Wildlife photographer Jonathon Scott talks close call with a sea lion and how to get the perfect shot

Scott set out in 1974 to explore Africa and has never looked back.

Be were lucky enough to catch up with the zoologist in the hope we might learn something about capturing the perfect shot and it turns out even professionals had to start somewhere and they also make mistakes.

“I never really intended being a photographer because my background is zoology and when I started taking pictures it was really just to record what I saw.

“I screwed up badly for that overland trip 1974. I bought a Canon semi automatic camera – you set the shutter speed and it gave you the correct aperture. Because I didn’t really know anything about photography, I thought ok here’s a camera that is going to help me on my way.

“I bought a really crappy lens to go with my camera and it wasn’t a Canon lens. I didn’t even test the camera before I left. It turns out it had an adapter that didn’t sync to the Canon electronics and it didn’t function properly. When I got to Nairobi and took my pictures in to be developed they were all blank.

“Can you imagine?”

Scott has come a long way since then, currently featuring on the Tales by Light Series 2 - a locally developed photography adventure series developed by Canon Australia, in partnership with National Geographic Channel.

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We had to know how close Jonathon has actually come to the incredible wildlife he takes photos of.

“My scariest moment was when we were in Antarctica. We got chased by a Hooker sea lion which is huge.

“We had been told to look out for these giant sea lions on Campbell island as it was breeding season and the males were very pumped up.

“We walked up and here comes one of these sea lions and stupidly, I said to Angie, ‘oh don’t worry, we’ll just get off the boardwalk down into the vegetation.’

“The worst thing that happens when you get into a situation like that, invariably, you turn to get out of the way and you fall over."

“And the vegetation is just like the ground in Lord of the Rings and it collapses when you try and walk through it. I step of and, blow me, this thing just follows me and at that point I fall backwards. I had this huge rucksack on, I fall backwards, legs up in the air, swearing.

“I had my feet in the air and I thought, it is definitely going to take my foot off. I had the tripod out there trying to fend it off.

“I seriously thought we were going to get hammered by this thing because they are huge. Africa hasn’t yet delivered that terrifying moment.”

But that doesn’t mean he is complacent.

“Yes, we have had dangerous times and been chased by elephants and, believe me probably the scariest thing to be chased by, hippos.”

Scott has an advantage after years of studying animals that he understands a lot of their behaviours - which is probably why he hasn’t had more incidents.

“If you are sensible and you know how animals behave, every animal has its flight distance. There is a distance that WE need to keep away from the animals.

“But when you are in a car the animals don’t see you as people. Which is why we get cats literally coming and lying in the shadow of our car. They would never come up to people on foot and just lie down at your feet.”

So what about capturing that perfect photo? Scott has a couple of key tips.

“To get decent pictures is not rocket science. The cameras today are so wonderful at producing great results despite how bad you might be as a photographer but I think there are a number of key points to remember.

“Firstly understand light. If you are interested in photography the most important thing is light.

Secondly, and I think this is terribly important because cameras are so good at doing things for you, you want to understand how the camera is translating light into exposure.”

Lastly he recommends reconsidering the composition of the photography itself.

“How about not having the horizon running through the middle of the picture? Is the sky more important than the foreground?”

So the answer is to pick something that you really want to draw attention to and focus on that.

Tales by Light Series 2 airs on Tuesday October 25 at 7.30pm on National Geographic.

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