Meet The Pro: Wildlife Photographer Chris Fallows

In this episode, world-renowned fine art wildlife photographer and conservationist Chris Fallows joins us from Cape Town to talk about the images (and moments) that shaped his career—from the legendary Air Jaws great white sharks of Seal Island to a moody humpback whale fluke years in the making, and a more painterly elephant scene from Mana Pools. 

We also chat about how behaviour at Seal Island was discovered, what’s changed in False Bay, and why Chris is now using his print sales to help buy and protect land for wildlife corridors. Plus, Chris shares a guest image he loves by Nick Brandt and reveals where he’d place his “humble dwelling” for a lifetime of photography. 

Gallery of Chris’ images:
https://pangolin.smugmug.com/SmugMug-Website/Pangolin-Podcast/Chris-Fallows/Meet-the-Pro-Chris-Fallows

Connect with Chris Fallows:
Website: https://www.chrisfallows.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chrisfallows/

GUEST IMAGE by Nick Brandt https://www.nickbrandt.com/ https://www.instagram.com/nickbrandt/ 

00:00 Welcome to the Pangolin Podcast
01:13 Meet Chris Fallows
05:38 1st Image - The Final Act 
07:01 Discovering Air Jaws
17:08 2nd Image - Leviathan
23:33 3rd Image - Jumping Shark
26:03 Planet Earth and Air Jaws
30:08 Dubai Airport Conservation Exhibit
31:33 4th Image - The Fig & Elephant
37:43 Guest Photo - Elephant Exodus
41:11 Dream Home
42:42 Final Thanks

The Pangolin Podcast was produced and edited by Bella Falk: https://www.passportandpixels.com 

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Transcript

Toby Jermyn: Hello and welcome to another brand new episode of the Pangolin Podcast. I'm your host, Toby Jermyn. Thank you very much for joining me. 

In each episode, I've invited a professional wildlife photographer to imagine themselves in a remote location. And along with their camera gear, they're allowed to bring five photographs to hang on the wall of their humble dwelling. Now, four of these must be their own, and the final image is one they admired by another photographer. 

If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see the images as we talk, but for audio listeners on other platforms, there is a link in the description to a gallery.

My guest today is a world-renowned fine art wildlife photographer, conservationist, and Canon Ambassador. He is best known for his groundbreaking "Air Jaws" images of great white sharks breaching off South Africa's Seal Island. For nearly three decades, he has worked in some of the remotest corners of the planet, crafting powerful images that sit at the intersection of art, natural history, and conservation.

His photographs have fronted leading publications such as National Geographic and the New York Times, and his work has featured in major documentary series for Discovery Channel's Shark Week and BBC's Planet Earth, helping to reshape how the world sees apex predators and the wild places they depend on. He is, of course, Mr. Chris Fallows.

Chris, welcome to the podcast.

Chris Fallows: Hello, Toby. Lovely to be here and hello to all the Pangolin listeners and viewers.

Toby Jermyn: Well, thank you very much! In fact, I think you're the first person to have greeted the audience. There we go—we're on episode 26 and you're the first person. So, there we go, thank you very much indeed. On behalf of all the listeners, thank you. So Chris, where do we find you today? Where are you in the world?

Chris Fallows: Well, today I'm in beautiful, sunny Cape Town. It's actually 31 degrees outside and it's one of those rare days we don't have wind. So, I'm savouring every minute.

Toby Jermyn: So, you don't have wind, it is 31 degrees, and yet you're now stuck indoors chatting to me when you could be out on the water!

Chris Fallows: I was going to say that, but yeah, I'm very happy to have this opportunity. So, thank you.

Toby Jermyn: It's an absolute pleasure. It's nice to see you, at least virtually. I think our paths very rarely cross these days. In fact, I haven't seen you in ages. So, it's lovely to see you, albeit virtually.

Chris Fallows: Likewise, Toby. Great to connect again, my friend.

Toby Jermyn: Now, you've got a massive library of images. You've been photographing for 30 years. How easy or difficult was it to choose the four images for this show from your extensive library?

Chris Fallows: You know, I'm sure as any photographer who's been around for a little bit will tell you, it's very difficult. But the reality is you only take a handful of images in your life that really, I guess, are elevated above the rest. I've obviously tried to go into that pool, and then also tried to pick out a few images that have meaning. A lot of what I'm doing nowadays is trying to use my images to inspire people and create works of art that do have meaning. So, I kind of dug into those pools and selected from that archive.

Toby Jermyn: And whilst we're on that matter as well—because you are not only highlighting the species that you photograph, but you really are putting your money where your mouth is. A little birdie tells me you're in the process of purchasing a piece of land in Namibia to preserve it in perpetuity. Tell us about that. What's going on?

Chris Fallows: Yeah. So, Toby, that's a very big part of what we're doing now. You know, I very humbly say that I've been gifted the most incredible life. I've been pretty much everywhere that I've ever wanted to go to see wildlife on the planet. And so many of the greatest highs in my life have been given to me by wildlife.

My wife, Monique, and I don't have kids, so our way of giving back is to try and give back to those creatures that have given us so much. So, we're taking the funds that we accrue through the sale of our fine art and we're buying land in southern Namibia. We've also bought on the southern Cape Coast and, essentially, we're trying to add that to vast conservation corridors and create environments that allow the free movement of wildlife. So yeah, that's our vision with what we're trying to do now—trying to inspire people through our work, but then also directly on a personal level, use the funds to buy land, rehabilitate it, and hopefully ultimately rewild it.

Toby Jermyn: That is really, really commendable. I've always thought that there should be a stock image library of wildlife images where a percentage goes to the photographer and a percentage goes to the species that the photograph is of. Maybe that's something we should look at as well.

Chris Fallows: I love that, and I think in reality, all of us who've shot for many years... I think a percentage should probably go to the guides that so often put us in the right places at the right times. But undoubtedly, the real stars of the show are in front of the lens. And for me, yeah, it's a very small way in which I can give back.

Toby Jermyn: Well, there we go. You heard it here first on the Pangolin Podcast! Okay, Chris, let's get on to your first image. Please tell the listeners and viewers about this image.

Chris Fallows: So, this is a photograph called The Final Act, and it was taken at Seal Island in 2016. It is of one of the iconic flying great white sharks that was breaching there. It's called The Final Act because it was really the last significant photograph I ever took of those incredible sharks after working with them for 24 years since we first discovered them there.

I spent over three and a half thousand days either on or in the water with them, and that was the last time I ever had the privilege of taking an image of them. It represents something that was very special. You know, those sharks became world-famous. They were in hundreds and hundreds of documentaries, and at its peak, more than 100,000 people were coming to South Africa every year with their primary purpose to see great white sharks. So, the Seal Island great white sharks will always occupy a very, very special place in my heart. They are a large reason why I've been able to go and see and do the things I have in my life. And this image for me is a very powerful one in that it represents the end of what was an iconic era at Seal Island—hence the name The Final Act, as though that animal was dancing on this stage-lit, beautiful environment for the last time.

Toby Jermyn: It's an absolutely stunning image. But before we talk about how the environment changed and why you don't get to photograph these sharks anymore, let's go back to you firstly documenting and discovering this behaviour. When did that happen? Let's go back to the beginning.

Chris Fallows: Yeah, so that was 1996. I'd worked at a place called Dyer Island, which is close to Gansbaai—and for those who don't know from around the world, that's about two hours east of Cape Town. I had worked there for four years. Then, as a guy in my very early 20s, I'd saved up a few pennies, enough to buy an 11-foot-long rubber inflatable boat—which I wouldn't suggest is probably the best craft for looking for an animal with 250 very sharp teeth!

But a friend and I headed out on an August morning in 1996. We had recently been working on one of Sir David Attenborough's documentaries at Dyer Island where he had seen a guy at the Farallon Islands of San Francisco cast a surfboard off the rocks, and when he reeled the surfboard in, a great white shark came flying out of the water after it. It gave me the idea to try pulling a little, roughly seal-shaped, seal-sized decoy and seeing if the great whites would show interest.

We went out with the rubber inflatable boat. I'll never forget, my friends at the time wouldn't allow me to take bait, as is the normal way of attracting great white sharks. So, I said, "Well, let me put out a little decoy." And they asked me what the chances of getting a breach or seeing a shark were. I said, "Well, probably less than 10%."

Anyhow, to cut a very long story short, I paid out the line with the little life jacket attached. And not 30 seconds after I put it out, this small great white shark came flying out of the water and we stared in disbelief. Great white sharks were cool, but a flying great white shark kind of took that to a whole new level. The great white then went back into the water and spat out the decoy. By that stage, my friends were pretty much in pandemonium wanting to head back to the shore. But seeing as I had the tiller and I was in control of the vessel, I said, "Guys, let's give it one more chance."

We tied on the decoy again and towed it for probably about half an hour with nothing. I thought, well, was that the greatest one-off in history? And then all of a sudden, a proper great white came flying out the water, around about 12 feet in length—so about three and a half, four meters. It was incredible. You know, not only had we discovered that there were white sharks at Seal Island in significant numbers, but they showcased a truly phenomenal behaviour. The penny dropped for us that this was something pretty special. So, that was really the start of everything and yeah, it opened up an incredible, many-decades-long career of working with these iconic animals where we had day after day of once-in-a-lifetime experiences. It was such an incredible privilege.

Toby Jermyn: It's extraordinary. It only really happens though—correct me if I'm wrong—because the topography of the ocean floor has changed the behaviour of the sharks. Is that correct? Because it comes very shallow, very deep, and then comes up towards the island where the seals are.

Chris Fallows: 100%, Toby. So, there were four factors that came together in terms of being a unique environment. The one, as you correctly identified, was the bathymetry—the depth surrounding Seal Island. The seals would concentrate in an area called the Launch Pad at the southern terminus of Seal Island, and then immediately as they left that, they'd go over a deep water area. So, it gave the sharks plenty of chance to remain camouflaged and they would use an ambush-like attack.

Then you had the right size prey. At Seal Island, they were attacking young-of-the-year Cape fur seals that were of a size that the sharks could hit at full speed, which would take them clear of the water. Whereas in other locations where they're feeding on, let's say, northern elephant seals at the Farallon Islands, they used a different type of attack where they essentially try and bite off the hind flippers of the seal and let it bleed out before they would come in and attack it. It certainly wouldn't have paid dividends to hit an animal that weighs more than you at super high speed.

So, you had the right size prey, the right bathymetry, and then you had the right size shark. The sharks at Seal Island were typically teenage, sub-adult, and young adult sharks. They were in the prime of their lives, highly athletic animals capable of these tremendous bursts of speed.

And then the final ingredient was that you used to have very high numbers of great whites, so it was also a very competitive environment. All of those factors came together at Seal Island like nowhere else on earth.

Toby Jermyn: Now, you then turned this into, let's say, a business opportunity as well, and started operating shark watching tours and shark diving tours. That was a significant amount of your life doing that, wasn't it?

Chris Fallows: Yeah. So, first and foremost, I'm a very passionate naturalist and I have a tremendous love of animals. So, when we discovered these incredible sharks, there was never a financial motivation at the time. Right off the bat, my partner at the time, Rob Lawrence, and I really struggled because we were caught in a conundrum of being essentially penniless guys in our early 20s and having discovered this incredible wildlife phenomenon that we knew would attract the world's attention. I mean, great white sharks are front-page stories.

For a long time, we used to try and attract clientele, but we would vet our clients very carefully. This was in the days prior to social media, so they would have to be sworn to secrecy that they couldn't tell anybody else what they had seen. Under those guidelines, they were able to come out with us. So, you can imagine a business model that severely limits the amount of people that come out, and then they have to swear to do absolutely no marketing for you! But it worked pretty well, and we made a few pennies—enough to allow us to keep our love of seeing the sharks going.

Then one particular client—I'll never forget, it was 1997—came out there with a little video camera, one of those ones you used to hold on your shoulder. His name was Greg Watt, I can still remember. Greg got a video of a shark breaching, went back to the US, and somehow or other it got back to National Geographic. All of a sudden, they tracked us down. On the line, I had National Geographic, and in those days, it was with David Doubilet and Peter Benchley—the guy who wrote Jaws—and a couple of other very famous cinematographers and shark scientists.

We were caught between a rock and a hard place because if we said no, this behaviour didn't exist, they had seen the video, and they would come knocking and go out with somebody else. So, we did decide to do that documentary and yes, that kind of led to everything else.

But at the same time, I had always been interested in photography. My dad was a very keen amateur wildlife photographer. From the age of two, I was fortunate enough to be going off to the Kruger National Park and the Kgalagadi. So, not only had I developed a love of animals, but I really saw the beauty in what my dad was doing by allowing a photograph to let us relive those moments.

My dad gave me a Pentax camera. To show you how little I actually knew about photography at the time, it was equipped with a zoom lens. I went out on the first day—I had never had a proper zoom lens in my life, I was used to just pushing a button, right?—and I took a breach photo. It was okay, it was much better than I had done before, but it was too far away. Then somebody pointed out to me, "You just extend the barrel." I always love telling that story for young kids who always think that you have to be so technically knowledgeable when you start photography. The technical knowledge is important and it will come, but I think having the passion and the desire to be out there is the most important thing initially.

Toby Jermyn: That's a lovely story, isn't it? Just fail first of all. You've told the story of the world's first influencer who went back and told National Geographic, and then secondly, the very important lesson of: don't forget to zoom when you've got the zoom! There we go, two life lessons in one. We haven't even moved to the second image yet.

Okay, before we move on, let's explain to those people who don't know—behaviours in False Bay have changed with the great whites as well. Just tell the viewers and listeners just briefly what's happened.

Chris Fallows: Yeah. So, look, it's a very contentious matter, but my very firm belief is that the orcas that have been described as being the main reason for the white sharks disappearing have actually got a very small part to play. Anthropogenic causes, like the Natal Sharks Board that kills on average nowadays 25 white sharks a year—they used to kill as many as 40 in the late 90s, so that already shows you the numbers were on their way down. Coupled with a fishery called Demersal Shark Longline, which targets smaller shark species that were one of the main prey of the white shark, and also catches great whites. Together, the Sharks Board and the Demersal Shark Longline kill, and have killed, on average somewhere between 60 to 75 great whites a year.

Whereas the orcas, since 2017 when the first case of a white shark washed up with its liver missing was found, have only killed 10. I think any challenged mathematician can see where the problem lies. What a lot of people didn't realise is that just like any other apex predator, there were never a huge amount of great white sharks. You know, at its peak, the population was estimated to be around about 1,279 animals along the South African coastline. So, when you're losing close to 100 animals a year, that population can never in a million years sustain that. And yeah, sadly, the two orcas, Port and Starboard, have been blamed. But my personal opinion, and quite a few others out there, is that human causes have been and continue to be the biggest threat and reason for the white shark's decline and now disappearance.

Toby Jermyn: There we go. Obviously not very clear-cut, but thank you very much for sharing those insights. I'm hoping that somebody will do something about it and we can start, you know, getting the population back up to strength again. Okay, let's move on to your second image. Again, another image taken from a boat, I assume. Tell us about this image.

Chris Fallows: So, this is a photograph I call Leviathan. We've told the sad news story about the great whites, so we're going to move on to something far more positive now. This is of an incredible humpback whale, and it's taken on the West Coast of South Africa.

Toby Jermyn: It is a really startling image. Obviously, for those of you listening, you can just see the fluke, but it's the water falling off the fluke as well. So, tell us about how you got this photograph. You're incredibly low in the water. Where were you? How did this happen?

Chris Fallows: Yeah. Well, I mean, I think you've identified the critical feature of this image, and that's to create elevation above your horizon line. But there's a little bit of a backstory to this image as well. In the 1990s, I don't know if you remember a US photographer by the name of Bob Tolbert. Bob had all these incredible photos out there of dolphins in front of supertankers and whale tails. Bob took, at that stage, what I considered to be the benchmark of a whale's tail. It was of this incredible whale's tail going away from him where it was lifted clear of the horizon line. He understood the virtues of getting low with a beautiful moody background and then this molten-lava-like seascape.

For many years, I used Bob's photo as inspiration to try and capture a similar image, but put my own spin on it. I thought the only way that I could ever compete—certainly never surpass Bob's image—was to try and have the whale actually be swimming towards me rather than swimming away. Because, firstly, that establishes two things. One is I always like the fact that the animal is comfortable enough to come close to you, and it shows, I like to think, a certain skill set that you earn an animal's trust to be able to do that. And then I always think generally an image of an animal moving towards you is a more striking one.

So, this image was really about 10 or 12 years in the making. When we started working with the humpback whales, it was a process of discovery learning how to approach them. We always had permits to do this, but to approach them to a point where they were comfortable enough to allow us to be close to them, and then very occasionally, they would swim towards us.

We designed our boat specifically so that I could shoot from very low angles, because I learned when I worked with the white sharks how much more impact that creates with an image, rather than shooting down where the shark or the whale's tail would become part of the marine environment. You elevate it above that horizon line and that really creates a striking impact.

Then, I guess as my style developed—wow, I was no longer just trying to create action images. I was trying to bring a lot of mood and a lot of feeling into my work. Really trying to turn wildlife into art, as it may. I started really putting a lot of emphasis into going out when I knew there would be clouds, when there'd be a lot of mood in the sky, choosing certain sea conditions to shoot under. So, it was an image where kind of all of those elements came together. And whether it's as good as Bob's image, I doubt it. But yeah, it's been my best effort to date.

Toby Jermyn: I remember that boat really well, actually. You just reminded me. I remember going out with our mutual friend, Grant Atkinson. We were going out in False Bay. There's a cutout on the side of the boat, isn't there? So you could lie down flat and then you're very close to the water, which was really good fun because we had like a megapod of dolphins come past us. So much to photograph there. But you mentioned at the beginning this was a very positive story. Let's touch on that. What's the positive message here?

Chris Fallows: Yeah. So, you know, when I first started working with great whites in the early-to-mid '90s, we hardly ever saw humpback whales. Their numbers were so suppressed in the post-industrial whaling era that when we did see a humpback whale, it was a real big deal. We used to leave the sharks and go try to find this animal that people had seen in False Bay. Then by the early 2000s, the numbers had turned from ones and twos into a little trickle. And now, incredibly, in the 2020s, we can see upwards of 150.

Quite remarkably, on the 30th of December last year, my wife and I broke the world record for the most individual large whales ever photographed in a single day. I've experienced the two extremes—from unbelievable pain and loss of an iconic species, to seeing what inspired governance and a greater understanding of these animals as sentient creatures, and understanding the pivotal role they play in ecosystems, can do. So, the humpback whale for me really is the quintessential phoenix rising from the ashes and is a positive news story that we can really use as an example in the marine environment.

And while we're on the subject of the humpbacks... I know I'm talking to an audience now that has a love of nature and a great appreciation of it, but not everybody is like that. A lot of people are just like, "Well, it's just an animal in the ocean." But that animal—the humpback whales and other great whales—produce more biological waste as an individual animal than any other species. All that nutrients that gets released into the ocean is absorbed by a tiny little creature called phytoplankton. The phytoplankton acts essentially like plants do with fertilizer, and they sequester carbon and release oxygen. Those tiny little creatures produce 50% of the oxygen that we breathe. So, even if you don't like whales, hell, they're bloody important to your future if you like to breathe! I think it's a great example of the important roles that these animals play.

Toby Jermyn: That's the message to get across to people, because otherwise, it's just incomprehensible—especially to somebody who maybe doesn't live near the ocean. They've got no experience of anything beyond their small blocks of city living. But look, that's a lovely positive story. So, we went downhill for the great whites, we resurfaced like a whale's fluke in black and white back into a story of positivity. It's all going to be okay in the morning. It'll be fine. You just can't give up hope.

Okay, we're going to take a quick break now. Before we do that, if you are enjoying the podcast, please leave us a comment down below, give us a like, subscribe to the channel—do what you need to do to keep the Google algorithm happy. And then when we come back, Chris and I are going to chat about his third image. We'll see you in a minute.

Toby Jermyn: Welcome back to part two of the Pangolin Podcast with me, Toby Jermyn, and my guest today, Mr. Chris Fallows. Chris, we are moving on to your third image, please. And guess what? It's another shark! Tell us about this story.

Chris Fallows: This photograph doesn't have a name, or if it did have a name, I probably couldn't repeat it on a live insert! But what this photograph represents to me is that failure is part of the process. I spent a very, very, very large part of my life trying to capture the ultimate image of a great white shark naturally catching a seal. Yes, you know, a lot of the documentary work we did was with decoys, and that was difficult enough, but for me, the essence of what I was doing out there with Monique and the documentary teams was really to capture the natural stuff.

You could learn as much about your subject as you liked and you could try and always think ahead, but ultimately you had no control over how, in this case, the great white shark would come flying out of the water. You dream of seeing a white shark of 4 and a half meters because they were incredibly rare animals. On this particular day, this 4 and a half meter huge great white shark must have leaped, I don't know, probably 10 or 12 feet clear of the water there, completely inverted with a full-grown cow seal—which they also very seldom attack—but it jumped completely away from me.

You might have a breach like that... I would say Monique and I recorded 10,497 predatory events in our time at Seal Island, and you might get one opportunity like that in every two and a half thousand. So, there is always a huge degree of luck in what we do, and sometimes the rub of the green is not going to go your way. Failure is part of success. I always like to look at that image and just say: you've got to be out there to be in it, and if you roll the dice often enough, it will land on the number. But don't be put off when it doesn't.

Toby Jermyn: I think that's a really good story. I was speaking to a client the other day who was a bit miffed that some of their shots came out a bit soft. I said, "I'm so sorry, that must be really disappointing." He goes, "No, not at all. Now I've got an excuse to come back again! It's absolutely fine." [laughter] There you go. There's maybe something in the subconscious as well: I'm not going to get this perfect, because if I get it perfect, I've got to stop now.

Remind me again—so, you did a lot of documentary work. The first people to contact you were Nat Geo, but then you had BBC, didn't you? Planet Earth.

Chris Fallows: Yeah. Well, you know, we were so lucky. I mean, it had nothing to do with me—everybody wanted to see these flying sharks and I was kind of the conduit to making that happen. So, we did over a hundred documentaries and yeah, we did two Planet Earths, we did Life, we did Africa, Shark, the whole Air Jaws franchise, and it was incredible. You were working with some of the most efficient and knowledgeable natural history crews on the planet. It was an amazing privilege to not only be able to show them this incredible behaviour and showcase our country and these amazing animals, but also to learn from these guys and ladies their craft, and learn where they had been and what they found amazing. It was just incredibly inspiring being with them.

Toby Jermyn: And I seem to remember, usually at the end of Planet Earth, they often have a behind-the-scenes thing as well. Did they feature you behind the scenes? Because there was some really interesting technology that they used to capture the great whites breaching. Tell us about that.

Chris Fallows: Yeah. So, for that segment of Planet Earth, which was "Shallow Seas," the breaching shark was actually the second most successful of all the segments ever shot for Planet Earth. I think the reason for that was, at the time, we weren't that familiar with ultra, ultra slow-motion. It was the first time you really saw a breach that lasted 7/10ths of a second slowed down to over a minute in all its incredible detail.

The cameras weren't like they are today where they are refined pieces of technology. In those days, they were using a ballistics camera that was used by the military to essentially look at how a projectile went through a target or whatever the case may be that they were testing. So, we had this very rudimentary piece of equipment that looked like something out of Back to the Future on the boat, and then it downloaded to a computer that, in those days, was far slower than what we have today.

What would happen is they would shoot the breach or whatever it was, then they would shout "trigger," and then it took 15 minutes to download. When we were shooting a breach on a decoy, for example, that was pretty easy because once the shark had jumped you would shout trigger, and then we would be in control of when we put the decoy out or what the next step would be. But when we were shooting the natural predation—which was really what it was all about—they would always say to me while the event was happening, "Must we trigger? Must we trigger?"

I remember on one occasion we got a really good breach, and I said, "Trigger." So they started the 15-minute process. And about 10 seconds later, the shark did the most insane, stratospheric breach! I can remember them both looking at me, and I looked the other way. What can you do? But yeah, that was how it worked in those days.

Toby Jermyn: There you go. Never work with children and animals—that's why that story exists!

I think it's an amazing story because nowadays the photography gear that we have features pre-capture. So, your keeper rate is there. It's a shame that we aren't able to see this behaviour as much with the great whites now, because the ability for your clients to capture these images using pre-capture would be extraordinary, wouldn't it?

Chris Fallows: Absolutely. One of the things where I know I'm getting older is your reflexes get slower. In those early years when I was in my 20s, when a shark breached, I would often get it while its mouth was still open coming out of the water. But even in the 20-odd years, 25 years I worked with them, by the end, you know, the shark was already at its zenith coming down. There's no lying in terms of what those photos told you. But yes, having pre-capture, you can imagine it would have been a game-changer. Yeah, there would have been no better subject than shooting the flying great white sharks of False Bay.

Toby Jermyn: Yeah. Well, at least it's protected the intellectual property of your image there, hasn't it? Very conveniently.

Chris Fallows: If there's one terrible upside, yes, that is true.

Toby Jermyn: There we go. And you've been incredibly successful selling your prints and your work as well. You've got a huge exhibition in Dubai Airport—is that still going on?

Chris Fallows: Toby, yes. So, you know, one of the things we really set out to do is to try and reach large audiences with our work, and we were very lucky to be approached by Dubai International Airport. We had discussions with them and I said, "Well, you know, would you be open to bringing in an exhibition that showcased our planet's most iconic animals with a message that's all about the pressures they're under, and essentially try and make people around the world aware that a) we live on the most incredible planet, b) these animals are under threat, and c) we need to do everything we can to conserve them?"

As signatories to the Buckingham Palace Declaration—which Dubai International is, and that Declaration is all about stopping the trafficking of endangered species through aviation hubs—it was a natural fit. It's the busiest international airport in the world with 100 million people that go through it. So yes, it's an incredible exhibition space. It's always nice to hear people say, "beautiful photo," etc., but it's even nicer to see little kids looking up there with their moms and dads and getting a little message, saying, "My child now really wants to go and see a shark, or a dolphin, or a lion." I think that's very important.

Toby Jermyn: Fantastic. 100 million people—extraordinary. Okay, we are going to change pace a little bit and we're going to move on to your fourth image, which is very, very different. So Chris, tell us about this image.

Chris Fallows: You know, when I first started out, Toby, I was all about action photography. It was very hard not to be, you know, when you've got flying great white sharks. Wow. But over time, I realized it's not just about taking a tight portrait or a set of teeth; it's about trying to tell a story.

Firstly, I tried ever-increasingly to bring the whole environment into my work. Then it really became a case of trying to bring in artistic elements. So, with this image, it's called The Fig and Elephant, and it's taken in Mana Pools National Park. It shows a beautiful bull elephant asleep under an incredible fig tree with a soft background and very little clutter in the foreground—very much like a washed-out watercolor.

Most of my work is black and white, and this is one of the works that's on display at Dubai International. One of the exhibitions there is called The 11th Hour. Eleven of the 12 hours are in black and white, kind of symbolizing animals we may have lost or those that are in peril. But at the end of it, the final hour is all about hope. As such, this image is in colour, although the colours are leaching out of it. It symbolizes two of Africa's giants: these incredible iconic trees like a ficus that have defied the woodcutter's saw, and this amazing bull elephant that's actually sleeping under this tree that gives it both shade and sustenance. We do have these incredible sites on our continent, and we have got so much that's worth saving. Really, I feel this is testimony to the incredible continent we live on and we're so proud to live on. I just love the fact that we can still get out there and see these incredible things in today's day and age.

Toby Jermyn: This is one of those images that you can look at for a very long time and you start to notice more and more. The one thing that my eye keeps going back to is you've got this branch on the left as well, but it's sort of fallen down from the ficus tree, showing there's also an element of fragility as well. It's this incredibly big, powerful tree, we've got a big powerful elephant—which just shows how big the bloody tree is—but I think the branch really makes it as well. We've talked about it previously on the show, there's the punctum of an image, which is the unexpected part of the image that really makes you look at it and go, "Oh, okay. I wasn't expecting that." So, there we go, that's my punctum call for the day.

Chris Fallows: I love your punctum, and maybe you should do the marketing for my exhibitions because there's a huge amount of truth in what you said. Mana Pools is losing a huge amount of its great trees, and there are various theories for it—from the fact that the Mana doesn't flood anymore, and because it doesn't flood, the termites are essentially eating the trees and the trees are all falling over, to the fact that there may be too many elephants on the floodplains. The reality remains that Mana is losing many of, and probably will lose most of, its iconic trees, and that branch is just a good example of the fragility of that environment.

Toby Jermyn: So tell me about the technical aspects of the photograph. Did you overexpose at the time of shooting? Were you pushing the exposure a little bit for a higher-key image?

Chris Fallows: Yeah, so everything I shoot nowadays, I have an artistic thought process in mind. I conceptualize an image before I get to a location in relation to the art I'm trying to create. What the animals do, that is left to chance. So yeah, shooting overexposed probably by at least a full stop in this case.

The interesting thing with Mana—and for those who've been there in the hottest months of the year, so September, October, early November—you'll know that first thing in the morning you get this incredible golden light that comes through the trees, and it's like a magic act. But then shortly thereafter, about an hour after sunrise or so, you get this blue haze because it's so darn hot, and you get a secondary light that, for my work, is actually even better. So, this was probably at around about half-past 7 in the morning, and even by that stage, it's getting hot. So, the elephants are already starting to stand under trees a little bit, and all of those elements come together to give it kind of that watercolour feel.

Toby Jermyn: This is a print that I assume is in high demand. Do you sometimes, when you're taking a photograph like this, somehow in the back of your mind think, I'm going to shoot it this way because this is going to work really well as a print that somebody's going to want to buy?

Chris Fallows: Yeah, I'm not a person who takes millions and millions of photographs. I kind of have a good idea of what works and what doesn't. In a year, I might take five photographs that are truly, truly exceptional. So, it's one of those things at the time where you see something and think, I better nail this. I am always looking at it as a large-format print, and I just kind of know that a clean lead into a subject works really well. And yeah, this particular image works wonderfully as a 1.5 to 1.8-meter-wide print. Every time somebody does order this particular work, I love going and looking at it. I really would love to have one on our own walls at some stage.

Toby Jermyn: Well, there we go. So, for all of those who bemoan your keeper rate, Chris Fallows keeps five images a year. So, there we go, that's what you should be aiming for.

Chris Fallows: Maybe I'm a pretty lousy photographer who has a lot of opportunities, Toby.

Toby Jermyn: Well, I wasn't going to say anything, Chris. Maybe you're just lucky, who knows?

Chris Fallows: Exactly. Rather be lucky than good!

Toby Jermyn: Yeah, there we go. Better to be lucky than good, hash-Chris. Okay, we're going to take a break now. But before we take that break, it's a reminder to please sign up for our Friday Focus newsletter. We'll put a QR code on the screen right now for you to do so, and there's a link in the description. This is a weekly newsletter that we send out with all sorts of information about safaris, trip reports, and when we're doing new podcasts. So, make sure you subscribe to that. Comes out every Friday. Brilliant. Chris, we'll be back in a second for the final part where you're going to share an image taken by another photographer. See you in a second.

Toby Jermyn: Welcome back to part three of the Pangolin Podcast with my guest today, Chris Fallows. This is the part of the show where we have invited Chris to share with us an image taken by another photographer that he admires—maybe a photograph that he wishes he'd taken himself. So Chris, who have you chosen as your guest image, and why?

Chris Fallows: Toby, this is a photograph I wish I'd taken myself. It's taken by a famous fine art wildlife photographer called Nick Brandt, and it's taken in Amboseli National Park. It is of nearly a hundred elephants crossing the iconic dry lakes there, and it's a scene that is very, very rare and hard to see today. It's got an incredibly strong bull elephant right at the front of the herd, and then it meanders beautifully into the background. It's got a lovely little bit of mood in the sky, and then that barren landscape really gives a very strong, elemental feel to the image. So, it's one I would love to have seen transpire before my eyes, and absolutely, I would love to have taken it.

Toby Jermyn: I couldn't agree more. I think the composition is bang on. I think we talked about it previously—you know, you've got to be lucky as well, because the separation of the big bull elephant draws your eye into it, and then the line of elephants going off into the horizon is really stunning.

Chris Fallows: Yeah, absolutely, Toby. Like you say, what he's done here, he's climbed probably on top of his vehicle in order to separate the elephants from the end of the lake and the mountain, so they fit perfectly in that landscape. He's then obviously put them in the bottom third of the image. You've got that incredible bull right there near the front of the image that the eye is naturally attracted to, and then it's kind of like reading a book in reverse.

Also, you'll notice that there are no Land Rover tracks on the lake. And that is because in those days—you're looking at 2004—there were very few people that even knew about the Great Lakes of Amboseli. So, there's so much about this work that'd be very hard to replicate. There's so much here that speaks to the skillset of Nick Brandt, and it is for those reasons that I think this is probably the image I'd most like to have in my portfolio.

Toby Jermyn: I think it's one of those images again which would lend itself to being printed in a really big format, wouldn't it?

Chris Fallows: Yeah. To see this at 3 meters by 1 and a half... Wow. That would really fill a wall beautifully.

Toby Jermyn: I think it really is stunning, because these lakes when they dry up, it's what, 15 or 20 kilometers wide when it's super dry, and the elephants have to cross that.

Chris Fallows: Yeah, the widest part. They go to the northwestern side to feed in the woodlands, and then they come back to the marshlands on the side closest to Kilimanjaro. They have these vast landscapes to cross, and you have to be very responsible when you're working with them in this environment because it is very stressful for them to cross a huge landscape like that. And yeah, it's the most amazing, amazing thing to see. Incredible.

Toby Jermyn: If you're interested in learning more about Amboseli, Janine made a video about Amboseli. It's somewhere that we thoroughly enjoy going to; we go there every year in February. So, I'll leave a link in the description down below to go and have a look at that video as well.

Okay, Chris, we could probably turn this into a 2-hour podcast, but Bella the producer will not be best pleased. She has a life that she needs to get back to and can't be editing forever and ever. So Chris, before I let you go, we ask all of our guests one question: you are now going to imagine yourself living in a humble dwelling somewhere in the world where you're going to photograph in perpetuity. You get to decide—where is that humble dwelling going to be situated?

Chris Fallows: Well, there are many beautiful places on our planet that offer incredible wildlife opportunities, but if I had to choose one, it would be St. Andrews Bay Beach on South Georgia Island. With its 500,000-odd king penguins, thousands of elephant seals, hanging glaciers, and magnificent landscapes all around, it's a photographer's dream. It's a naturalist's dream, very few people, and a spectacular place to spend your last few days.

Toby Jermyn: We're looking at going to South Georgia, the Falklands, and Antarctica in 2028. So, when we have all the details of that, Chris, I'll let you know. Maybe you should come with us!

Chris Fallows: Fantastic, Toby. What a place to go to. And for those who haven't been there, I couldn't think of a better organisation than Pangolin to go see one of the most special places on our planet. Make it happen.

Toby Jermyn: That's very, very kind of you. Thank you very much, Chris. Okay, Chris, I'm going to let you go. Thank you so much for being on the show. It's been an absolute joy to reconnect with you, and I look forward to catching up with you next time we're in the same city, or town, or reserve, or wherever. But thank you again for being on the show.

Chris Fallows: My absolute pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity.

Toby Jermyn: Thank you for joining me on another episode of the Pangolin Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it. As always, I'd love to hear your comments and feedback, so please do leave them below. If you're an audio listener, we'd love it if you could give us a star rating or a quick review. And if you don't want to miss the next episode or any of our other wildlife photography videos, make sure you subscribe to this channel.

Finally, don't forget to sign up for the Pangolin Photo Safaris Friday Focus newsletter. You can do that by heading over to pangolinphoto.com or you can scan the QR code on your screen now. I very much look forward to seeing you on a Pangolin photo safari soon. And all that's left for me to say is that the Pangolin Podcast was hosted by me, Toby Jermyn, and produced and edited by Bella Falk. Thank you.