Go wild on a night out with Chris Packham, as he reveals secrets of photography success
31st Oct 17 | LifestyleThe TV presenter has teamed up with photographer Paul Goldstein for an evening of wildlife photography and even wilder humour.
Sharing an interest in wildlife, ambitious images and glorious puns, TV presenter Chris Packham and photographer Paul Goldstein are an entertaining double act. One is considered and meticulous, the other furious and outspoken. Both have a passion for the natural world and frequently channel their energies into conservation projects and the art of taking award-winning photos.
After meeting on a remote beach in South Georgia, Chris and Paul have worked together on several projects and are soon due to lead a tour to Antarctica for Exodus Travels. Ahead of departure, they’ll be holding two charity evenings of “lively images and spectacular debate”.
On Thursday, November 9 at 7.30pm, they’ll be talking/shouting/ranting at Buxton Opera House (buxtonoperahouse.org.uk) and doing it all again (but differently) at Kensington Conference and Events Centre (ticketsource.co.uk) on November 14 at 7.15pm. Here’s a sample of what’s in store…
“You don’t have to travel thousands of miles to photograph spectacular wildlife sequences,” insists Chris, who took this shot of two red foxes fighting in the UK.
But if you are able to go further, it helps. Paul captured this image of an airborne bear at 1.30am on a photographic ship charter to Spitsbergen during mid-summer, when the sun never sinks below the horizon. “Anyone in bed? I don’t think so – I wouldn’t allow it.”
At the other end of the earth, Chris took this shot of a chinstrap penguin while guiding an expedition to Antarctica with Paul. “The weather was dreadful,” says Paul. “Howling winds and snow, just what proper photographers want for dramatic images like this one.”
Paul co-owns several safari camps in the Maasai Mara Conservancies. This picture of cheetah cubs learning to hunt was taken in Mara North Conservancy. “This lasted 20 minutes before they clumsily put the fawn out of its misery,” remembers Paul.
“When the short rains arrive, so does a sparse sprinkling of the spectacular fireball lillies,” says Paul, who took this image in the Olare Conservancy Masai Mara. “The moment lasted a split-second… Right place, right time, these sort of images take a few years in rehearsal.”
Tickets for A Wild Night Out cost from £11, with all proceeds going to S.A.F.E., a Kenyan-based charity working with the Maasai people to end FGM (Female Genital Mutilation).
© Press Association 2017
