BBC has always set the bar high when it comes to wildlife footage, and their recent release of “Highlands-Scotland’s Wild Heart”, is nothing short of spectacular. Narrated by Ewan McGregor, BBC documents the wildlife of the Scottish Highlands like never before.
One of our favorite scenes comes from the “Spring-Seasons of Extreme” segment and showcases a pouncing Osprey Battling a trout in 800 frames per second. Cameraman Lindsay McCrae spent a solid week trying to accomplish this one shot.
In an excerpt from the BBC website Lindsay was quoted talking about the difficulty of this project:
“You have to be well hidden because the Ospreys won’t tolerate you being there… They want to know they are safe to land in the water.
But it meant I couldn’t have an overhead view to check out the sky and had no idea if there was an osprey overhead. I had an assistant out on a hill watching through binoculars who was on the radio saying: ‘There’s one in the air. Get ready.'”
“You really don’t know where the bird is going to hit the water because you can’t see the fish.”
“You just have to frame an image on a bit of water and hope the Osprey hits that particular bit… And because of the way the camera operates you just have to make a judgment call as to whether it is in the bag, as it takes time for the camera to process. And in that time, if you have missed it, the bird could dive again.
“There are big risks involved and it takes a lot of persistence. But if you get it right, you get spectacular footage.”
To watch the full-length episode from BBC follow this link to their website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03tmgvv
You can also follow Lindsay on Instagram @badgerboy05
