by It was David Attenborough who inspired the award-winning photographer Sue Flood’s love for wildlife reports, so it was fitting that she worked with him for more than ten years. Those documentaries which Sue remembers “with fondness” when she watched them as a child with her family in north Wales were her first exposure to the countryside and where her love of the region came from.
“His dream come true” after studying zoology at Durham University, he got a job at the BBC Natural History Unit, where he worked on the award-winning series Blue Planet.
“I had the opportunity to film on location as part of my work as a researcher and then Assistant Producer and I had the opportunity to work on the Frozen Seas episode of Blue Planet. A dream come true!,” says Sue as she walks back. from his 11th visit to the North Pole.
Her work as a photographer takes her all over the world but she has a special love for wildlife and the frozen beauty of the Polar regions and is one of the few female professional photographers who returns time and time again to the most difficult and demanding places in the world.
But it was his work with Sir David that has become a great color and has kind words for the national treasure that is set to return to the television screens again to show the final series on the third planet Earth. The third and final installment of the award-winning BBC show will air later this year, with millions of fans expected to tune in. More details here.
“As a child, my hero was David Attenborough,” says Sue, who lives in Gwynedd on the edge of Snowdonia National Park. “He still is! He inspired me to pursue a career as a filmmaker and wildlife photographer and working with him for 11 years on this series was truly a dream come true.
“She’s more likable in real life than she is on TV and has inspired millions of people. I’m so grateful to her for lighting the spark that led me to an incredibly fulfilling career.”
His first trip to the tropics was in 1997 when he went to the Canadian Arctic for the first time and described it as “magical”.
“I saw my first polar bear, and I will never forget that feeling. Also, my first walrus, beluga whales, narwhals and bowhead whales. Amazing birds like king eiders. I was hooked,” he says.
And it is the “wilderness that is beautiful” that always scares him. “There is no place like them here,” he says. “They are very different – the Arctic and ocean, surrounded by land, and the Antarctic is a continent surrounded by the Southern Ocean.
“The Arctic has land mammals – especially the Polar Bear and, of course, the Antarctic has penguins and other amazing wildlife. It’s the wildlife, the wilderness and the amazing places and the scale of these regions that attract me again and again. It’s not the same from one day to the next in another.”
But it’s not without its dangers, as Sue recalls one time when she had to be rescued by helicopter after encountering a bear while filming Blue Planet.
He explains: “I’ve definitely had experiences in colder regions that made my heart beat faster! During the filming of Blue Planet, my ex-partner Doug and I drifted on a small ice floe with our Inuit guide when we got lost at night while sleeping.
“We were lucky enough to be rescued by helicopter several hours later, after Doug suggested on the ice floe “if we’re rescued, will you marry me?”! We also had a very curious bear come very close when we were filming and they were lucky enough to have the wind blowing towards the bear so they were able to use pepper spray to stop it. We were too close for comfort. , of course.”
In 2021, he was invited to join an expedition to the Arctic aboard the rare hybrid-electric icebreaker, Le Commandant Charcot, named after the famous French explorer and owned by the French cruise company Ponant. The ship was the first French ship to reach the North Pole.
He says: “I was invited by Ponant to be their first Photo Ambassador and now I work extensively on this beautiful ship, visiting the Arctic and Antarctic and helping people with their photography. This current trip was to visit the North Pole – 90 degrees North and it was my eleventh trip to the goal!”
He will return to Wales briefly next month before traveling to the warmer parts of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea on another Ponant ship, before heading back South again to the Antarctic. You will see many hours of daylight, because of the 24-hour daylight at high altitudes, there are many and next year you will go to the Ross Sea and Captain Scott’s cabin.
Sue loves her job and has advice for anyone interested in it as a career. “Do it!” he says. “Photography is a wonderful way to erase and document your life, or to capture special moments – whether it’s wildlife, family, landscapes or street photography. You don’t need a big, expensive camera. iPhones are small kit!”
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