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IMAGES Payne-Gill used special techniques to capture animals and landscapes at night, including utilising superfast long lenses
this way before. He recalls: “I had this image of owls flying with the stars behind. I caught them hovering and then hunting; diving into the grass to catch food. It was such a treat and it turned out better than I ever could have expected, since we also had shooting stars travelling through the sky at the same time.” Each episode of Winterwatch included a two-minute interlude where the narrative was hushed and only images of the natural world in the UK were displayed. “We called it ‘mindful TV’ and – as a cameraman – it was really great to do on my own; to provide a visual narrative with no sound, enabling the viewers to stop, switch off and relax,” explains Payne-Gill. One such sequence of mindful TV involved red stags grazing in the moonlight beneath the shooting stars and celestial satellites dancing above. He recalls: “It was important to me that I make a connection between the landscape on Earth and deep space, because it’s really not that far away. Just because you can’t see what’s out there with the naked eye, doesn’t mean that nothing exists. I found a great line-up between the Orion Nebula, which is a region that’s 1340 light years away, and from that, I was able to do a focus pull to a barn owl on a post. It’s really quite jaw-dropping actually. “I realise these short segments of ambient TV wouldn’t have really worked 20 years ago, since nobody had the time to just stop. But now, we’re forced to and I think that can be a good thing.”
14mm to 135mm, as well as the modified Canon ME20F-SH camera. “I had always wanted to use an ME20F-SH, but I needed a project that would allow me to get hands-on with it in testing. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, but combined with Sigma’s super-speed lenses, it’s an incredible tool.” A LABOUR OF LOVE The techniques that Payne-Gill learnt and applied to the Earth at Night in Color – such as using superfast long lenses to capture landscapes and objects that are many light
years away while using only the moonlight to light his frames – were later passed on to other projects of his, including BBC Two’s Winterwatch . Since Winterwatch had a lower production value, much of what Payne-Gill captured was a labour of love, working outside of the budgeted production days. He explains: “There were only two or three days in the budget, but my colleagues and I spent two weeks working around the weather and the moons to light the scenes. I just wanted to keep going until I filmed something beautiful, because before I know it, I’ll be off travelling again. It’s such a rarity that I get to shoot at home.” What Payne-Gill caught on camera was indeed beautiful, but it was also groundbreaking, since he was able to show owls hunting at night in colour and off speed, which had never been achieved in
“It was really great to provide a visual narrative with no sound, enabling the viewers to stop, switch off and relax”
CANON ME20F-SH
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