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Gavin Thurston

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Journeys in the Wild: The Secret Life of a Cameraman Paperback – August 11, 2020

by Gavin Thurston (Author), Sir David Attenborough (Foreword)

4.6 396 ratings

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'Modest, down to earth and full of humour, this is one of the best books about filming I've ever read.' MICHAEL PALIN

'Extraordinary: Gavin's easy prose and gasp-making encounters make for a gripping and very funny read. It's a rollercoaster ride with a complete professional. I loved it.' JOANNA LUMLEY

'[Gavin is] a great cameraman with infinite patience, but also a writer with great powers of observation and expression. Brilliant!' ALAN TITCHMARSH
_________

From Gavin Thurston, the award-winning Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II cameraman with a foreword by Sir David Attenborough comes extraordinary and adventurous true stories of what it takes to track down and film our planet's most captivating creatures.

Gavin has been a wildlife photographer for over thirty years. Against a backdrop of modern world history, he's lurked in the shadows of some of the world's remotest places in order to capture footage of the animal kingdom's finest: prides of lions, silverback gorillas, capuchin monkeys, brown bears, grey whales, penguins, mosquitoes - you name it he's filmed it.

Come behind the camera and discover the hours spent patiently waiting for the protagonists to appear; the inevitable dangers in the wings and the challenges faced and overcome; and the heart-warming, life-affirming moments the cameras miss as well as capture.

What other readers are saying about Journeys in the Wild:

'It's touching, it's thought provoking and its emotional...Go pick it up. It's an absolute inspiration of a book.' Goodreads

'Full of unbelievable anecdotes from decades of work, some absolutely hilarious, this book left me in complete wonder.' Goodreads

'An amazing read and I would heartily recommend it to everyone I know.' Goodreads

Editorial Reviews

Review

Gavin's book is extraordinary: his easy prose and gasp-making encounters make for a gripping and very funny read. It's a rollercoaster ride with a complete professional. I loved it.―Joanna Lumley

Gavin Thurston's book has all sorts of strengths. His camera has captured some of the most eye-catching images of the natural world ever seen on television. And he can write. He brings the process home to us in a style that is modest, down to earth and full of humour. This is one of the best books about filming I've ever read.―Michael Palin

[Gavin is] a great cameraman with infinite patience, but also a writer with great powers of observation and expression. Brilliant!―Alan Titchmarsh

This is an absorbing account of a fascinating career.―BBC WILDLIFE MAGAZINE

His no-holds-barred memoir plunges you into the serendipities and perils of working in the remote wilderness, as he stands stock-still to 'hide' from short-sighted African elephants in Kenya, films demoiselle cranes flying 6 kilometres up above Nepal, or marvels at the hiss of Mauritania's dryland crocodiles.―Barbara Kiser, NATURE

An enlightening glimpse beyond the lens.―TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT

Gavin's book is extraordinary: his easy prose and gasp-making encounters make for a gripping and very funny read. It's a rollercoaster ride with a complete professional. I loved it.―Joanna Lumley

Gavin Thurston's book has all sorts of strengths. His camera has captured some of the most eye-catching images of the natural world ever seen on television. And he can write. He brings the process home to us in a style that is modest, down to earth and full of humour. This is one of the best books about filming I've ever read.―Michael Palin

[Gavin is] a great cameraman with infinite patience, but also a writer with great powers of observation and expression. Brilliant!―Alan Titchmarsh

This is an absorbing account of a fascinating career.―BBC WILDLIFE MAGAZINE

His no-holds-barred memoir plunges you into the serendipities and perils of working in the remote wilderness, as he stands stock-still to 'hide' from short-sighted African elephants in Kenya, films demoiselle cranes flying 6 kilometres up above Nepal, or marvels at the hiss of Mauritania's dryland crocodiles.―NATURE

About the Author

Gavin Thurston is an award-winning cameraman specialising in wildlife. He has worked on 17 of Sir David Attenborough's series and has travelled and filmed on all seven continents and at both North and South poles. Recently, whilst filming for Blue Planet 2 he was in the submersible that set the world record for deepest dive in Antarctica. He has survived charging elephants, being hunted by lions, close encounters with a grizzly bear mum, wild wolves, plane crashes, civil wars, and coups. And once, whilst filming for a BBC special on Gorillas, he was slapped by a silverback.

Gavin has won numerous awards including 5 EMMYs, 3 BAFTAs and a Royal Humane Society Award for Bravery.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Seven Dials (August 11, 2020)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 448 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1841883115
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1841883113
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5 x 1 x 7.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #534,893 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #411 in Plant & Animal Photography
- #536 in Individual Photographers
- #557 in Biology of Wildlife

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4.6 396 ratings

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Too Little Space

He is even more remarkable in person!

Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2022

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Last fall, during COVID, when we had one brief period before omicron shut everything down again, we had the good luck to take a safari planned 2 years earlier. We went to Mana Pools in Zimbabwe to a very small camp called Little Vundu. The camp is so small that everyone in camp sits at the same long table for dinner every evening (unless the wildlife draws you away from the table to watch them). Our little group met a film crew in camp and were totally overawed by their camera set up and filing skills as they went about their work. Gavin was the senior photographer and as we talked and he told stories about the things he had seen and done, our jaws were absolutely slack with wonder. He has been a photographer for some of the greatest wildlife film projects we have seen in the past 30 years, from Planet Earth, Trials of Life, and....my personal favorite of all time: Big Cat Diary. I was so tongue tied to MEET a real-life "rockstar" of the wildlife film genre that I couldn't even think of what to say or ask of him and instead just kept saying "YOU were part of Big Cat Diary???" But he was so down to earth, gentle-hearted, funny, kind, insightful, and in earnest of telling the stories of the wild creatures he has spent a lifetime documenting (and some of them are not the charismatic big-players, but are instead the unlovely, the maligned, the small and unnoticed.....but who all make up our fantastic world), that when he said he had written a book....I bought it as soon as I got home. Available used from Amazon.....as stayed up late every night for 3 days to finish it!!! It was fantastic. Well written poignant, and you can "hear" his voice speaking as you read the pages. I only wish I could have had the book with me at that long table to have had the chance for him to sign it for me. Just buy the book and read it if you are at all into wildlife photography or watch nature documentaries.

One person found this helpful

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Book-Lovers' Dad

A fascinating, behind-the-scenes window into the life of an award-winning wildlife cameraman!

Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2020

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Gavin Thurston's "Journeys in the Wild" is a tour of his 30+ years in the wildlife filmmaking business. If you've watched David Attenborough's many nature series, you've seen Gavin's iconic work. But while those shows often give us glimpses behind the scenes, it's another thing entirely to hear of the planning, travel, discomfort, heat, cold, successes, regrets, close calls, and bug bites that go into capturing those remarkable shots, from the person who actually looked through the viewfinder. The book is essentially a compendium of diary-like entries about his many adventures around the world - spanning the earlier days of shooting film to modern hi-def video. You'll find yourself saying, "Oh, I remember that shot!" more than once. And for me, as much as those moments are enjoyable, I think the descriptions of the moments he didn't capture on film are even more interesting. Highly recommended.

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Conrad J. Obregon

See the Movies and Videos First

Reviewed in the United States on January 15, 2020

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I wish I could have loved this book more.

Thurston is a wildlife cameraman whose work regularly appears on many of the nature shows on television and in movies. Although it is sometimes difficult to decipher which cameraman took which shots in these shows, Thurston's descriptions of scenes he shot were recognizable to a regular watcher and he is a first class cinematographer.

The book takes the form of what appear to be journal entries from places he has visited during his career, with dates, names and geographic coordinates and even an occasional drawing. The book is organized into several different sections, although it was sometimes hard for me to figure out what tied the entries in a section together. He tells of being away from his family, the exhilaration of seeing something amazing in the wild, the hazards of travel to remote places, and even the financial problems of not having a gig set up.

I was particularly interested in this book because I am an amateur nature photographer myself. Many of the things that he recounts resonated with me, like the sense of failure of waiting in a hide (or in North America, a blind) waiting for a particular animal for hours or days without success. On the other hand, many of my assumptions were proven wrong. I've often assumed some of the shots I've seen on television involved large crews and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, but the author often discusses relatively small crews and minimal (although still expensive) equipment. I often suspected that the beloved David Attenborough was not there in the hide during most shooting, but it was nice to have it confirmed. Unlike Sean Penn in the remake of Walter Mitty, Thurston did not confess to not taking a shot because he didn't like the distraction of a camera.

Yet there was something lacking for me. For myself, I would have liked a little more technique that I could appropriate, although perhaps he will write a separate technique book. Of course, he feels that we are not preserving the wild; of course, it's inconvenient to be in a hide for long hours; of course, it's chilling to find a poisonous snake next to your foot. But while Thurston is a great artist, his métier is not writing, it is cinema. If you want to really appreciate him, see his work on screen. Then you can read this work as a supplement to a career that deserves high praise.

3 people found this helpful

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Roger Casement

A feast for quarantined eyes.

Reviewed in the United States on July 21, 2020

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Not only does Gavin Thurston's superb memoir teach us about the extraordinary efforts and ingenuity and resourcefulness necessary to make the wildlife films we've become accustomed to enjoying in our homes, but also he manages to do so in an engaging and often humorous manner. This is a delightful read from a modest person who has moved mountains. Anyone aspiring to become a wildlife cameraman will find this book indispensable. And everyone else will simply find it engrossing and a fun read.

Reviewed in the United States on August 16, 2020

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Gift for my husband for father day from me. He is a landscape photographer and he had said I wish there was a book front he photographers point of view and then I found this! He has actually watched his series and seen all his shots. Admired his work for years too. So it was perfect.

Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2020

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This book is the best in the market for the Wildlife and filmmaking community until the next book of Gavin Thurston

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Perfume Lover

Interesting compilation

Reviewed in India on October 25, 2023

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Absolutely liked the experiences and the way it has been narrated with a factual manner with appropriate doses of humour thrown in. One gets to understand the 'behind the scenes' hard work that is usually not obvious when we enjoy the output via photographs and documentaries on BBC, NatGeo, Discovery etc.

2 people found this helpful

Jennie G

Very good.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 22, 2023

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Well written, interesting and iformative. Thoroughly enjoyed it.

One person found this helpful

Víctor Martínez Moll

Lovely book

Reviewed in Spain on August 10, 2021

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I just can say thank you very much to the author Gavin Thurston for sharing with us these unique and fascinating experiences.

SUJIT SINGH RAWAT

Good Book

Reviewed in India on April 21, 2023

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Must purchase for travel enthusiasts.

One person found this helpful

RUSSELL THORNTON

If you love the natural world, buy this book.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 23, 2022

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I bought this book on kindle, but have now bought a hard copy so I can loan out to friends and family.
Some incredible anecdotes from his wildlife filming in some of the most beautiful, but inhospitable places on earth.
If you like your physical geography and / or wildlife, I highly recommend this book.
I hope he is writing another, ideally with more photos this time.

2 people found this helpful

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Journeys in the Wild: The Secret Life of a Cameraman Paperback – August 11, 2020

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