BBC Radio 4 LW

A View Through a Lens

Factual: Science & Nature

Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison on human experience and the beauty of nature

Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison combines location recordings with personal narratives which highlight the uniqueness of human experience and the beauty of nature

A View Through a Lens: Series 3

A View Through a Lens: Series 3: Episode 3: Patience

Episode 3

Episode 3: Patience

Series 3

Patience

BBC Radio 4 - A View Through a Lens, Series 3, Patience

A polar bear teaches wildlife cameraman John Aitchison the real meaning of patience.

John Aitchison travels to Svalbard to film a polar bear hunting sea birds, but the bear has other ideas and John is left listening to the sounds of the ice.

Wildlife cameraman John Aitchison often finds himself in isolated and even dangerous locations across the globe filming wildlife, and in this series he reflects on the uniqueness of human experience, the beauty of nature, the fragility of life and the connections which unite society and nature across the globe.

3/5 Patience. Its summer and wildlife cameraman John Aitchison travelled to Svalbard as part of a team making the BBC series Frozen Planet to film polar bears hunting for food. In summer, when there is no ice from which to hunt, the polar bears on land resort to hunting sea birds. This is what John has come here to film. But it proves far harder than he expects, as the bears are in no hurry to hunt, and John is left watching and waiting for a bear which does little else but sleep, day after day after day. Whilst he waits, John's attention turns to other things; like the sounds of the kittiwakes, the sounds of gas escaping from the ice and the dives and breaths of white beluga whales in a nearby fjord. As he listens, watches and waits, John reflects on what it means to be patient.

Producer Sarah Blunt.

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Episode 3: Patience

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