It’s been full on for Sue and I over the last nine months. We were both on safari in Africa in August, filming and taking stills. We started in the north of Namibia at Serra Cafema camp, then moved to Sossusflei where a balloon flight over the dunes was the highlight. Then the Okavango Delta in Botswana lived up to all we’d heard about it, we had our first close encounter with elephants and could see why some camerafolk just keep on filming them. Real wisdom, real charisma in their eyes. With typical beginner’s luck, a cheetah brought down an antelope about 100m from the vehicle, too bad the moment of the take was in tall grass. All that action and heat as well…

From Africa we went directly to Tonga to stay on Mounu with friends from UK for about three weeks. Liam had his first proper SCUBA dive, and every day we’d all head out looking for the humpbacks. The weather wasn’t particularly cooperative, we had windier conditions than normal, though that didn’t stop us finding them. It just made it harder work in the water. I’d decided it was too far to go from Tonga to LA for the Emmy’s, so wasn’t actually there when “Planet Earth” won one for cinematography. It looks good on the shelf now.

October I filmed for the BBC series “Life”, in Kaktovik on the north Alaskan slope. I travelled via a week at Jackson Hole where we caught up with the usual crowd from Stateside, and collected another cinematography award for PE. Kaktovic was polar bears scavenging on bowhead carcasses, I had the help of fab assistant Louise Williams, who was the star of an “Inside Life” episode that’ll go out near when the main series is tx’d. Scott Tibbles was shooting, Vanessa Coates directing, good time had by all.

On the stills front, Sue continues to strengthen our relationship with Getty Images by regularly submitting the material from our trips. She took an assignment in Zimbabwe in October shooting production stills for an Animal Planet series about wildlife photography, and also did presentations in Hawaii (for “Whale Quest”) and at the Liverpool University Veterinary School. She was also at NANPA in Florida, trading off ideas there. And then last week she heard that two of her prints had been selected by the Royal Photographic Society’s annual exhibition. I did presentations at “Seaweek” over in Ireland, at “Wildphoto” at the RGS, and to the Dubai Natural History Group. So it’s been busy on all media for both of us!

On the run up to Christmas, not an animal in sight for the six weeks I spent in the United Arab Emirates making a promo film about the region for Trident Films and the UAE government, to be screened at Expo Zaragoza 2008. We had all the bells and whistles - HD, crane, dolly, cineflex, time lapse - it was quite challenging, trying to make beautiful what felt at times like the world’s biggest building site. So thanks to Rob Butcher for directing, Rob McGregor for assisting and Mags Lightbody for fixing. You all kept it rolling along and it’ll look class I’m sure.

In the middle of that shoot, I flew to Scotland to receive an Honorary Doctorate from Stirling University. “In recognition of what I’d done for polar photography over the years” it said in the citation. I was really chuffed to be there, they were very friendly and I had a thoroughly magic day. Big thanks to the powers that be who proposed me.

And finally, for first two months of 2008 I was down in the Antarctic (yet again). Three sequences for “Life” involving leopard seals and chinstrap penguins, crabeater seals, and orcas, working from “Golden Fleece”. Unusual year for sea ice and weather – there was virtually no ice and we had many more days of gale than usual. So we didn’t find the numbers of crabbies we were hoping for, though I did get juveniles sparring on the ice which was a first for me, and Doug Anderson shot some bonny underwater of them. The lep and the chinnies went well, the orcas we always thought were going to be tricky and opportunistic. Which is precisely how they were. Like looking for a needle in a haystack. Though we did have some success – but you’ll have to wait for the series to see how we fared.

And finally I did a quick 4 days in the murky waters of Galway Bay diving with the super chef Gordon Ramsay. His new “F word” series has him searching for urchins which he then cooks in his own inimitable style. Good man, I was impressed by his toughness and determination over a long couple of days in the water.

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All text and photographs © Doug Allan