Martin Hartley Photography

07/22/2026

I’ve been in some strange places in my career but this one is certainly one of the most unique situations I’ve ever been in.

Looking for shipwrecks from two of my polar heroes with the and .ocean has been an immense pleasure and honour.

Thank you to for being my official expedition bag partner onboard, especially for protecting my instruments, without which the elements would have gotten the better of us all.

Looking forward to sharing more from this adventure including a deep dive in Alvin shortly.

04/23/2026

04/22/2026

It is good to see the crew of the Atemis II mission is safely back on Earth, and while it was a successful bloody expensive photo shoot of a sort, and a small step to putting humans back on the surface, to establish a permanent base. I do have to ask the question, why, do we need a moon base and why now? Here on earth we have soil under our feet bursting with life and water that makes thing want to grow in it. We have Oceans and an atmosphere acting as a blanket a habitable temperature we can live under. Every single thing we need to survive here on earth is free, every single thing we need is here already. Everything we put in our bellies has grown in the soil here and everything but everything, everything every-thing we own has been made from elements found here on earth. Everything inside your fridge—the box itself, the shelves, the plastic-covered cable, the copper wiring inside the wall—it all came from the soil. Every pixel on the screen you are reading this on was once part of the Earth. The moon is a place that has never held life. The exosphere around the moon is too skimpy to hold the Suns energy so the temperature around is equator can reach 121°C and after nightfall drops to a chilly minus 133°C. In deep craters near the Moon’s poles, are even colder -246°C. Not a great place to go for any kind of camping holiday, any where. The surface is pelted with Micrometeroids, oddly known as ‘impact gardening’. The thin fabric of a tent a wont quite cut the mustard in keeping you safe from the elements outside. [CONTINUED IN FIRST COMMENT... 🌑👇]

04/10/2026

Our calendars lie to us, as we write things in them. As we write things in the days ahead , the weeks ahead the months ahead and on occasion even years ahead. And yesterday as I looked at my calendar and dropped quite a few tears on the floor, not only tears of sadness, but also of regret.

This portrait of a good friend and neighbour, Doug Allan, I took in his Bristol home he shared with his wife Sue Flood, exactly 18 years ago today at 08:25. Today it suddenly feels all those years have quickly been blown away in the wind.

Doug lived a just few doors away, often we would bump into each other on the street, and he’d often say “ let’s go for a pint” and sometimes we did, and all of the occasions I said ‘not today’ are all the ones I so wish I had said “yes” to. Doug unexpectedly ‘left earth’ while away in the Nepalese Himalayas with his friend a few days ago, never to return home again. He did leave his mark here on earth, through his wildlife camera lens Doug has left a legacy of a greater understanding of our natural world. His filming in the Polar World earned him two Polar Medals, to sit alongside his eight Emmy’s and five BAFTA’s ( one he used as a doorstop :)

He will be missed but his vision has left us all a lot wiser through his filming work on Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Frozen Planet, Ocean Giants, and Operation Iceberg, and through all of this we can continue to see the world through his eyes.

Next time your friend asks you to join them for a cheeky beer say yes, as the calendar may be blank next time…