A Q&A with wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan
Jamrach’s Menagerie, by Carol Birch. It’s a great story and ticks all the boxes for me. Fiction with a great deal of historical facts and faces.
I’d like to say it was something highbrow, but really I just loved the Rise Of The Planet of the Apes. I really just want apes to take over the planet. They’d do such a better job of it than we humans do.
I used to buy CDs, but now I rarely buy music. I have a huge amount in iTunes, so mostly just hit ‘shuffle’ and hope for the best. I really should delete those Abba albums. I’m a big fan of Spotify Toplist. I’m not snobby about music.
I bought an album of the top 50 classical tracks, after my wife took me to the ballet earlier this year. I had the album playing in my tent a lot this year while camping in the Arctic. It seemed like the perfect accompaniment to the incessant wind.
Growing up on an Island, we were 10 years behind the mainland when it came to what young people did. I was in my early 20s before I went to my first festival. I went to T in the Park in the early days and watched Radiohead. No festival since has matched that as a memory. It was one of the first times in my life that I felt that there was no better place on the planet to be than right there, listening to that music, with that group of friends.
With traveling a lot, I miss a lot of TV. However, I was on a ship in the Arctic a few years back and the weather was so bad, and the ship pitching and rolling so much, that I couldn’t stand up. I stayed in my bunk for two whole days and watched every episode of Deadwood. I loved it. Only spoilt by occasional panics about the ship capsizing.
Myself, my wife and our two kids went to Croatia this summer. It was everything a holiday should be. Rugged coastline with clear water, lots of snorkelling and pottering about in a wee boat during the day, and lots of people-watching in idyllic harbour towns, with great food and wine in the evening. Time with family is a great antidote to the busy lives we all have.
I’m not at all into celebrity, so don’t get too whooped-up when I see famous people. We are all only people. I’ve met David Attenborough a couple of times and that is the exception to the rule. I was totally star-stuck each time.
My biggest indulgence was when I first got myself out of massive debt, having bought my own camera kit at the start of my career. I vowed that if I ever got clear of debt, I was going to buy a ridiculous patterned shirt that I’d seen in the Replay shop in Glasgow. It was £75. That was my whole food budget for the month. I still have it. Just waiting for the right fancy dress party.
I use my Macbook and iPhone for everything. Reminders, schedules, kids’ stuff, watching TV, music, editing photographs. They are very much part of my brain, the better part. I use the Route Finder a lot when at home, to find the fastest route to where I need to be, and when off exploring I use a GPS app, so I don’t get lost in the wilds.
Really, a Saturday night in with Wendy and the kids, with a curry, a film and a couple of bottles of hoppy beer is hard to beat. Speciality dish:I make a mean goat curry. It is a recipe from the mother of a friend of mine, while I was working in India. A herb-encrusted fresh wild salmon is also hard to beat.
I overhauled my diet a couple of years back and I don’t think it could be much better. I wish I had done it before; more energy now than I’ve ever had. I will eat anything, but try to avoid processed meats, too much dairy, wheat and sugar.
My wife. When I disappear off around the world, her life becomes so much harder. She has a demanding job, but she still manages to do an amazing job with the kids, holding everything together while I’m gone.
Re-plant the highlands of Scotland with trees, reintroduce lynx, wolves and bears and let nature do its thing. I’d love to go back in time to a Scotland before humans.
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