Thursday, September 2, 2010

Adrian Warren is the British photographer whose work inspired the hit Disney Pixar film ‘UP’.

He’s also a biologist, commercial pilot, film-maker and author who has worked worldwide, as cameraman and producer for the BBC Natural History Unit. On top of all that, he also directed the first natural history film in IMAX giant screen format.

How did you get into photography?

I bought my first camera, a small box camera, when I was about five-years-old and by the time I was nine I had saved up enough to upgrade to a more interesting camera. I never went to photography school, I just learned by making mistakes.

By the age of 11 I upgraded again and teamed up with a classmate and we helped each other out through the learning process, experimenting with close-up photography of animals and using flash. Then, in my teens I started trying to sell my pictures to magazines and put my growing archive with a
photographic agent.

I didn’t get into cinematography until I as in my twenties, but then it was a very steep learning curve. I always remember being amazed when the film came back from the processing lab with images on it, in focus and correctly exposed! I was soon shooting for broadcast TV.
 
How did your parents react when you said you were going to become a globe trotting documentary maker?

They were very sceptical at first.

Basically it was up to me to prove myself but when I was accepted for a career in the BBC, they were very pleased and of course very supportive.
What have been the best and worst moments of your career?

Seeing and filming the display of a bird of paradise, Wallace’s Standardwing, that had been believed to be extinct for over 60 years. We found it in the Moluccas, a group of islands close to New Guinea.

After we found it, we built tree platforms with hides and for a couple of weeks we spent many hours patiently waiting for the birds to come. We had not expected it to display but it did right in front of us.

My worst experience was being badly burned in a gasoline accident in a remote region of South America. The nearest hospital was hundreds of kilometres, and several days’ travel away and the pain was excruciating.

Where is your favourite place in the world?
The tepuis of Venezuela are perhaps the most dramatic in terms of scenery and for the fact that much of the region is still unexplored.

But I also like Africa for the deep, ancestral memory that it holds for all of us, for its big animals on arid plains and for the mountain gorillas, with whom I have spent so many months studying and filming.

I think my worst experience from the wildlife filming point of view was in China where I went to film wild giant pandas in the Qinling Mountains and found the attitude of the Chinese towards their wildlife and the environment very disappointing.

You’ve been to Venezuela very many times, what’s so special about the country for you?

Venezuela is a very beautiful country.

In terms of landscapes it is rich and diverse. It has coral islands in the Caribbean, the Andes Mountains with permanent snow-capped peaks, desert sand dunes on the Peninsula Paraguana, the Orinoco floodplains (or ‘llanos’) that are very rich in wildlife, the Orinoco Delta with the largest stretch of mangrove in the world, the Amazon forests of the southwest and the Gran Sabana with its ‘Lost World’ tepuis (flat topped mountains) in the southeast. It’s a completely unique region and at the tepuis there is always something new to explore and discover.

After so much travelling do you think you’ll ever reach the day when you’re content to sit in a rocking chair in one town for the rest of your days?

Home is in Somerset, England where I live with my wife Dae and four-year-old son Luke in an old farmhouse.

The British summer can be beautiful and even if the winter is rather bleak, we embrace the change of seasons that brings a variety and freshness to the landscape. However, I hope that I never tire of travelling to new and exciting places and that I retain the physical ability to do so. To be confined to a rocking chair would be to feel like a caged animal.

Do you enjoy Pixar films? What was your reaction when you heard they wanted to work with you?

I am a big fan of all the Pixar movies - they have a unique identity and style - the stories are so original and the characters so endearing. I also admire the fact that Pixar goes that extra mile to make everything as near perfect as can be. I was delighted and excited when I heard they wanted to work with me - especially to learn that the photography I had done had been the inspiration for their features.

Will you be working with Pixar again?

If so, as we’re in Dubai, are there any plans to make a film about the desert?

I’d love to, and if it happens to be in the desert then Dubai will be high on the list!