Red Sea Shoot

After being home for less than 24 hours, I headed out to the Red Sea to shoot a film for Scuba Travel. We were blessed with some incredible wildlife encounters. Whilst I was shooting mainly video for the film, I did get time to take a few stills. Scroll through for an uber cute bottlenose dolphin calf, a scary looking giant moray eel and a coral reef classic, a pair of Rea Sea Anemonefish. Whilst anemonefish have bucket loads of attitude, getting a good shot is tough. I like to make them look big and set them in their environment by getting the camera low and shooting up with a wide-angle lens. I shot both stills and video on the new Canon G7X as a test for Cameras Underwater. It's incredible so stay tuned for an unbiased raving review.

In the meantime, click here for my trip report for Scuba Travel...

Yellowstone National Park

After attending Nat Geo's annual photography seminar, I headed to Yellowstone to visit Ronan Donovan. Ronan and a team of other photographers are currently shooting for the Yellowstone story due to be published in National Geographic Magazine in early 2016. Our focus for the week was wolves and although we didn't get close enough for photos, we had some great views. Here's Ronan in action. See below for a small gallery of images. 

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National Geographic Photography Seminar

This week I attended Nat Geo's annual Seminar at their HQ in Washington DC. It was both exciting and inspiring to hang out with the best in the business but also people in the same position as I am, attempting to rise up through the ranks. The highlight of the Seminar was to attend the 'works in progress' presentations- be sure to subscribe to the Magazine as the upcoming stories will blow your mind! The after party had a great little photo booth- It's not every day you get to do Blue Steel with Paul Nicklen. 

Falmouth University and School Talks

I promise this is the last audience picture I'll be posting for a while! After packing in 6 talks this week in 2 schools, a university and a camera club in Dorset, Cornwall and Berkshire it's time to give public speaking a rest for January! I've got an exciting few months ahead which will take me to Washington, Yellowstone National Park, the Red Sea and Holland. Wildlife only pictures and videos to come!

Here's the epic bunch of students studying the Marine and Natural History Photography course at Falmouth University...


Dorchester Camera Club Talk

On Monday night I gave a talk at Dorchester Camera Club. The audience was awesome- full marks for passion to the man at the back of the photo below! If a wildlife talk might be something you'd be interested in, please find out more by clicking this word.

Here's what the audience had to say...

'Bertie gave us a fantastic and varied presentation of wildlife images and videos shot in both the UK and overseas, and proved to be a captivating and entertaining  speaker. I can only admire his dedication, determination and perseverance, combined with charisma, patience, empathy with nature - and a great eye for the perfect shot! The best speaker we have had.'

'Bertie gave us one of the best presentations we've had in a long time. Terrific energy and a most engaging personality,  There was no shortage of top class wildlife images. A wonderful evening.'

'Bertie is easily one of the best speakers we’ve had at the club – informative, witty, thoroughly engaging and educational.'


DSLR Video Workshop

I had a great time on Sunday running a DSLR video workshop. We covered lots of the essentials including the best settings, useful pieces of equipment, mastering timelapse, storyboarding, sound and editing. If you're interested in learning more about video and getting the most from your DSLR, please get in touch via the About page. Here's what the participants had to say about the day...

David Morton - "Bertie's hands-on, practical approach really worked for me; I hate reading books or going online for info. Getting out in the field, making the most of the equipment we had, and learning at a comfortable pace has given me the confidence to get out and try more DSLR film-making."

Graeme Darling - "Bertie's enthusiasm, passion and skill was evident all day. I have learned more in one day from practical use of my equipment with feedback and advice shared from Bertie. I would recommend Bertie to anyone interested in producing film with DSLR equipment."

Here's David in action...

Red Sea Shoot

After being home from my previous shoot for less than 1 hour and 12 minutes, I headed out to the Red Sea.

The quality of wildlife images and films continues to get better and better. As a young gun attempting to break into the industry, the more strings I can add to my bow, the better. Since graduating in Zoology from the University of Bristol in July, I have been filming and assisting world renowned big cat photographer, Steve Winter, on his next assignment for National Geographic Magazine. Whilst this has been an incredible experience and I cannot wait to go on our next trip, I have been missing something. 

My family is obsessed with the sea and so from an early age I was weaned onto a childhood of watersports. After spending countless hours bobbing up and down on a surfboard off of the Cornish coast, I guess it was no surprise that I found my passion for marine wildlife. As big cats generally tend not to like water, my assisting job has so far not taken me near the sea. So to get an underwater wildlife photography fix, I went on a ‘liveaboard’ hosted by Scuba Travel.

I owe a huge thank you to Scuba Travel for an incredible week and to Cameras Underwater, the biggest underwater photography retailer in the UK, for their continued support.

Holland Eagle Shoot

This week I spent a lot of time in a very cramped cold hide. Luckily I found that the RED's hard drive gets really hot when filming using pre-record. This function continuously records and then deletes a set time period (usually 3-10 seconds). When you hit the record button, it saves the previous time period- a very useful feature when you are waiting for something to happen, in my case, an eagle taking flight. Additionally, because the hard drive is working so hard, the heat from it makes a great little cheek warmer (scroll down)! 

Taunton Camera Club Talk

I had a great time talking to Taunton Camera Club last night! The audience was awesome and very politely laughed at all my crap jokes. If a wildlife talk might be something you'd be interested in, please find out more here...

http://www.bertiegregory.com/talks/

Timings and content are very flexible. My experience ranges 5 to 95-year-olds, 5 to 700 seater audiences, small classrooms to the Royal Geographic Society.

Not convinced? Here's a few reviews from the Taunton crowd...

'A wonderful combination of real Natural History knowledge, great presentational and storytelling skills and super images. I had no idea what to expect but I was knocked over!'

'What an inspiration to see someone so young grasping life by the scruff of the neck and living it. One of the best evenings we have had since joining the club.'

'Probably the most entertaining evening we have had at TCC, thoroghly enjoyable, a mix of youth, enthusiasm, knowledge and relaxed presentation.'

'Young Bertie was great; his personality and ambition were clearly behind his achievements. However, I would advise him to desist from admitting to “squealing like a girl".'

'Bertie was absolutely superb. Wonderful images and an entertaining presentation, and, only 21. I'm sure that he has a fantastic future ahead of him.'

'I really enjoyed listening to Bertie Gregory.  We have had some good speakers at Taunton Camera Club but this was a real highlight.'

Leopard Video Featured on the Nat Geo Instagram

A leopard video I shot over the summer is currently on the National Geographic Instagram feed. The video has just hit 155,000 likes! Scroll down this page to see it.

It's a very short clip from an amazing encounter we had with a female leopard feeding on a bushbuck (a medium sized antelope). The leopard was lit with a spotlight from another vehicle providing a nice orangey light against the electric blue sky.

My boss, Steve Winter, got some amazing stills so look out for them in his worldwide leopard story, published next year in National Geographic Magazine.

Coastal Kestrel

It was great to get out with the camera today after a long time behind the computer. I was treated to an amazing bird's-eye view of a male coastal kestrel as it hunted for rodents on the cliffside below me. Most of the time all I saw was its backside, but every now and again it looked over its shoulder up at me. Very special to see a classic farmland bird hunting over the waves!


Up close and personal with Great Crested Grebes

I’ve always had a fascination with great crested grebes; they are good looking, they have some amazing behaviours and their chicks are, in my mind, the cutest things on the planet. I have never really spent a significant period of time with this species. I recently travelled to Holland to set this straight. 

Great crested grebes are common throughout both Britain and Holland, so there are plenty of images of them. I wanted my images to be different. I decided that if I was going to have any chance at achieving this aim, I had to get both very low and very close.

I had to travel to Holland to photograph them as in order to get close and low, I had to get in the water. Obtaining permission to do this in the UK is difficult whereas, in Holland I had a location where it was acceptable. At first the grebes were tentative but soon became habituated to my presence. Each day I edged closer and this was the result...   Click to scroll