Tiny Interview Series

Fab Latham

You may remember Fab from his amazing reels and video editing skills during our Book Tour, but you can typically find him in Iceland connecting with Mother Nature. Our friend and wildlife photographer extraordinaire Fab tells us about how he got his photography career started, how he met Team AWA, and gives us some tips and tricks for how to become one with wildlife.

Check out some of Fab’s wild reels on his Instagram and the rest of his work on his website.

1. You journeyed with Team AWA on our Kinda Cross Country Book Tour- How did you meet Wally, Amanda, and the gang in the first place?

I met two of Team AWA on the west coast of Scotland. They were staying in this immensely old (definitely haunted) crispy castle with a small hoard of other creatives whilst I had to sleep in the old stables (also haunted). I also seemed to always have the smallest room on the book tour. But I figured it’s a fair trade to have the lamest rooms in return for the opportunities to go on adventures with the team. Anyway we were in Scotland working with Hendrick’s gin and we hit it off immediately. There was one of those cringe meet and greet things where you have to go around the room and introduce yourself. Bleurgh.  I was standing next to Wally and Marjorie (AWA photography legend) and I remember just being drawn to their curious and friendly energy. I think we share the mindset of taking what we do seriously, but not taking ourselves too seriously. It reminded me of being back in school, where there’s always that one dude you can’t make eye contact with during class because you know you’ll both burst out laughing with huge snot bubbles. That was me and them.

2. A lot of your work is pretty wild (both in the literal and metaphorical sense). How did you land on wildlife photography?

My mum’s idea of her ideal holiday was always to pick up a huge map and find where was the least civilisation and then hire a cottage in the middle of arseing nowhere. Just us and the wildlife. She’d always bring bird feeders and set them up in the garden and I would bring cheap (incidentally ‘cheap’ is the noise a bird makes) disposable cameras and just sit in front of the feeders, waiting for the birds to get used to me to land long enough for me to snap them. Fast forward to today and the cameras are bigger and the wildlife more extreme but I still find myself sitting (often in awful weather), waiting for fleeting glimpses of wildlife. 

3. What’s the craziest thing that’s happened while shooting wildlife?

Ah this be a hard question indeed! I’ve had very elusive otters in Scotland actively come up to me to check me and my camera out. Making eye contact with hungry polar bears in Canada was bonkers too. I’ve made cocktails in Northumberland with thousands of puffins flying around my head on a photography mission (yes I got pooped on – worth it). I’ve been caught between 7 rutting Red deer stags and had to make a swift and careful escape. I came face to face with an angry bull elephant in Africa at a watering hole and had to race to the nearest road but luckily a car was passing and let me jump in before the elephant burst out of the bush. I was in Louisiana shooting alligators and got caught betwixt two massive thunderstorms and had to race away in our metal boat to avoid being lightning bait. Recently though on a trip to Skjervøy in the arctic circle, I was out on a boat and suddenly was surrounded by 7 Humpback whales, who started singing to each other and blowing bubbles on the surface. This kind of behaviour is unheard of as usually they sing below the surface and not often in cold waters. Any moment with wildlife is crazy because you have no semblance of control and you often have to do heaps of research to learn about their location/behaviours to be able to find them in the first place and so when you do spot that animal, and have even just a split second to snap a photo, it’s all worth it. And of course it can be maximum frustrating sometimes too…

4. Is there an animal that you wouldn’t want to shoot?

Wasps. There is an allergy rating out of 6 and I am 6/6 allergic to wasps and every 6 weeks (for three damn years) I have to have an injection of 100 thousand parts of wasp venom. Wasps, I am sure, have a place in ecosystems; some sort of role in pollination and no doubt a natural pest control for our plants, but for me, and the trouble they cause me, they can get in the bin. They probably love bins though. Ok something more miserable for a wasp. They can get in the… empty fridge of doom. Saying that I did once find a dozy queen wasp and snapped her with a macro lens…

5. You spend a lot of time in remote areas. Have you learned anything about nature/wildlife that you would like to share? Any words of wisdom?

Ripped straight from the scouts guide book of life, ‘always be prepared’. Layer up against cold weather or harsh sun, wear sunscreen, invest in proper footwear and bring one bazillion snacks. Choose a camera with a large sensor as wildlife can often be a dot on the horizon and you’ll wanna crop in later. Remember to look with your eyes as well as your lens. Sometimes I have come away from wildlife shoots, and felt like I never actually saw the animal as everything was through a lens. And finally, if you’re on the shoreline of the west coast of Scotland and there’s lots of kelp in the shallows, its 2 hours either side of low tide, maybe there’s a fresh water source nearby, plenty of empty crab shells littered about, and perhaps even some poop that smells like sweet fish – there’s most likely an otter about.

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