Five quick questions with Gordon Buchanan

Gordon Buchanan presents Animals with Cameras for BBC TV. Image: © Graham Macfarlane (Image credit: Graham Macfarlane)

The TV presenter and wildlife filmmaker Gordon Buchanan will the weird, wild and wonderful stories of shooting nature programs around the world over the last 25 years, when he appears at The Photography Show.

Born in Scotland, Gordon Buchanan is probably best known for presenting BBC programs such as Animals with cameras, Elephant family & me, and appearances on Springwatch and Autumnwatch.

As a child I was wildly passionate about spending time outdoors – it was the only thing that mattered to me. Thinking back, I was always very bored indoors. There was nothing indoors that compared to the adventures and excitement to be had out in the rain, wind, snow and occasional sunshine. Wildlife was part of that experience and I loved it, but I wasn’t a junior naturalist. I didn’t have a binoculars, camera and almanac – just a pair of wellington boots.

With wild animals and natural forces you have so little control so I think that it’s impossible to be 100% happy or content with the images you record. You have the rest of your life to look at the shots you’ve taken – plenty of time to pick holes in them and wish that you’d done this or that, or that the light was stronger or weaker or coming from a different angle. But that’s the joy and challenge of photography and film-making: seeking perfection and never achieving it!

I have a new series coming soon on BBC Two. It’s called Equator From The Air. It is one of the most overtly environmental series that I’ve been involved with. In a very honest way it shows the threats that habitats and species face all around the equatorial regions but also some of the incredible work being done to protect and preserve some of our planet’s most threatened wild animals and wild places.

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Niall is the editor of Digital Camera Magazine, and has been shooting on interchangeable lens cameras for over 20 years, and on various point-and-shoot models for years before that.

Working alongside professional photographers for many years as a jobbing journalist gave Niall the curiosity to also start working on the other side of the lens. These days his favored shooting subjects include wildlife, travel and street photography, and he also enjoys dabbling with studio still life.

On the site you will see him writing photographer profiles, asking questions for Q&As and interviews, reporting on the latest and most noteworthy photography competitions, and sharing his knowledge on website building.