Sharks Up Close With Bertie Gregory premiered yesterday on National Geographic and is streaming now on Disney+ and Hulu. The series follows the world-renowned wildlife filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer as he travels to South Africa to search for one of Earth’s most feared predators, the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias). PetaPixel chatted with the show’s cinematographer, underwater filmmaking specialist Dan Beecham.
Beecham tells PetaPixel that he entered the world of underwater cinematography after first becoming a dedicated and passionate diver.
“I learned to dive when I was young,” Beecham tells PetaPixel. “I was 12, and I’d already been snorkeling for a couple of years then.”
Beecham says that this is the more common route to underwater filmmaking — being a diver first and then picking up the camera later. He says that the diving aspect of underwater cinematography must be second nature before people can dive with a camera in hand.
“But having said that, people do come from the other route,” he adds.
Beecham continued diving throughout his teens and headed off to university, but says he felt a bit lost from there.
“Then it was BBC’s Blue Planet series, which came out in 2001, that gave me direction in life and I set my sights on [underwater cinematography]. That’s what I want to be doing.”
Since then, Beecham has built up an impressive résumé, working on a wide array of incredible documentary projects like Blue Planet II, Planet Earth II, Antarctica, Secrets of the Penguins, and more. He also worked extensively for the non-governmental organization Save Our Seas Foundation.
“It just looked like a lot of fun,” Beecham says of being inspired by the original Blue Planet. “I have a passion for storytelling,” he says, which grew from a passion for diving and experiencing special underwater moments for himself.
While Beecham says he doesn’t necessarily have a passion for the camera side of underwater photography, he does work with a wide range of super impressive gear, including massive RED cinema cameras inside highly specialized underwater housings. He says that improving technology has definitely made it much easier to tell powerful stories in new ways, though.
“We’ve got high speed, we’ve got amazing dynamic range, we’ve got great low-light cameras,” Beecham says.
That said, as shows have employed the latest and greatest technology and captured new and interesting shots, viewers have become accustomed to that and are now hungry for more emotionally engaging nature documentaries. Resolution and dynamic range are great, but they only go so far.
For Sharks Up Close With Bertie Gregory, the show is not only about wildlife, it’s also about Gregory and the experiences of searching for sharks and, sometimes, being utterly surprised by what nature has on offer.
There are some astonishing encounters in this new show, Beecham teases. He says that if someone had told him what he’d experience ahead of time, he’d have laughed at them.
During his decades in the water, Beecham has had many memorable experiences.
“So much happens, and you tend to forget things, which is sad. But every now and again, something so profound happens to you underwater that you remember every detail forever,” he says.
For Beecham, his experiences with whales are always special.
“If I had one dive left and I was going to use up my last dive, it would always be with sperm whales. They’re just amazing animals to work with,” Beecham says. “They’re amazing because interactive, a lot of animals, it’s like you’re invisible. They just don’t see you at all, or they just go the other way. Sperm whales come up to you and they’re trying to communicate with you. They’re trying to have a virtual handshake with you. So yeah, sperm whales can be really special.”
With all his projects, Beecham hopes to demonstrate how resilient the oceans can be. They are, obviously, facing many different crises, including habitat destruction and climate change, to name just a couple, but Beecham has seen firsthand how oceans can bounce back when people start harming them.
“The ocean can be incredibly resilient and powerful. I think it’s important that people know how resilient [the oceans] can be, it gives you that extra hope to go, ‘Okay, it is worth doing something.’ If we each do our little bit, that all adds up,” Beecham concludes. The oceans are hurting, yes, and that impacts all their inhabitants, including great white sharks, as shown in Sharks Up Close With Bertie Gregory, but there is still hope.
Sharks Up Close With Bertie Gregory is airing now on National Geographic, Hulu, and Disney+.
Image credits: National Geographic. Individual photographers are credited in the captions.
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