How To Become A Wildlife Photographer (#10) Tim Plowden

Inspired by all those nature documentaries you watched on BBC or National Geographic? In this latest episode, Jayce and Fanny speak to wildlife photographer and videographer Tim Plowden and find out what it is really like to be one. What kind of qualifications and training are needed? How is it like to travel the world to work on different projects? What kind of danger has he faced?

Tim Plowden is a wildlife photographer, videographer and author of wildlife, conservation and travel narratives. He is current working on the photo essay for OBW on wildlife conservation and a video for an international NGO about illegal wildlife trade.

Jayce: Today we have a very special guest with us again, it is… 

Fanny: Tim Plowden.

Jayce: Welcome Tim.

Tim: Thank you very much.

Fanny: Tim is a wildlife photographer, videographer and author of wildlife, conservation and travel narratives.

Jayce: Yeah, so welcome Tim for joining us on the show today, so maybe, just very quickly, you'd like to introduce yourself to our audience on the podcast.

Tim: Sure. Hi, I'm Tim. I've been doing wildlife photography professionally for about six years now. It's kind of led into doing other things like conservation filmmaking and writing about wildlife photography and some of my experiences in the field as well, where I've encountered illegal activity and worked with conservationists. So that's basically it in a nutshell. 

Jayce: How did you actually start your wildlife photography career in that sense? Did you start out as a kid?

Tim: So basically, I've always been interested in the outdoors and wildlife. As a luxury of having a father who was really outdoorsy, he used to be a farmer and a geography teacher. So, we lived on the edge of this area of outstanding natural beauty as well, called The Chilterns, just outside of London. So, we'd always go for family walks and he would always be interpreting the landscape and what he saw and sharing his knowledge of the outdoors with us, as a family. 

So, we've all benefited from his knowledge, and some of my family have gone to those kind of outdoorsy careers as well, my brother's in the same conservation for example. So, that kind of triggered, I guess, a series of interests and opportunities. 

At primary school as well, junior school, we had a conservation corner. So, I got involved in that, I volunteered for that and that was great. I got into birdwatching when I was quite young and that exposed me, I guess, to beautiful wildlife photography images, bird photography images from some of the UK professionals, at a young age. And then I guess as a teenager, I kind of got interested in things that teenagers got interested in, and then later on in life I got back into conservation, and at the same time as doing conservation work, I was doing some photography, wildlife photography. 

So, there's always been this kind of two tracks that I've, kind of, been interested in, one is conservation and then the other is the creative side, wildlife photography, and they help each other. So basically, when I was doing conservation work, I learned about wildlife behaviour, which is really important as a wildlife photographer, you need to be able to understand wildlife behaviour, and I think, that's kind of like when I decided I wanted to be a wildlife photographer, rather than be a conservation worker. I decided that wildlife photography was the thing for me, so I could spend plenty of time outdoors observing wildlife and try and, sort of, develop certain skills.

Fanny: But have you been a freelancer, I mean during your journey as a wildlife photographer, or have you been, in some part, engaged by a company?

Tim: So basically, I mean before I became a full-time wildlife photographer, I was doing freelance work in the corporate sector. So, I've been a freelancer most of my life to be honest, even when I was a student, I was doing temp work, so I understand that kind of economy and what it takes to survive in that world. And yeah, so that's kind of my background, is basically I'm a freelancer through and through, and I love freelancing, I love the benefits it gives you and the opportunities it gives you, to have a skillset which is valued, and you get paid for the skills that you have, that's a great feeling.

Jayce: So, if, let's say, some of our young photographers in Singapore, who are actually looking to start out as a wildlife photographer, what kind of qualification, or what kind of advice would you give to them to start out this career?

Tim: Yeah, I don't think there's any one entry point to being a wildlife photographer, I mean some of the people I know back home have, you know, they’ve been, like labourers, some of them come from a very humble background, it's just something that they really want to pursue. Others may be coming from a more academic background as well, so there's no one way. I think the most important thing is to understand the wildlife that you're photographing, to understand the tools that you're using, the photography equipment, and maybe even be innovative with as well, sometimes that's what can set you apart, is using new ways of doing things. Then, I think thirdly, if you're trying to really establish yourself seriously in a profession, then you really need to develop your creative style and have a vision on what you really want to achieve with your work.
So, by all means, look at existing wildlife photography as a source of inspiration, but don't necessarily copy it, find other sources of inspiration. 

I've always been interested in art as well, and sculpture and various different forms of the creative arts, and growing up outside London as I did, I was always going to exhibitions and what have you, and theatre, all that kind of stuff. So, I am a bit of a dilettante, whatever they call it. It's just good to have an open mind I think. I think, yes, you could do a photography degree, and I think that would be really beneficial. I know people who do wildlife photography professionally who have that background, I think that's fine. In wildlife filmmaking for example, a lot of people who work for the Natural History Unit in the UK, where Attenborough and people like that, they all have a background in zoology, so an understanding of wildlife is essential. 

So yeah, I think just having a passion. I think you've got to be driven because it's not about money, it's about something that you really believe in protecting or showing to the world there's something worth protecting. Particularly in Asia, I would say there's a lot of endangered species and there's a lot of deforestation in a lot of development, so there's a lot of conservation issues here to explore.

Jayce: So, what are some of the preparations that you always do before your trip to an area, to do your wildlife photography? What kind of preparations would you have in place?

Tim: Yeah, so, if I'm working with an organisation, for example, then we would plan logistics, so where we're going, when, how long for, that kind of stuff, what are we going to photograph or film, who we need to speak to, if we're going to be doing interviews with organisations or individuals in the community, that kind of thing. Then obviously, what habitat you're going in to, is it a tropical rainforest, is it mangrove or is it more mountainous? So, you need to, maybe prepare yourself physically for some of these challenges. 

I've been in the Himalayas and Yunnan a few times and yeah, there aren't many footpaths there and you're, kind of like, swinging through the trees pretty much, so the bamboo groves, so it's entertaining. So yeah, you've got to be physically fit as well, so I do regular exercise, so it's important.

Jayce: Yeah, I think that's important for every freelancer as well, health is important.

Tim: It is, and then if it's a subject, often we're travelling somewhere to photograph a subject I've not photographed before, or filmed, so you have to try and study a bit about the animal’s behaviour, and if you're working with an organisation who are researching that species then that really helps, because they'll have the local knowledge and knowledge about the species and that will give you opportunities which you may not be able to get, in terms of photographing or filming that subject if you went on your own, because you wouldn't know where to go and the animals may be frightened of you. But if you go and work with researchers, then they will have habituated the animals, so that's really helpful. So yeah, I think it's a bit of study, logistics, the shot list is essential.

Jayce: How about protection? What kind of protection would you ensure, so that you would go there with peace of mind, or your family will go there with peace of mind too?

Tim: Mosquito repellent. I think that's one of the biggest annoyances I guess, are mosquitoes, and leeches usually, those are the worst. I've had socks filled with leeches before, it's pretty gross, you take your sock off and blood is pouring out. I've never had problems with snakes. I've photographed in Alaska with the Brown Bears there. I went to some places where there were, like, I've got a friend actually who's a bear wrangler, they call them, in Katmai National Park, so they help manage the situation of any sort of bear, human conflict. You don't want to get stuck between two bears who are… 

Jayce: Right, who are about to fight.

Tim: Yeah, which is a very densely populated bear area, so you have to be quite careful and it's quite nerve-wracking, and you don't really want to go on your own, walking alone, so you usually have to partner up with somebody. But there, you do get help, in terms of, they give you an introduction to bear safety and stuff like that. 

But before I went to that place, I was in Alaska, I was in other areas where there were black bears, which are equally, potentially dangerous, so, you just have to use common sense really, don't run around and make a noise is a good thing, and walk slowly and look for signs as well. 

Like, the first time I saw black bears up close, I saw this salmon carcass and it just gave me an indication that it wasn't just… I mean, when you go to Alaska there were salmon carcasses everywhere, because there are, just salmon runs, but there was one which had been brought out, and I could tell it had been half eaten by a bear, and sure enough, over the river or stream, there was a black bear appeared with a cub, which is probably the most dangerous thing you can encounter. Fortunately, there was a river between us. But yeah, you just have to be really prudent I think, and not antagonise any animals. 

National parks here are pretty good, the notices they leave, say Pasir Ris Park, there’s pretty sensible stuff if you follow those kind of guidelines about, you know, if you encounter a wild boar or an otter, what do you do? And those kind of things are pretty broad, we can apply them to many animals. Just don't stare at them is the main thing, eye contact with a wild animal is pretty bad, so you don't do that.

Jayce: Oh okay, really? I thought if there's eye contact that's calmness.

Fanny: Same as children, don't look at them.

Tim: Yeah, you could try that with macaques if you like, and yeah, they'll charge at you, I've done that, yeah.

Jayce: Right. So, have you ever encountered, really, a very dangerous situation during your career as a wildlife photographer?

Tim: Yeah.

Jayce: Life threatening?

Tim: Potentially. I had a leopard charge me in Africa, yeah, that was quite fun. 

Jayce: How did you get yourself out of the situation?

Tim: It was eating an elephant calf carcass, it was pretty tragic yeah, but it was dry season, so a lot of elephants do suffer then, sadly. What happened was, the lady next to me wanted to get a better picture, because she wasn't right next to the scene, and I was on the edge of this game viewing vehicle, getting great shots obviously, and her movement is what you're not supposed to do. 

Jayce: Okay, because of the sudden movement, yeah.

Tim: Yeah, it completely spooked out the leopard, and the leopard stopped eating, growled, and just charged at me, because I was the one in the line of fire, and fortunately the guy who was driving was a very experienced guide, a great guy, a local Botswana guy, and he managed to scare off the Leopard, which was great because it was only, like a few feet away from me in the end.

Jayce: What did he do?

Tim: I think he just made some noise and stuff like that. I mean I wasn't really paying attention because there was a leopard charging at me. But as soon as the leopard snarled I didn't take any pictures of that, I knew something was wrong, so I wanted to make sure the leopard could see me as well, and I could see the leopard, rather than sort of the last thing, I didn't want the last thing to be a picture of a leopard, you know, charging at me. 

But I think those are quite serious. I think in India, there's a lot of issues with leopard/human conflicts, so you've got to be quite careful and they're quite widespread. You get them in cities, and stuff like that, even in Africa, so yeah, they're quite dangerous. 

Yeah, I've had some close encounters with snakes but they usually, you know, they're not too …I don't really handle them, so they're okay. 

I've almost been pounced on by a horny deer. I don't know if we can say that, but it was in the rutting season back home, and I was using these calls, so to mimic the sound of a female deer in season, in estrous, as they say, and it was really effective, and this buck just leapt out of the undergrowth and almost trampled me, so that was fun. 

But yeah, I think I had a couple of close calls in Alaska I think. I was stalking some caribou, I was crawling around in the bush and I got really close to this heard, it was great, there were some amazing scenes, and as soon as I started taking pictures, the sound of the shutter, because I was quite close, just spooked them, and then they all kind of trotted off. Then, about a minute later the whole heard came back towards me, but there was probably, like a pack of wolves there, because the next day or something like that, we did see wolves hunting caribou, which was really cool.

But you know, there's a lot of negative press about wild wolves, but to be honest, I saw them in Alaska and they were really shy of people, basically they are hunted and trapped, so that's kind of why, but you know, they're not as dangerous.

I mean, the thing is right, what you often see on, say Nat Geo or even some of the Attenborough programmes as well, you would imagine that wild animals are really dangerous, but it's not true. I mean yes, they are, they can be dangerous, potentially, but the reality is, most wild animals are quite peaceful, and situations very rarely escalate into violence. So, if you understand that and if you carry yourself in a way which is peaceful and non-threatening, and if you slow things down a lot, so that they know you're there, and they know that you're not hunting them, then they're pretty chilled out. I've had some beautiful experiences in the wildlife just by being relaxed and calm and not presenting myself as a threat, and it's very easy to do that if you don't know the field craft, as we'd call it. 

So, that is basically, you know, is how you carry yourself, and it's like the energy that you transmit I guess. I learned the hard way I guess, back home, in terms of working with shy animals, mammals who have very sensitive hearing and smell. So, it's not just eyesight animals rely on, so you have to think about your odour and the noise that you make, it's not about camouflage and stuff like that, those things are important as well. 

So, if you understand how to not pose a threat to any animal, whether they are potential prey species or a predator species, because in Alaska for example, moose are the most dangerous animals, not bears or wolves, they are responsible for more fatalities I think. So, you just have to be mindful of that.

Fanny: I see that you are very focused in your line of work, but unfortunately a lot of freelance photographers in Singapore, they are not able to do that, so they do, like corporate shoots, a lot of things like that. How important is it for a freelancer to be able to find their niche?

Tim: Yeah, it's a good question. I think it's very important. You can't really carve out a career unless you are specialised, in that sense. I mean, I've had to fall back on doing some corporate gigs, you know, particularly as a parent, freelance has really helped, and when I've not been really able to travel in the last couple of years, then that's really helped doing some work locally. 

But yeah, I think you need to make a reputation and if you don't have that reputation as a specialised, say wildlife photographer, you won't get hired as a wildlife photographer. You'll always, I guess, be kind of like, juggling your main job with doing some wildlife photography in your spare time, and I think that's the challenge, I think for, some of the guys I know locally, they're doing some corporate gigs and then when they've got free time they'll be doing some wildlife photography. 

So, it doesn't detract from the quality of their work, because they're great wildlife photographers, it just means it's harder, and it's not easy being a wildlife photographer, in terms of, it's very competitive and a lot of people want to do it, the money isn't great, the opportunities are quite limited as well. The market is definitely there in Europe, and especially in the UK and the US, but in Asia, I think there's fewer magazines, there's fewer outlets, that kind of stuff. But nonetheless, if you want to do, say conservation, photo journalism or conservation filmmaking, then as a professional, in that capacity, then there's opportunity in Asia, because there's a lot of work in conservation here. But that's a slightly different skillset, but nonetheless, very necessary, and rewarding as well and it can have a wildlife component. 

So, I think a lot of the productions that would get done, say for wildlife filmmaking here, would probably involve, sort of, western film cameramen and stuff like that, they wouldn't really go for local guys. Even some of the productions, I think that have been filmed in Singapore about Wild Singapore and stuff like that, they've used foreign talent. Which, I'm not sure, I think is a good thing, I certainly think there's a lot of talent here and I've pushed sometimes, in situations I have pushed that talent ahead of me, and I think it's always right to do, work when there's local people who can do it. That's my own thing, but I do, you know? I think it's a privilege to live in Singapore, it is, and you shouldn't always just take all the work from everybody else.

Jayce: So, what made you move from where you are to Singapore, and finally settle down in Singapore?

Tim: Yeah, okay, there's two times I've lived in Singapore. The first time I was doing some freelance corporate work, and that was to escape Thailand when there was a coup. I really didn't want to live in a military dictatorship, and I got offered some work here, which was great. So, I spent three years on a rolling contract, so it's a different kind of gig, I guess, to what’s more common these days, which was good, a good experience. That gave me exposure to working life in Singapore, and also it enabled me to do a lot more travel in the region as well, which was great, it meant that when I came back the second time, basically to get married to the love of my life, a Singaporean lady… 

Jayce: Congratulations.

Tim: Thank you, that it meant that I'd already done some travel in the region and made some contacts and then, meant that when I wanted to do some projects off of my own back, because I had a lot of savings from working as a freelancer back home, where you can make lots of money, it meant that I could go to places I was familiar with already, which helped. I had experience travelling, and also working, like I said, I lived in Thailand for a while. I was familiar with certain cultures as well, not all cultures in Asia, because there's so much diversity it's great, but it certainly prepared me for going into more remote places where food poisoning and stuff like that is a great risk. I always travel with Imodium now, and charcoal tablets. I've had some pretty bad experiences in China in particular, but that's another story for another time.

Fanny: So how has it been, being a freelancer and a parent at the same time?

Tim: It's really different. I mean, I love being a dad, it's such a great experience, but it does change things dramatically as a freelancer, your time is so much more limited. 

My wife is a freelancer as well, so we juggle freelancing with parenting, and we take it in turns to look after our lovely daughter, so it means, maybe, I'm spending six, seven hours a day looking after my daughter and then trying to then focus on other activities to do with my business or doing some photography itself. It just limits the time that you have and maybe the focus, like I said before. I'm less keen to travel as a parent, although we do have a support structure with my in-laws, it's still a burden of responsibility to leave your wife to be the sole carer, I think it's too much, and also, I don't really want to be away from my daughter, it's a lot of fun at the moment. We spend a lot of time outdoors. We live near Pasir Ris Park, right next to it, so she's been going to the park, climbing around everywhere since she was a few months old, and so that's a lot of fun, and she's enabled me to actually do more wildlife photography as a result. She's a really good girl.

Jayce: She's the wildlife.

Tim: In many ways, yeah. She's a wild child. She has been called feral before, she [unclear 00:24:32], but yeah, she's really cool. She's very good around animals, and so we have the local otter family, and they came back from Changi last April or May time last year, with all their pups. So, there were six pups and there were like, I don’t know, seven or so adults. So, they got used to seeing us quite regularly, and they, kind of came quite close to us, in various places when they came ashore, and they let us get a bit closer. But, you know, my daughter would always, kind of imitate what I would do, so she would be very… Not always, sometimes she would try to get close to them, walk up to them, but she wasn't that bad, and she's pretty patient with me when I wanted to photograph them. Occasionally she would just walk off and get really annoyed, but then I knew it was enough and I would stop photographing and leave the otters in peace as well. But she loves birds. We have eagles and hornbills and we have a sunbird nest on our balcony and stuff like that.

Jayce: Oh wow, you built that for her?

Tim: No, the birds built it, they're quite intricate, I haven't learned how to do those yet. But yeah, so the first words that she's learned have been eagle and hornbill, she can recognise the calls. So, you know, that's been great, as a wildlife photographer, you want to be able to share that love of wildlife and the outdoors with your family and it's something that we can all enjoy together. 

But on the flip side, before parenthood, I had a lot of time I had the freedom of travel and I had great opportunities to do some great projects, in terms of conservation, filmmaking, and it certainly was a more financially stable period. At the moment, we keep things simple, we’re not extravagant, so that helps, and yeah, I do have savings. To start a business, you do need to have some kind of collateral behind you, which helps, and there's going to be a period of transition before you're really having a steady income. 

But yeah, I mean, as a stock photographer, in terms of what I've been doing in the last year or so, more than say the assignment work, that brings in income, but it's not the same as doing an assignment, so that's something to be aware of. Like, stock photography does give you income and it takes time to build up, and it gets better and better. The more photographs you add to your stock libraries, the more you'll get searched and the more your images will be found, and the more money you will make and it's good to try and stick with rights manage licensing, as opposed to royalty free or the Microstock stuff, which is peanuts.

I think, I have two stock libraries back home, so I signed up with them a long time ago, and one was originally a press agency, because I wanted to get my work into the national newspapers, and the other one is like one of the biggest stock libraries out there. So, one is Rex, the press agency, and they got bought over by Shutterstock, you might have heard of them, Microstock. So, that changed a lot of the potential fee income right down, but it gave you more exposure to editorial clients. Then Alamy is my stock library.

So, Rex were really good at selling my work, and that got into the national newspapers, particularly my Alaska trip got a lot of really good coverage, and that led to doing other great work. 

Then, Alamy took longer to sell stuff, because they're so huge. Anyone starting to do stock photography should be aware, when you sign up with a big library like Getty or Alamy etc., there's thousands of photographers contributing images and trying to, whatever your specialism is, trying to get your work noticed takes time and you just have to persevere. But images are just like any kind of content, they're evergreen. So, an image you uploaded, say ten years ago, can still sell, if it's got the right quality attributes. 

So, don't give up, just be patient and the work will get found. I've been very fortunate that my stock library Alamy has been very supportive, they promoted my work as a feature photographer a couple of years ago and then in March this year they did an interview about me as a conservation photographer. So that's a quarterly thing they do, so that's pretty special. So that really helps with sales as well.

Jayce: So, having freelanced back in the UK versus now freelancing in Singapore, do you see the difference in the tool basis?

Tim: So, I started my freelance creative career here, so, I've only been a freelance photographer in Singapore, but my market if you like, is more the UK and Europe, and sometimes US, so that's where I'm coming from. Although my subject material is maybe, particularly over the last four or five years, is more Asian specific, is getting sold to magazines, newspapers, books and other projects, whatever, in the West. So, for example my pictures of otters in Pasir Ris have been bought by titles in Saudi Arabia, France… 

Jayce: Really? So, they know about this family in Singapore.

Tim: Yeah, everywhere, it got published in the Telegraph and The Daily Mail. So yeah, but it's like I said, I think it's about once you've got the reputation and the work that you do fits in with the aesthetics of a particular paper, or a magazine title, then that helps.

Also, I think one of the key things, I guess I've learned since coming here and being married to my wife, whose background is in communications, journalism, PR and filmmaking, that's what she studied, she really helped me to understand, I guess, more the editorial side of photography and storytelling. We worked together on some blog posts when I was in Africa, and that really was a really great experience, in terms of developing my skillset, is like interpreting what you see, how you can try and find that connection to an audience, by telling a story. I think that's not specific to wildlife, but if you can apply those kind of storytelling techniques to wildlife photography, it really helps to just take that subject, if you like, you can make it appeal to a broader audience, rather than if it's a picture which isn't telling a story, it isn't really saying anything maybe, whether that's visually or creatively or what have you. But sometimes it could just be some action, it could be a mannerism, something that the animal is doing which is unique, or maybe sometimes…

I try and avoid taking comedy shots I used to at one point, when I started out. Animals do eat some crazy stuff sometimes and it's probably funny, but you know, I've since kind of… 

Jayce: Stopped doing that.

Tim: Yeah, but I've been reading about, kind of more ethical stuff, and how wildlife should be portrayed in the media as opposed to how it can be portrayed. We have a responsibility not to… As a wildlife photographer you have responsibility not to denigrate your subject and I think that's important, that you actually want to engender respect I think, and maybe compassion as well, rather than just some comedy thing, and I think you can, kind of, write off an animal or… 

Jayce: Or the importance of the message you're trying to send.

Tim: Yeah exactly.

Jayce: So, you dedicated a good six years of your life to wildlife photography, so what kind of changes would you hope to see, especially in the conservation area?

Tim: I think, okay, so for wildlife photography in Asia, I wouldn't say necessarily specifically Singapore, but in general, I think it's becoming more popular, and it's the same in Europe and I'm sure in other parts of the world as well, the tours are becoming more accessible to photograph wildlife, but you still have to learn the field skills and understand the subject and respect them, so ethics. Ethical photography is really important to me, and like the welfare of the subject is key.

So, I would really like people who are taking up wildlife photography, either as a hobby or as a potential career, to really understand, that if you don't practice ethical wildlife photography you're not doing yourself any favours, you're not doing wildlife any favours either. If you're ethical and you put the welfare of the animals first, then they will respect you back and trust you back and you'll get better pictures as a result and you will get a better reputation as a result and probably get hired, more likely, by a conservation organisation for example. They want to work with ethical people. 

There have been cases of wildlife photographers who haven't been behaving ethically, and it spreads, the news spreads about who these individuals are in the conservation world, for example. So just be careful, learn your trade a bit, not about necessarily the camera stuff, I mean that's… 

Jayce: That's a given.

Tim: That's a tool and that's always upgrading but try and be creative and learn about the wildlife. What was the other part of the question, sorry?

Jayce: What conservation efforts would you like to see?

Tim: Yeah, I mean I think, say locally, especially in the last year from following the otter family, by following them around say, from Pasir Ris to [unclear 00:36:23] in Changi, it's amazing how an animal can expose certain things, to which you didn't know were there before. So, illegal fishing for example, trapping fish, which is all, some of that is illegal, and even recently, snaring happens in our park. These sort of things, as a general member of the public, you wouldn't be aware that these things are going on, but once you start, I guess, getting deeper into the subject, you start to see things which may not be necessarily visible. 

So, there's been a few of us who have been trying to do something about that. So, through photographing, through contacting relevant authorities in Singapore in parks, PB etc, there's some action being taken and it's encouraging I think. They're pretty switched on in Singapore about what needs to be done, other than not feeding pigeons. No, I shouldn't say that really, you can edit that one out.

But yeah, it is a serious issue, and two members of our local otter family were killed in fish traps in Changi, and then when they moved back to Pasir Ris, I was walking with my daughter in the park and we saw some major kafuffle in the river, and we could see some of the adults trying to yank this line, and then I looked through my camera and I could see that there were a couple of otters stuck in this fishing net. So, I ran up to the mangrove and then dumped my daughter in one of the huts, you know, so an irresponsible parent, but amazing behaviour, she stayed there all the time.

Jayce: She stayed, she knows her daddy is off to do an important mission.

Tim: Yeah, and I contacted some various maintenance staff, I said, “Look, there's some otters trapped, can you get someone,” because I know there's various people in the park who can help. So, they contacted someone and so I went and rushed to the scene and could see that there were two pups caught in this fishing net and so I basically, to prevent them drowning, because the two otters that were killed in Changi probably drowned to death, so I wanted to avoid the same thing happening to these two, and so I wanted to avoid another tragedy. So I just pulled the net out onto the side of the mangrove and then straight away, I don't know if you know, there was this one member of them called Aquarius who was also rescued last year because she had this wire caught around her. So yeah, that got into the newspapers and TV, I think here.

So, she actually rescued the first pup who had her rear paw caught in the net, so she just yanked it out, and then okay, this second pup was just entangled in this net and I tried a little bit, but I didn't want to damage anything to the pup and I just knew that it wasn't going to drown, so I left it there to try and find the… 

Jayce: Other helpers.

Tim: Yeah. So, I came across the park manager, got a free ride in a buggy which was great. I love their golf buggies. So yeah, when she turned up, she was waiting for one of the guys who does this kind of thing. And we were just filming it on the phone, and another otter just yanked the pup out, and I was really worried about the welfare of that one, and they disappeared for a week, because they have other parts of territory where no one can really find them, which is good I think. They reappeared a week later, thank God, with all four pups, so that was great, but they were really edgy, and they didn't trust me any more. I knew that could be the consequence, that they associate you with something bad, and so that kind of era has gone, of trust, so it will take time for them to trust me again I think. At least there's four pups rather than two, and they're reasonably healthy.

But yeah, I think it's quite eye opening that there are so many risks for wildlife in the region, and you just think, when we moved to Pasir Ris last January, my daughter was only a few months old and I had just finished up some filmmaking in Vietnam and I was filming some pretty grim stuff, like traps and wildlife trade and TCM, where they have animals in jars and stuff like that. So, I was pretty depressed, I think, with the state of wildlife in Vietnam and I thought coming to Pasir Ris is great, a bit of therapy, wildlife, spend time with my daughter and then you can't escape it, it's wherever you are.

So, I think if people can be more aware and just keep an eye out for illegal activity, be citizen conservationists if you like, I think that would be a good thing, particularly in the otter watch community, people have sort of changed from just being photographers to being citizen conservationists by helping rescue them or alert the authorities. 

So yeah, I think that's a sign of hope, when photographers take it upon themselves to help conservation on the ground, that's really important, because communities matter when it comes to conservation, that's definitely what I've seen in my work abroad, that if you don't engage local communities in conservation work, then I think it's very hard to actually be successful in conservation. The real success stories that I've come across have involved local communities effectively, whether that's turning former hunting communities into conservation communities where they're actually guarding a forest or a species, or they're actively involved in restoration work, rather than clearing forest and converting it to aquaculture or agriculture.

Fanny: Freelancing is actually quite a new concept in Singapore, so how has your perspective of freelancing changed from the day when you started freelancing until now?

Tim: So, yeah, when I started freelancing I was doing IT work back in the UK, so there's a lot of freelancing there, and usually it's for a particular project, so it's longer term project. Then I moved into doing website work and website design, and also that's project-based, so that can be several months. What I've seen happen in the last few years is like there's more gig, so it can be like a day or half a day, two hours sometimes I get to do a shoot. Maybe it's still the same for IT and website, probably more project-based, but I guess it's going to depend on your specialism. 

You know, certainly, stock photography itself, that’s just you doing something off your own bat, so that hasn't really changed I would say, in terms of how you approach it, you've just got to come up with some concepts, which you're going to sell. 

To assignment work, I would like to see that change I think, to international or titles looking at local talent, rather than sending someone from the UK all the way over to Asia to do some photography, or from the US, I think. Obviously, I understand that they have working relationships with certain photographers and stuff like that, but I do think there's plenty of talent in Asia for example, that should be used by these titles, and why not? And I think, also local photographers need to push for it probably as well, with the confidence and belief that they can do that, they don't need to travel to the West to do that work.

Fanny: But how should local freelancers market themselves to international clients? Should they get into government parties and do their work or feature their portfolios? 

Tim: Yeah, I think, certainly sign up with international agencies. I think there's no barrier to entry to those, whether it's a stock library or an assignment agency. The ones that I'm signed up with doesn't say you've got to be from the UK or American, I don't think it matters. I think you just have to take the initiative to find who they are really, and if you're going to some research and look at the magazines or newspapers or organisations that you want to ideally do work for and see, when you look at the image credits, it will usually say the photographer name and then the stock library.

So, that's what I did, that's how I found out about Rex for example, some of the guys that were getting their wildlife photography published in newspapers were going via Rex, so that's what I did, just do that really. 

I think there are various ones. Rex is one, but like I said, in particular Shutterstock. Barcroft Media, I think, they tend to do those comedy animal stuff. I can't remember who else. But Rex are quite good at getting stuff into the, what do you call it? Like tabloid kind of style. The magazines, I mean I've had some of my otter pictures sold to some like gossip magazine. Yeah, I know right? I'm not going to complain, it's money, but there's a really weird kind of… But yeah, okay, the appeal is there I guess.

But definitely, I've been approached by a quite well-known agency in the US called Wonderful Machine. There's two sides, I think, to their business. One is specific image requests, so they'll have their client base, you know, big brands in the US or whatever, multinationals, and they'll have clients with a specific image request and they'll contact various people who aren't on their books, but it may be a particular region. So, they wanted in something in Singapore and I pitched something.

But then, the other side of their business, if you really want to do it, they have a monthly fee of like $100 and they'll represent you, but more for maybe travel, adventure, lifestyle, photography, animals in terms of animal portraiture maybe, rather than wildlife. So, if adventure stuff is your gig, then yeah, definitely a good one, and lifestyles definitely. I think lifestyle photography around nature is a good one as well for people to look at, and people enjoying the outdoors.

Jayce: Thank you so much Tim, for sharing. So, before we round up, just one last question we’d like to ask you. So, if you could give one piece of advice to your younger self, when you're just starting out, what would you say?

Tim: I think to be fearless. When I was starting out I was afraid of being judged and I was quite self-conscious maybe, that my work wasn't good enough or I wasn't ready, I wanted more time to make things perfect, and I don't think that was necessary. You've just got to go for it really, believe in yourself and see where that takes you. Once you start getting stuff published, it will lead to other things. It's not always one big break but it's one small step at a time, and just be patient. I think sometimes you get this great opportunity, when something is published, and you expect the whole world to sit at your feet, kind of, what the expression is, but it's not like that, you can edit that one out as well. 

I think that, you know, I've had some great exposure, but you can't just let that… you can't sit on your laurels, you've got to keep working hard, keep learning new skills and improving what knowledge you have and it's a constant thing. 

It’s like, when it comes to wildlife photography, I did this article series about behaviour and I thought I knew about behaviour before I wrote it, but I tell you, I learned so much from actually writing articles, where I actually had to really study things more in depth, and it's great. I mean, it just shows that there is still so much to learn. So, to see you're not like the end product, you're not the finished product at the beginning of your career, you're just, whatever the expression is, you're like the seed which is going to grow into a tree and you've just to allow yourself to be watered, maybe. How about that?

Jayce: That's great advice. That’s great advice.

Tim: But yeah, definitely be fearless.

Jayce: Okay. So, everyone, remember from Tim, it's to be fearless.

Tim: Particularly when you're facing a leopard or a bear.

Jayce: Alright, thank you everyone for tuning in to another episode for Freelance Creative Exchange.

Fanny: Subscribe to iTunes and Spotify and leave us a review.

Jayce: And subscribe to our YouTube and leave a comment, because we want to hear what you think. Let us know the questions or the freelancers you want to hear from.

Fanny: Follow us at Creatives At Work on Facebook and Instagram.

Jayce: Join us next time for a brand-new episode of Freelance Creative Exchange.

Fanny: Until then, bye.

Tim: Bye.

Jayce: Bye.