‘Ice Man’ photographer brings tales of his Arctic adventures to Sligo

Doug spoke to The Sligo Champion about his more than 40 year spanning career, witnessing the effects of climate change in real time, and how his latest tour will bring audiences behind the scenes of some of the most incredible shots ever captured on film.

The life experience to fall into this line of work was gained through a series of chance happenings and Doug says it was through following his passions as a young man that he ended up with the skills needed to spend weeks at a time ‘buried in a snowhole’ or diving in the Arctic sea for eight hours a day looking for that perfect shot.

“In the early 1960, I was lucky enough to go on holiday in the Mediterranean when I was around ten years old and that’s where I put on a snorkel for the first time and I was fortunate because it was warm and clear and there was quite a lot to see,” he said.

This led to Doug’s lifelong interest in deep sea diving, at that time he says exploration was in the air, not just in the race to the moon but the deepest realms of the ocean were being investigated by scientists for the first time.

“My diving led to a huge interest in marine biology and by that time biologists were starting to shift from just looking at animals to whole systems and asking, how do oceans work? What’s the energy force of a forest or river? That drove a big interest in the environment,” he said.

Doug went on to study marine biology but soon realised his interest was in scientific diving and he embarked on research in the Red Sea before being stationed at an exhibition with a British research station in the Antarctic.

“They employed a diving officer at the base to look after the equipment and make sure the scientists got all they needed, that was my job and I would be stationed for two and half years at a time,” he said.

“It was an incredible couple of years of my life and here I developed my third big passion which was photography, this was more to show people the strange lifestyle we had at the station as much as anything.”

Then Doug would have one of the most important chance encounters of his life when a small film crew arrived to gather footage for a TV production. This crew included a cameraman, soundman, producer, and presenter Sir David Attenborough.

“It fell to me to help the crew and I took them around different parts of the island and looking at the cameraman I thought it was such a fantastic job. I spoke to them about how the business worked and David told me, ‘Doug, I know a dozen people I could consult about seeing elephants in Africa, but when we come back to the Antarctic I am going to come to you’,” he said.

It was 1981 and Sir David told 30 year old Doug he had very specific knowledge and interests and if he wanted to work in this line of business he would already be a number of steps ahead of anybody else when it comes to the polar regions.

He contacted a BBC producer and before long gained a job filming for a nature series on the life of birds and with that he had then broken into the industry.

“It was not a straight path by any means but that’s what I always tell students, it’s important to stay interested in things because at the end of the day those interests will come together to give you a unique ability and that means you can land the perfect job, I was a little bit lucky but life is all about recognising the breaks and running with them,” he said.

Doug would soon be known as ‘The Ice Man’ and would go onto become principal cinematographer on some of the most world-renowned nature documentaries, he says while this may seem like exciting work one vital quality is patience and most importantly tenacity.

“This job involves a lot of waiting around, it’s hard to find the animals and even harder still for them to be doing the behaviour you want. I always distinguish between patience and tenacity, patience is more passive but to be tenacious has more drive, you need to find those images and get all the angles your editor needs for the most dramatic sequence,” he said.

Doug has filmed everything from penguins, polar bears, seals and whales and over the years says he walked the fine line between frostbite and non-frostbite, he’s learned what to wear and not what to wear, and knows the importance of taking his time to get the shots he needs.

“It’s an immense privilege to be in these places and given the time to get the footage. If you put someone like me in the field for eight days then I will put about a minute on screen, so if you want a good 50 minute show you will need to allow for 400 days of filming,” he said.

“Bear in mind somedays will be completely unsuccessful, the weather may be bad, the animals might not be there, or they’re not doing the behaviour you need. You need to give it 100% even if it means getting up hours before dawn and standing in a snowhole for eight hours waiting for a polar bear to stick it’s head out and come out with its cubs.”

With more than 40 years of experience in freezing conditions, Doug is well positioned to speak about the changes that have been seen in the Arctic and Antarctic as a result of climate change, and the consequences of these changes are a big part of his touring show.

He says he has returned to polar areas where massive swathes of ice have totally melted between trips and islands where populations of up to 20,000 pairs of Adélie penguins have decreased to under 5,000.

“I’ve seen changes, and when you witness a solid sea turn into a liquid sea that’s going to be a big change for the animals who depend on it for breeding and hunting. The arctic is changing at the fastest rate of anywhere in the world,” he said.

While he does not believe it is too late to undo many of the ills caused by climate change, Doug says it is ‘dangerous close to too late’ and while humans may be able to learn to live with its consequences he says many animals will not.

“That doesn’t mean we should give up, we should be working towards a greener, fossil fuel free, renewable energy, less consumption future. Nature is wonderfully resilient if you leave it be, things like rewilding are great concepts and we should be heading towards a greener future.”

Doug says one of the goals of his tour is to spread a message about the effects of climate change to the younger generations while also showcasing the majestic wonders of nature.

“I love reaching out to people and this is my way of doing something for the environment, I’d love for people to come away from my talks thinking more about the effect we have on the future and hopefully becoming environmental champions,” he said.

Nowadays, nature programmes carry a much stronger environmental message than they once did and Doug says it is important to highlight the areas that need protection.

“It’s ironic in a way that so many people then want to travel to these places and see it for themselves, it’s a double-edged sword and flying to these places is so carbon dependent, you want to show people these lovely things but if you want them to stay wonderful maybe you don’t show anyone at all,” he said.

Doug has seen some of the most incredible sights that the world has to offer, he has a home in Connemara and says that he often enjoys diving around the West Coast of Ireland where there are seaweed forests ‘to match any coral reef’.

Despite this he has one ambition he has not yet got to fulfil and that is to swim with a narwhal, a type of whale with a large tusk protruding from its head, when first seen these creatures almost seem mythical in their unusual design.

“They are notoriously wary but if there was a friendly one with a two or three metre tusk that I could spend 20 minutes in the water with I would be very happy,” he said.

Doug is excited to come to Sligo for the first time on this latest tour, It’s a Wrap, at the Hawk’s Well Theatre on Tuesday, November 1.

“It’s a family show and for anybody who’d love to hear some behind the scenes stories from programmes like Planet Earth, Blue Planet, or Frozen Planet, they will make up a large part of the talk,” he said.