Ryan Atkinson - Director of Photography

Name: Ryan Atkinson - Director of Photography
Address: South, Cardiff, GB
Telephone: +447849812500

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Ryan Atkinson - Director of Photography

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05/07/2024

A few years ago in a time before covid, I had the privilege of taking over the reins from the inimitable Cody Tuttle, and finishing the work he began as one of the directors of photography of a groundbreaking documentary. The Last Glaciers explores the devastation of our global ice-caps and glaciers through the lens of extreme sports, unpacking the science behind the terrifying loss of huge water stores around the world and the impact on vulnerable communities.
The full cut has now been released and can be purchased at the link below. I’d love for you to watch, like, share and engage. 20% of all profits go to Protect Our Winters, and for full disclosure I will earn a small commission from any purchase through this link.
I really hope you enjoy it, it’s been a labour of love for everyone involved; and a harrowing and eye opening experience.

https://m.olyn.com/7739caa31399991520108a344790253921e995.

16/01/2021

www.ryanatkinson.tv

Christmas Island was a joy to work on. The privilege to have such significant and almost entirely isolated access to the beach where we filmed this fantastic spectacle was not lost on me. Though neither was it necessarily a choice.

We wanted to film these crabs do their thing under the moonlight, but any way we looked at it, some artificial lighting was necessary. However it was important to us that the lighting be minimal, controlled and as un-intrusive as possible. Though some of the more accessible beaches on the island make for great spots, we wanted to ensure we were far away from tourists both so as to not spoil their experience and so we didn’t have to contend with flash photography.

We found a tiny little beach on a far off coast line of the island, accessible down a narrow and easy to miss track, with a scramble through a tiny cave to get there.

As an interesting side note, this cave was a graveyard for poor little red crabs who’d succumbed to the ambush of their larger cousins - the infamous predatory ‘robber crab’.

We couldn’t leave equipment there unattended, but the road to access the beach was shut in the evening to protect migrating crabs. This meant every day we would travel down late afternoon and carry all of our equipment through this cave and onto the beach. We’d then attempt to sleep (all 4 of us!!) in the sweltering heat of our hire car for a few hours, before making our way down for the night of filming… packing up in the early hours of the morning before returning to do the same thing again the following day.

Neither myself or Sophie Darlington are short. Add to that two other members of crew - Braydon Maloney and Amy Thompson - various pieces of equipment, and a single tiny Toyata Rav 4 - we spent a great many sweaty uncomfortable nights waiting for our moment, being lulled to sleep by the tiny pitter patter of claws on the forest floor, and the occasional overly inquisitive robber crab in the footwell.

Catch this sequence tomorrow (Sunday) on at 8pm

10/01/2021

www.ryanatkinson.tv

This is Scarlett. When we first met, we weren’t friends. Scarlett was not a fan of my snowmobile and I soon found out that an Arctic Fox in winter has two modes - hide below ground and sleep, or sprint everywhere.

Unable to follow her on skidoo for fear of scaring her, and without my touring skis to keep up by foot, I resigned to spending night after stormy night in a hide by her den.

It was a huge effort - the storms were so bad and so regular that I couldn’t leave the hide up when I wasn’t in it. That meant heading out to the same spot every afternoon. Building up the hide. Clambering inside and hoping the weather held until the following morning. It rarely did.

Rewarded with the briefest of glimpses as Scarlett would rush in and out of the den whilst I waited bent double against the sides of the hide buckling against the wind, the effort paid off. Over time, Scarlett learned she could trust me, and after a couple of weeks of this we were able to dispatch with the hide altogether, allowing us a 360 degree view of the frozen lake so we could see her approaching and heading out to hunt. Gradually she became more comfortable above ground and I was rewarded with a couple of sessions filming within metres of her and she happily maintained the entrance of her of her den against the heavy snow drifts.

Tune in to at 8pm tonight to learn more about the incredible lives of Canada’s Arctic Foxes.

08/01/2021

www.ryanatkinson.tv

2 years ago, I had the pleasure of spending over 5 weeks at a remote Canadian research station in the high arctic. After 4 days of travel to get there, I was greeted by a skeleton team of weather beat researches when our tiny ski plane landed on the frozen lake.

I was there as the cameraman on an advance team to film Arctic Foxes for as they transition from winter into spring - losing their beautiful white coats as they prepare for a brief but frenzied summer of feeding.

Heading out into the frozen wilds every day with field guide extraordinaire Alain Lusignan, we battled sub zero temperatures, gale force winds, snow storms and overly curious bears. We scoped out over 20 different fox dens and hiked and skidoo’d hundreds of kilometres across the wilderness before settling on two main families.

Getting our equipment smoothed out and operational was a constant challenge in the freezing weather. Alongside classic long lens filming, we were using a brand new and bespoke remote motion controlled tracking rig to get close to the fox Cubs as they emerged from their dens. In the 5 and a half weeks I was there, two were lost to weather so horrific we couldn’t even leave the tiny cabin to film. In fact, I was only meant to be there for 4 weeks but a storm so bad blew in that our helicopter couldn’t reach us for the crew changeover.

It was with mixed feelings that at the half way point of the shoot I handed over to assistant producer and cameramen and

I’d become very fond of the stars of the show, mother Scarlett and father Vinnie, in the countless arctic nights I’d spend watching and filming them. Is it too much to say we’d become friends? We’d certainly developed a mutual trust that allowed me to push the boundaries of close up filming with such a reclusive animal. Yet Karrak Lake is not an easy place to work and I was glad to be handing over to the second crew just as the snowmobiles were packed away and mosquito season began.

Tune in to at 8pm this Sunday to learn more about the incredible lives of Canadas Arctic Foxes.

28/03/2020

www.ryanatkinson.tv
REDACTED - Can you guess what I was filming?
On location for the next big BBC big D series, hitting your screens sometime after all this current rubbish is over.

17/03/2020

www.ryanatkinson.tv
“In the face of all the present turmoil and unrest and unhappiness.. what can a photographer, a writer, a curator do? . . . To make people aware of the eternal things, to show the relationship of a man to nature, to make clear the importance of our heritage, is a task that no one should consider insignificant . . . these are days when eloquent statements are needed.” - Letter from Beaumont Newhall to , May 3 1954. Brought to my attention by the inimitable .

The past 4 days have been a shocker for the filmmaking industry, and have seen many if not all productions cancelled, suspended and delayed. We wildlife filmmakers might be going quiet for a while, but we’re still here and always ready to share the incredible wonder of our natural world. In the spirit of that, if you see a photograph here or on my website that you love and makes you smile, you can buy a print from me at cost price only. No profit, no markup. Just spreading the love and wonder of the world in all its decadent glory.

DM me. Love everyone. Hang in there.

19/10/2019

www.ryanatkinson.tv
The non-glamorous parts of the job rarely seen. On expedition, it isn’t all climbing mountains, striking poses, and shooting in awesome light. There’s also a tonne of waiting, planning, maintaining and reviewing. I’m sat here in our awesome kit tent where I would usually spend a few hours every evening backing up footage, maintaining kit, and most importantly reviewing rushes. My mentor Will Edwards always instilled in me the value of watching every single frame you’d shot at the end of the day, and it’s stuck with me. No matter how tired I am and how much I’m longing for bed, I’ll always scrub through the days rushes to spot holes in the story, technical issues, and make plans for how to do better when I wake up in the morning. I genuinely think this is one of the most important aspects of the job of a DoP, and yet it’s the bit that never gets shown. So here I am - exhausted, unshowered, desperate to eat and sleep, but making sure we can get to it in the morning and shoot the next day always better than the last.
📷:

30/09/2019

www.ryanatkinson.tv
So excited to be heading back to the mountains tomorrow with team. We’re going climbing in the Himalaya, the last of the great ranges for me to tick, to meet with some scientists doing incredible work and study the shocking consequences of the Climate Crisis on the glaciers, the landscape, and the people living on the front line. I’m both excited and hesitant. Whilst a huge expedition like this is always an incredible experience, I’m all too aware that what we’ll find is probably going to be deeply distressing and alarming. That, however, is exactly why it’s so important that we go. With the huge amount of public exposure and discourse around the climate crisis at the moment, it’s more important than ever to continue this momentum and keep bringing the issues to the forefront of the public conscious.
Watch this space for dispatches from the field.

16/06/2019

www.ryanatkinson.tv
One of the few days I saw the sun in the past month. Seems I brought it home with me though - as I sit in our new house in London sipping a coffee and enjoying the summer morning light. Bittersweet emotions to leave the magical arctic behind and handover a shoot to others to finish what I started, but it’s oh so good to be home.

05/03/2019

www.ryanatkinson.tv
There’s something about filming directly in the middle of a fumarole plume that sharpens the sense. It might be related to the sulphuric acid in your throat, or the slow melting of the cameras insides, but I always find I do my best and quickest work in this situation.

20/02/2019

www.ryanatkinson.tv

Taken on assignment for in Tanzania. The Abyssinian Ground Hornbill is a remarkable bird and one of only two species of ground hornbill, both of which are found in Africa. They can often be found on the Savannahs of East Africa where, during the dry season, they’re easy to spot on their favourite lookouts of dirt and old termite mounds, standing out against the dusty landscape with their striking and colourful plumage. Interestingly, despite being called a ground hornbill, they still nest in trees.

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+447849812500

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http://www.ryanatkinson.tv/

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