you're 12, 000 pounds a day and you're going to work for a small charity, you know, they'll say that's probably outside of our budget, but there's a bit of a balance there.

So you have something you're going to stick with and be very, very cautious about giving you images away for free. I am mesmerized that well established websites, companies, NGOs, and magazines still offer image use for exposure. I got an email about six weeks ago from a magazine that wanted to use, again it was the Puffin story, and I said, Oh, can you send the contract in terms of sort or terms of reference and pricing schedule over ,and this was a photo magazine, said we don't have a budget for photo projects. I was like, Oh, that's quite interesting. You don't have a budget. And he said, Oh no, we rely on exposure. And I'm sure you've had plenty of those. You do not get any exposure from these things. So anyone who gets an email saying you get exposure, you do not get any exposure. You will make no money out of that exposure. I can promise you. So avoid it like the plague.

I actually get really grumpy because it sort of technically drifts into the Modern Slavery Act. But that's a separate conversation…so, yeah, it really annoys me, that sort of thing. It's very disrespectful but that's life. So, face to face, develop a rate sheet and just keep on trying and get ready for 99 failures out of a hundred.

Tom: Unless of course you talk about a charity that is maybe close to your heart and you want to do something to help them out, or maybe they can give you special access to a place you can’t normally get.

Brian: No, I totally agree. I've done work with a number of charities where you get access as a result of working with them that you normally wouldn't. And you've just got to figure out if that's worth your time, and then giving them the images, you know. I'll always say commercial companies, magazines, etcetera, always have to pay, but in certain cases when the charity is worth working for, reducing your rates is a good thing. But if it's WWF or Greenpeace, the answer has always got to be no, because they've got plenty of cash, you know, so there's always a bit of a balance. There's no problem in helping but you've got, you know, if you help all year you won't be putting food on the table.

Tom: Which animal is now still on your list for a project maybe Brian?

Brian: Well, in general the bear stuff was really important because of I've got a real affinity with bears. I really enjoy watching them, filming them, taking images of them, learning about them, working with people who work with them. And that was one of the reasons I really pushed into that project.

And the spectacle bear is on the list, which is the only bear that's in South America. It has a bizarre link into the UK as it is Paddington Bear, even though Paddington and a spectacle bear look very, very different. That that's really up there on the list. And then equally so the, an Asiatic black bear or moon bear, very, very difficult to see except in bear bile farms in some parts of Southeast Asia. I'd love to see that. And then we were going to have a chapter called, it's Not a Bear, in the book. And that includes the Red panda which you can find in sort of eastern India, Bhutan sort of north of Bangladesh, Assam area, into Myanmar and into China and that sort of area, that's very high on the list.

And despite spending probably years in total on the water, I've never seen an orca and I'd love to see an orca or killer whale. I've tried and failed many, many times and seen many, many other whale and dolphin, but I've never seen an orca. So I'd really, really like to see them, that would be absolutely amazing. And then maybe the giant salamanders in Japan, just because they're completely bonkers looking. These are like massive amphibians, giant lizard things that live in the rivers in Japan and the very, very strange things. I'd quite like to see them if I could.

But I could probably spend a whole podcast talking through various animals that I'd really, really like to see. Because it's just fantastic and some of them are higher priority because there's a real risk that they might not be there by the time I get round to trying to see them. So there's a bit of a potential prioritization there as well.

Tom: I see a future of you making still a lot of little decoys. I see you still making a little orca decoy to follow you around!

Brian: Yeah! I'm not sure if I'd want an orca 30 centimeters away trying to mate with a decoy. I think that might be foolhardy. I'll leave that to someone else though. But you can buy inflatable orcas, can't you, for your swimming pool? So maybe I could go for that one!

Tom: Brian, let's get a moment back to the Wildlife Photographer of the Year with your image. Like you said before…give me some tips for people entering these big competitions and never seem to have luck. What would be like three tips they could use to enter their images?

Brian: Do a bit of research. Find out what images have been in the last five books. In general, if you enter an image of the same species that's been in the last five years inside, it has to be significantly better than those images to have a chance. One of the examples, I got some feedback from the judges who I sort of bump into every now and again, was that there was a phase of people entering snowy owls taken from Canada in the winter and Vincent Meunier had also entered an owl image a previous few year and got in. And no offense to most people, but you're not going to take a better picture than Vincent Meunier. So it's all about doing a bit of research. I've got every single Wildlife Photographer of the Year book on my bookshelf, and I go through them before the competition, just to make sure that, you know, you're hedging your bets a bit by picking the right subjects.

One really important, number two, is to have a very strong story behind it. Even in the first phase of judging, so this is Wildlife Photographer of the Year, if they see an interesting image where it’s not a 100 percent sure it's an automatic go through to the next round, they will read the description. So, if it has a cool story or an interesting story or relevant to climate change and global warming or biodiversity loss or people and wildlife interaction or habitat loss make sure you write a good description of your image.

And then lastly, unfortunately, it is purely about the quality of the image. You know, it has to have everything going for it. And the more it blurs the line between a wildlife image and art, the higher likelihood of it, of it being successful. You know, if you look through the last five years of wildlife photography, the composition and art section has now sort of infiltrated into the other sections. And particularly if you look at some of the other competitions, if you look at European Wildlife Photography of the Year, that artistry has now filtered through into all the sections.

That said, you know, these competitions exist to make money, so they want everyone to enter everything. But if you want a really good chance of getting through even to the final stages, which is like a hundred images per category, or maybe the last sort of 1000, 2000 images you need to something novel, new, and interesting, or much better than the previous years. Have a good story behind it. And it has to be absolutely phenomenal as an image. It's a bit hard to swallow sometimes, but if you go through the last book and have a look at it, or go online, and your images aren't as good as those, keep on working at it. Save your 30 quid.

Tom: So, you are saying actually that a good story of the picture is like equally important as the picture almost Brian?

Brian: Yes. Yeah, yeah. Something that they can use, you know. The big competitions are all about storytelling as much as the image. You know, people stop, look at the image, and then read the story and put the two together and they see that as really important. I would make the mistake 10 years ago of entering competitions and, you know, it's usually last minute, so, you know, you've got two hours to put your images in, you can't be bothered to write anything cause it's usually optional to put some texts in and you don't bother sticking it in. So you're only relying on the quality of the image, which sometimes works, but often doesn't.

Tom: Brian, let's move a bit to the gear question, people always like those. Give me a bit an outline of the gear you're using nowadays.

Brian: It’s Canon. I have used it since I bought my first SLR in 2001. So I'm using a Canon 1DX Mark III's and 5D Mark IV's with pretty much all the lenses from 14mm/f2.8 through to 500mm/f4. My main lenses I use are probably my 14mm/2.8, my 70 to 200mm/2.8, and my 500mm/4, they're sort of three go-to lenses. I don't use a great deal of flash. I use F-Stop bags which are quite useful for longer trekking type stuff, they're a bit more comfortable on the back, even though there's not really a comfortable camera bag out there, certainly not one I've tested. I don't use tripods. I do have them but they always stay in the back of the car because I think you lose a bit of flexibility certainly with the stuff I do. I always have a pair of Leica binoculars with me.

My underwater stuff that a lot of people are interested in at the minute, I used to use the sort of standard diving type cameras, which would go down to 30 or 50 meters. But for the Puffin stuff that I've been doing, and we'll talk about a second, I use AquaTech kits. The reason I use AquaTech is that there's a port available for AquaTech that allows me to use my 70 to 200mm lens in the water, which is really, really unusual for underwater based photography using, in essence, a telephoto lens.

But if you look at the images I've made of the puffins, the reason they look so different from other people's is because I'm using that setup, and it makes a huge difference. It is incredibly difficult to use in the water because you've got such a tight range of view, particularly at 200mm, the water doesn't stay still, unfortunately, the puffins don't stay still and you don't stay still. So you have to the strength to be able to sort of paddle in the water, keep your camera up, lots of arms and back and neck.

And having just recovered from ripping my left bicep, it's been a good test the last week getting back in the water with the big heavy kit. But I really enjoy the Aquatec stuff because it's light, it's quick, it's easy to use, it's simple. They've got triggers on them so you're not reaching over to do the sort of standard shutter position, it just connects to your remote switch. But you can use the wide lens stuff, that's what I've been using for the split image stuff that I've been doing over the last week or so.

So, Canon, still using digital SLRs, which are those cameras people probably don't even remember them. They're the like noisy DSLR digital cameras, not like the cool mirrorless things. So I've gone through slide film to digital and now I am thinking about mirrorless. But it's waiting for the Canon R1, but I've got an awful feeling that I'm probably gonna have to sell my flat and my car. It's gonna be a tough, tough shout, I think, I'm not sure what to do. It's bonkers, isn't it, when you think about it. If you have two R1’s, a telephoto lens and a few other things, you'll have like thirty to forty thousand euros in your backpack. It's just bonkers. It's just crazy. It's, you know, you think about my insurance is a thousand pounds a year on the stuff I've got now. It's a real bit of a head scratcher to be honest. I am actually looking at Nikon and Sony as alternatives because they're as good and cheaper. I've got lots of friends who use them as yourself, so it's it's going to be an interesting few months in terms of looking at the switch, see how the R1’s perform at the Olympics, talking to Canon, talking to Nikon, talking to Sony.

And then making a decision and then talking to Phil at Aquatech because I've got four Aquatech housings that are all fitted to Canon kit. If anyone's interested in a second hand kit it's fairly well used, but I get it serviced all the time, give me a shout.

Tom: Let’s see where it leads you to. Brian, if you are out diving and shooting pictures, I suppose you are with a little team and aren’t alone there bobbling in the water?

Brian: Yes, and that's one of the really important things. Lots of people have asked me how I got the shots. So, over the last few days I've been based out of a place called Seahouses, which gives you access to the Farns islands. I am working with Billy Shields Boats, which is run by William Shields, who is the son of Billy. And I've actually been working with William's son, Oliver or Ollie. And Ollie and me go out in the rib, so Ollie is my boat driver and safety man.

He does a fantastic job of to pick me up where I've sort of lost my bearings and the tide has literally just moved me 400 meters down, past all the islands and the next port of call will be Norway. So you cannot do this sort of thing on your own, you know, snorkeling in rock pools just off the coast and these sort of things, that's fine. But as soon as you get offshore you need people around you to help. Anyone can drop me a line and I'll tell them how to do it. I don't keep these things secret, but you'll know as a diver, Tom, that yeah, the sea is a, is a very, very powerful place, even in what most people like you and I, who are used to the North sea, you know, most people would consider the Mediterranean very benign, but it's not. Here you only need a bit of wind, a bit of tide, a bit of current, a bit of cramp and then you're in bother so be very, very careful about it.

But we are looking at potentially doing some like tutorial workshops next year with Aquatech, if I can find a, a nice safe spot to do some wildlife underwater learning photography. I might give Lundy a go, which is fantastic for seals in Devon and a very safe spot to go for a bit of a dive or a bit of a snorkel.

Tom: I think if you can get a group of already divers, it sounds like a fantastic idea. But it's, as you say, it's definitely not something for someone who only can swim with a wetsuit because he will end up in Norway.

Brian: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. It's I think if, even if you're a good swimmer, like you and I are, being in the open ocean is a different experience. And I know a lot of people panic when they can't see the bottom, or they can't see land, you know. You have to practice and get used to it to do it, it's not a thing you can just do. But equally so it's an amazing experience, isn't it? It's, you know, being in the sea is just fantastic.

Tom: And then you have also a 1000 curious puffins around you Brian.

Brian: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. That is that slight advantage. And I think a lot of people are quite jealous of what I've been doing.

Tom: Brian, let's go to over to your Project Genesis, the book you want to bring out in the in the schools of the UK, concerning climate change. Talk me about it a bit.

Brian: So, this is a project linked to my travels around the UK, capturing stories and hopefully a few good photographs, and looking at how there's a link between people, nature, wildlife, and the environment. About what's happening to the wildlife and what's in the UK as wildlife. You know, people are very surprised when they see some of the images from the great photographers around the UK of colorful fish or otters or sea eagles or gannets. So, there's loads to see, but there's lots and lots to learn.

And we've picked a few interesting stories and projects around offshore winds as an example, looking at how that impacts wildlife, how you can use things like bird nesting towers to offset losses. We did some work with the sand eels and the puffins and the recent ban of sand eel fishing in the North Sea. It's caused a few issues in Denmark because that's where the bulk of the sand eels were fished. They use them as a protein source for animal feed, particularly in the bacon industry, it fattens pigs up quicker. So, it's just an interesting link, isn't it? How a food source for puffins is fished by humans to support the bacon industry by fattening pigs up. And you would never think, never thought you would see or find a story like that off the north coast of England.

Slightly more fun things as we spent a week on St Kilda which is known as the islands at the edge of the earth, which are the most westerly point in the UK. So you have to get to the Western Isles of Scotland and then keep on going west to get to St Kilda. And on the island, in addition to 300.000 puffins, many, many gannets, fulmars, and all the other seabirds that you see, there's basically a million seabirds on the islands, there's one snowy owl, called Snedge, who got presumably blown off course from Greenland or somewhere like that, and has lived on the island because there's very, very large mice that live there that are endemic to St. Kilda, the St. Kilda field mouse. And thus he's probably the loneliest owl in the world. So you pick up these weird and insightful stories.

Similar story on St. Kilda as we met this group of people working with storm petrols, and they were walking up and down the hills or the mountains because it's very, very steep on St.Kilda, like three or four hundred meter cliffs, and they were walking backwards and forwards and they spent 20 days walking twice the height of Everest, just to try and catch a couple of small seabirds, put little radio collars on them and record where they were going and how long they were away from. You know, the dedication of some conservationists! These guys were working for the RSPB.

And it's a sort of culmination of all these little stories, hopefully giving a little bit of positivity into the world of sort of biodiversity and climate change, highlighting some of the issues like storm warming, the tropical storms off Scotland, the moving of fish and food for the birds and how that impacts breeding stocks, bird flu and then bringing it all together in a more of an educational book with very, very good photographs and nice stories.

The aim is to get the funding to put that into the about 30.000 primary and secondary schools in the UK over the next 12 months. So that's the plan with that heavily sort of educational bias, but hopefully with a bit of a different slant on it, with nice images to maybe inspire a few people to become rangers, conservationists, naturalists, or even wildlife photographers in the future. And we want to do it in such a way that it doesn't cost the schools anything.

Tom: And how far is the project now, Brian? We are talking that you already have like a book form?

Brian: Yeah. Yeah. So the bulk of the work in terms of images and stories are done. There are a few gaps, and I don't think I'm going to be able to fill them all this summer, so we're probably going to go and ask a few photographers and buy some images of people to fill those gaps rather than wait another year.

And then working with a number of foundations and sources of income to either pull it all together from a single source or multiple sources, depending on what we want to do. But being very cautious of assessing the sources in a proper way. So, you know, there's no pseudo link to green-washing or anything like that as well. We just need to be really cautious of all of that. And it's a bit of a sad thing that you have to think about these days because, you know, there's money out there, but it has to be from the right place.

Tom: This is an immensely large project Brian.

Brian: Yeah, it's probably taken five years I think and hundreds of days in the field, hundreds of days of traveling, lots and lots of time, a few injuries, a few wet days, a few broken down cars and broken down boats and various other things. But it's coming to a conclusion now, so a little bit more work and we'll, we'll hopefully get there.

Tom: And with all these things, with broken cars, with broken boats, with all your own money in it at first…what makes it worthwhile doing it in the end for you, Brian?

Brian: I think the fundamental bit is that I really enjoy it. I get a lot out from being in the field. You know, I spend a lot of time wondering about climate change and biodiversity loss. I think the closer you get to it and the more you understand it and having a bit of a science background, it can be quite overwhelming and depressing to be honest. It's trying to maybe stick something under someone else's nose who can do something more about it than I can because it's pretty difficult and it's not going in the right direction. So I think it's trying just to maybe give someone else a little bit of a nudge and a bit of a push to say, Oh, maybe I can do something about that. And then try and do something in my own little way as well.

But as I found out over the last 20 or 30 years, it's very, very difficult. And nothing much has changed. I mean, last year, global emissions were the highest they've ever been. Coal and oil use were 2 percent higher. We produced at one point 100 million barrels of oil in one single day, which was the highest ever on record last year. So despite all the renewables that are coming on, despite all the other sort of efficiencies that you see in your houses and how much people know more about it, the actual on a global scale, not much is changing. So it's a few little nudges and just inspire people to protect even their little bit of nature.

And that could be to let your grass go in your garden a little bit more than you normally would to encourage insects and have a little bit of a wild patch in your garden. Use your local woods and reserves to, you know, make them relevant, make them interesting, clear your head, good for your mental health maybe volunteer doing something or maybe be inspired to actually work in that area. Many, many young people are at the minute, you know, going to university and actually studying climate change and net zero and sustainability and environmental science and then move into the world. What's interesting is that there's a huge, and it's quite cool to see, lots and lots of young women moving into nature conservation, becoming wardens, working with charities. I'm doing a little bit of work with the Wildlife Trust at the minute in South and West Wales. And the bulk of their team are young, enthusiastic women who want to make a difference. So there is a little bit of hope out there, but some days when you see the facts and figures it can be pretty demoralizing when you understand what they mean.

We've just had, well, we've had the opposite of you. We've had the wettest six months on record. You've had a phenomenally dry six months with a bit of rain recently. All the weather and the climate's all over the place at the minute. And it's making it quite uncomfortable in, in a few areas. I mean, a bit of rain in the UK is fine, but when you can't grow any food in Spain, it's a bit of a problem for the rest of Europe.

Tom: Yes, it has been a very tough six months here. And even not only for, not only for us as humans, but I can see it very clearly making wildlife or macro pictures. I see it going backwards and we all need water here. So I think we will need the younger generation to read your book and get inspired there Brian.

Brian: Yeah, hopefully that's the aim. So a few images and stories to make them think, wonder and do something about it.

Tom: Brian, I think last time when we talked, you had a bit like an unfortunate event with your arm. You could not lift up really the heavy camera equipment and you tried shooting nature pictures with your phone. How did that work out?

Brian: I'm not going to lie. I'm probably like you are a bit of a perfectionist and I've got very lucky I've got an iPhone 15 pro, which is a ridiculously expensive phone, and it's good fun to take the videos, fantastic, and I do quite a lot of little videos to support my work in the field. But actually when I went spending a little bit more time taking photographs with it, and it's going to be sound a bit harsh, but, it's dreadful. It's like the quality and whenever you've got difficult light in any shape or form, like so slightly darker, slightly lighter, too bright… they're not great.

So if anyone's got any suggestions of a better camera phone that you can have in your pocket, I've been pretty disappointed with the iPhone 15 pro. The wide angle is quite good fun. It does this sort of 15mm wide angle, which gets a lot in the image, but when you're used to a good quality camera and you can zoom in on stuff, then not. They're great to have in your pocket though. I've been chatting about the Natural History Museum about how to promote getting more young people out there, taking images with the phones to enter into the competition. And for the first time last year phone image got into the last batch of images before the final cutoff. So someone got very, very close to getting into the exhibition with a phone shot. So I think a bit of artistry, a bit of thinking and a bit more knowledge than I have of these phones, and I'm sure you can get amazing shots.

One of the things I did play with alongside the phone was a GoPro. They take much better images. And you can get them for about 300 pounds or euros. So if you want to get into wildlife photography and test yourself with a wide angle lens and see what you can do, a GoPro is a really good way of stepping into it, and they're much, much cheaper than most mobile phones. And no, I'm not sponsored by GoPro.

Tom: I think you're using a GoPro now for some images you’re doing Brian. I'm not sure you have like a dual GoPro rig or something like this?

Brian: Yes, a special rig for my puffins, both images and video, but predominantly video, where I've got two GoPros and I've got a float, literally a swimming float that you put between your legs when you're training to swim, pulled by a cord, cut that in half, stuck it on a carbon pole, put two GoPros on the end with an attachment that allows you to put two on and you get images and video above water and below water, and you can synchronize them together. So, you've got the puffin on the surface, the puffin under the surface, which is basically it's orange legs sort of flashing around underneath, and then bringing the two together. And that's the sort of thing, hopefully, that will be in the National History Museum in Iceland, in Reykjavik. So you know, have a play with that sort of stuff because, having something to sit alongside your images is really useful and the GoPros are fantastic at doing it.

If anyone wants some tips and tricks on the rig, it worked really well because I can literally let go of it and the GoPro stays at perfect flat level and the only movement is the movement of the sea, which is the same as the puffins anyway, so it's a very stable shot as a result rather than trying to handhold it type stuff.

It’s trial and error, this is the first year I've used this. Previously I've used long poles, stuffed on sticks on the camera and that's that sort of things. So I will report back on how successful it is, but it looks like it's been pretty good today.

Tom: Between this and your puffin decoys, you should start thinking of taking a patent out of some something Brian.

Brian: Yes! The puffin decoys were previously ducks decoys but modified. I need to write it all down, but I'm sure someone's already done it or someone's copying me anyway, though people are struggling to find a puffin decoy. So it would appear that between me and a guy called David Miller, who makes them in Wales for a company called Celtic Deep for Richard, we're the only people with decent puffin decoys at the minute. We've cornered the market.

Tom: You see? Go for it! Brian, we still have about five minutes left. Talk me about puffins because I really love them. Sell me puffins and moreover, sell me the print you have available on your website for the Wildlife Trust.

Brian: Yes. So, alongside all the UK coast and islands, puffins are obviously the highlight for most people. The UK is home to probably a million puffins, so a big chunk of the world's population, but most of them live or come to breed in Iceland. They're a pretty small bird. People are always surprised how little they are, they're only about 30 centimeters long with an about 50 centimeter wingspan, so on the water they're tiny. My puffin decoy is about three times as big as a normal puffin but that doesn't seem to stop them.

I've been doing a lot of work on Skomer islands in Pembrokeshire and Wales ,and on the back of that, myself and the Wildlife Trust thought it might be a good idea to do a print collaboration. So we're working together to try and raise a little bit of money, 10,000 pounds, which is the sort of amount of money that would pay for a ranger over a season to look after the puffins, to help the puffins and help the Wildlife Trust across all the areas they work in, in South and Southwest Wales.

And it's not just Puffins they look after, they do all sorts of work across Wales from reserves on land to other islands, to supporting educational work, to going into schools and colleges, giving young people opportunities to volunteer, all these sort of things while operating in a very difficult environment of Industry closing in Wales, understanding the impact of offshore wind in Pembrokeshire and the Irish Ocean. So they're doing lots of great work. We're trying to raise a little bit of money for them and it might become a bit of an annual thing if it works. There's huge opportunities to see puffins around the UK, so if anyone wants to come just drop me a line. I get lots of emails around where's the easiest and best places to see puffins.

The Farne islands are fantastic in North Northumberland. There's about a hundred thousand puffins there, so that's why I like going there. I can bob around in the water in sort of early July, mid July, as they're all about to leave and some days there's tens of thousands of puffins just sitting on the water, all having a bit of a chat, all getting ready to go. Most of them go north towards Iceland, but some of them end up in the Mediterranean. So there's, there's all sorts of a scatter as they go. They're a fantastic little bird and live alongside some amazing seabirds razorbills, kittywakes are my personal favourites, and the Arctic tern that travels tens of thousands of miles between Northumberland and the Antarctic every year for up to 30 years.

So there's loads of cool little wildlife stories that you can, you know, learn about as you take your camera to all of these fantastic places around the UK. So yeah, puffins are pretty amazing. And the puffin decoy and the little project as part of the bigger project has gone fantastically well over the last two years. Hopefully I'll have a good next two or three weeks balance between Puffin decoy, doing a bit of work and watching the Tour de France. It's going to be a good three weeks!

Tom: I thought you were going to watch the Euro cup football, but no….

Brian: I've watched some of the football and it's been dreadful. Though Belgium haven't suffered much better. They've not been very good either. So it's, yeah, between England, Scotland and Belgium, it's been a bit of an embarrassment. But, yeah. Who knows? The knockout rounds are here to come now and England might turn their fortunes around.

Tom: Who knows, but I prefer nature anyway, Brian.

Brian: Yeah, I'd much rather be in the sea than watching a football game.

Tom: Brian, you go to the Farne islands because it's good for diving. But for all those photographers who aren't diving, what's the best place, maybe landscape wise, to make pictures of puffins?

Brian: The best place is probably, if you don't like boats, Bempton Cliffs in North Yorkshire near Scarborough is fantastic. It's a beautiful landscape. The puffins are a bit difficult cause they're a bit pointy down, but there's lots and lots of gannets there. Boat trips to Skomer are fantastic, but as with most of these reserves, they're during the day, although you can stay on the island. Drew Buckley, Kev Morgans, and a few other people do trips on the island. So you can book through those guys. The Scottish islands are amazing. The Treshnish islands like Lunga and Staffa are fantastic. Shetland is amazing if you can get that far north. Shetland's got an advantage of, it is on land once you're there, you can drive and walk to the puffin site rather than get in a boat.

And then the ultimate bird experience in the UK, well there's two. There's Bass Rock, which is a volcanic cap covered in gannets with a few puffins, and St Kilda, which is also volcanic, and which is covered in very, very high cliffs, with gannets and 300.000 puffins. But there's history, so much history there. It's the only place in the UK, I think, that has UNESCO World Heritage Sites both for nature and anthropology and people, because of the stories that inhabit that island over the years.

So there's a few places that are worth visiting if people are interested in puffins. People can drop me a line on Instagram or email or whatever. And I'll do my utmost to point them in the right direction.

Tom: We will have to meet up there somewhere next year. You have to show me the puffins and we go diving.

Brian: Definitely. You can borrow a decoy and we'll get you surrounded by puffins!

Tom: We will do it. Brian, I think we had we had an amazing talk, a lot of things to think about and a lot of useful information for photographers out here. It's been a pleasure talking to you and listening to your stories. Thank you, a lot, for coming on the show.

Brian: Well, thanks for the invite. I hope people find it interesting and useful, at least a little bit. And I'm more than happy to chat.

Tom: Okay, Brian, we'll stay in touch and have a nice evening still and go support your football team. I think, Belgium is playing at this right moment, so I should maybe watch it.

Brian: Yeah. Get off the podcast, go and watch Belgium, see if they've got any better!

Tom: Brian, thanks again, and I see you around.

Brian: Yeah. Cheers.

Tom: Bye.

Brian: Bye.

Outro:

​So, that wraps up another fascinating I would say episode of The Camera Show Cafe. The dedication to wildlife photography and beyond his stunning images, Brian’s commitment to nature conservation is incredibly inspiring to hear, showing how photography can be a powerful tool for environmental advocacy and try to make a change in our world.

If you want to see more of Brian’s work and follow him around in all his projects, or buy the puffin print to help the Wildlife Conservation Trust, be sure to check out all his links in our show notes.

I hope you enjoyed our conversation today, remember to follow us on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode. Keep watching our social media platforms too, since we are upgrading our website soon with much more information and our podcast team is growing! Until next time, this is Tom Jacob signing off. You keep on capturing those moments, we keep on Moving Your Photography, and we see you next time here for another inspiring interview. Adiós!

 All images used with permission and © Brian Matthews