Tales by Light (2015) s01e01 Episode Script

1
Every powerful photograph,
has a powerful story behind it.
Australian marine
photographer Darren Jew
has spent a lifetime
under the surface.
He feels as at home in the sea
as he does on land.
In the crystal clear
waters of Tonga,
he'll capture rare
glimpses into the world
of awe-inspiring
ocean giants.
Seeing those
whales come toward you
is like no other experience
I've had in the sea.
Darren then
travels to the edge
of a dangerous world
that few rarely see.
Just brings home
how living in a place like this
you're at the mercy
of the planet.
Finally,
Darren explores
new photographic techniques
in the waters of
Papua New Guinea.
Venturing into the depths
of World War II history
in the ocean's darkest hours.
I'm fortunate
enough to have spent
the last 30 years of my life
capturing and sharing
the wonders of this planet.
Of all the things
I've photographed
I love photographing
the ocean the most.
It's my love, it's my passion,
the way the light
falls in the sea,
the creatures within it.
For me there's no
bigger challenge
and there's no greater reward
than capturing
images in the ocean.
When I slip into the sea
and my head goes
beneath the surface,
everything goes quiet
and I'm presented with the
endless canvas of the ocean.
I've always felt that this
is the place that I belong.
Most of the world's oceans
haven't even been explored
let alone photographed.
The thin light filled layer
is really just the beginning
of what's out there.
Darren has arrived
at the South Pacific
archipelago of Tonga.
He seeks to capture one of
the most rarely witnessed
ocean phenomena -
giants of the ocean, racing
one another to claim a mate.
I remember
the first time
I saw a humpback from a boat
and seeing some pec slapping
and some tail
slapping and a blow
and just thinking
there's so much more going on
under the water
that I'd like to see.
Being in the water
with a 30 ton animal
who's accepting of you,
showing you its intelligence
and its interest,
is really unbeatable.
There's no other
wildlife experience
like that on the planet.
I've been in the
water with people
who are seeing whales
for the first time
and I think that the thing
that surprises them most
is the tenderness that
these huge animals
can display right
before your very eyes.
Being respectful
and only interacting
when the whales want to interact
means that you're gonna
get better pictures,
you're gonna have
better experiences,
you're gonna have the
time of your life.
- Oh my god!
- How was that?
Absolutely incredible.
Yeah
she's an awesome mum,
she's really chilled and
the calf is really playful.
When you get
a really curious calf
and a mum that's settled
and happy for the calf to be
swimming with the people.
It's a lot of fun they
are new to the world,
everything that they see is new
and they're just like little
toddlers or little puppies.
In those situations
I'd be looking for images
that capture the bond between
the mother and the calf
also something to really show
the scale of the mum
and the calf
'cause we're using wide
angle lenses a lot.
Things close to
the camera get big
and things in the
distance get small
so sometimes the scale gets
a little bit out of whack
but if you can get
the mum and the calf
in the same distance
from the camera
you can really capture that
immense size difference
between the two animals.
When I'm in the water
with mums and calves
it's a pretty relaxed affair,
sometimes I've got 15 or 20
minutes during an encounter
to consider the light to
consider the composition,
but that's a completely
different ball game
to the challenge of
getting in the water
to photograph a heat run.
A heat run
is the frenetic build up
to humpback whales mating.
The large gathering of males
vying for a female
is a marine spectacle
without equal.
One rarely witnessed
or photographed
beneath the waves.
The excitement
of getting ready
to get in the water
with a heat run
and then seeing those
whales come toward you
is like no other experience
I've had in the sea.
Often we'll be sitting
on the back of the boat
waiting to get in
and there'll be animals
coming out of the water
and crashing on
top of each other
and it almost goes
into slow motion
and you see the grace and
majesty of what's going on.
It's critical that we try
and get a drop from the boat
where we're going to see
as many whales as possible
in one frame.
A skipper does a lot of
work to get us in position,
he'll work out which
is the female whale
and he'll just keep tracking her
'cause she'll lead the
other whales around
on the merry chase
and we'll go into the water
as soon as he calls it
and we should be presented
with an ocean full of whales.
Just the idea of getting
multiple bus sized animals
in one picture,
you're recording
a remarkable event.
We only get maybe 30 seconds
of time to be in the water,
to be in position
and to get the shot before
the animals are gone
because they are
moving at quite a pace.
- How was that?
- Unbelievable!
- Yeah amazing, hey?
- Incredible!
Eight whales
coming straight at you.
Just like steam
trains through the ocean.
The fact that the humpbacks
let us swim with
them here in Tonga
is to me a bit of an indication
about how happy they are
to have us in their environment
and tells me that we
need to be looking
after their environment as well.
You know without the ocean
we lose one of the
lungs of the planet
and it's a critical aspect
of the whole web of life
and so I hope that
the pictures that I create
are the ones that
will make a difference
and can help people appreciate
and respect the ocean,
it's the only one we've got.
Having successfully captured
the magnificent
heat runs in Tonga,
Darren and his crew travel
to the Port town of Rabaul
located on the
Island of New Britain
in Papua New Guinea.
The silent and deep waters
of Rabaul harbour
became a graveyard
of twisted metal
and hulks of wrecks
during its occupation
by the Japanese forces
as a naval base
during World War II.
These haunting wrecks
have become a magnet
for marine photographers
from around the world.
Ever since I was a boy
dreaming of destinations
around the world,
Rabaul was always
high on my list
of places to go.
One of the wrecks that
really caught my imagination
was a Mitsubishi
Bi-Plane
which the Allied forces
code named Pete.
I just knew that I wanted
to dive it for some reason,
you get these things in
your mind from time to time
and you envisage the
image you want to create.
When I came up here in 2008
I asked about diving
the Bi-Plane
and there was a dispute
between land owners
and it was off limits.
So one of the first things I did
when I got to Rabaul this time
was to negotiate
with the land holders.
While Darren waits,
hoping to gain permission
to dive the Bi-Plane,
he decides to use
the time to explore
the unusual topography
of the surrounding area.
Rabaul's harbour was created
by an extremely violent birth
and is in fact the remnants
of a super volcano.
Around the edges of the harbour
rise two active volcanoes
that could erupt at any time.
In 1994
both volcanoes exploded
and that was the
biggest eruption
Rabaul had seen since 1937.
The old town was
completely destroyed
and had to be abandoned.
Exploring the
shells of buildings
and seeing the
destruction first hand
really makes it clear
how fragile existence is
when you're living on
the edge of a volcano.
Walking down the main street
the bitumen ends
and gets replaced by
a layer of volcanic ash.
That's not something
you see every day.
If you do climb it
as we are today,
it's done at your own risk
so we're all aware.
I've had mates go up
and it's been looking like that,
stunning as normal
and on their way down
she decides to erupt
so that's the main reason
we don't recommend going up
because flick of a switch,
she can go up.
Climbing a volcano
in the midday sun
is no walk in the park,
the dust is in my eyes,
the humidity is so oppressive.
The smell of sulphur is
burning the back of my throat,
it's even getting
down into my lungs.
The only thing that's
keeping me going right now
is the anticipation of the
view from that crater rim.
Guys,
we finally made it.
Oh wow, oh goodness me,
that's incredible.
I don't know that
I was expecting to see,
um, wasn't this.
With the help
of our drone pilot Toby,
I'm now going to fly my
camera with a fish eye lens
high up over the mountain.
I'm always looking
for something new,
and I have a picture in my mind
that's going to show
the living landscape
in a whole new way.
Oh no it's out of range.
Oh no lost it,
lost it out of range.
You got one!
Ok we've got a red light.
Ok you've got to land,
got to land.
Is that what
you were hoping?
Yeah that's
what I was thinking.
That's really worked!
Darren's unique
fisheye photograph
of the Tavurvur Volcano
turns it into a
world of its own
At any time that
volcano could go up,
it could've erupted
while we were up there.
It's not if it's gonna
happen it's when.
Just brings home how
living in a place like this
you're at the mercy
of the planet.
Only several weeks
after photographing the volcano,
it was captured by
an Australian tourist
erupting without warning
Word has come
through that the landholders
have agreed to allow
access for Darren
to dive the waters where
the Bi-Plane wreck lies.
The next challenge
was finding Pete's Bi-Plane.
Steve, our dive operator,
hadn't been on the site
for a number of years.
There was a bit
of a question on my mind
that will I actually find
where the plane was.
We've come to the area where
I recall the plane to be.
I'm going to jump in
and try and get down
about 10 metres and hopefully
see the plane directly.
Yes!
- Woo hoo!
- It's here!
Found it, fantastic!
That's great news, what
is she still in good condition?
Still in good
shape to the looks of it.
Right, can't
wait to get in there.
Any dive you do
is full of anticipation
but to be diving on a site
that you've longed to dive
just heightens that
excitement that much more.
Wow.
Oh that was
bloody fantastic.
What a beautiful
sight that is, hey?
That's gotta be the
best wreck I've ever dived.
Yeah it's incredible.
We were all
absolutely blown away
by how beautiful
this Bi-Plane was.
After 70 years on
the ocean floor,
it was incredibly intact.
So when Darren
expressed an interest
to not only photograph
Pete's Bi-Plane
but to do it at night
using a long exposure,
I was pretty excited.
A long
exposure photograph
is created by
opening your shutter
for an extended period of time
and letting in a lot of light.
It's often used in
low light conditions,
for landscapes or the night sky.
These types of photographs
can be enhanced
by bringing in
an external light source.
This technique is often
called "Painting with Light".
It allows you to fill in extra
elements of your subject
with the external light source.
So to test this method,
using a long exposure
and introducing torch light
to effectively paint in
the detail of the wreck,
Darren decided to travel
to George's Wreck
to do a shallower night dive
before descending down
to the deeper depths
of the Bi-Plane.
This was a first for Darren,
Darren had never
actually photographed
using a tripod on
the sea floor at night.
Using some dive weights on
the bottom of the tripod
to keep it firmly in place
and triggering the bulb,
Darren left the tripod
and then proceeded to
swim around the wreck
with his torch
painting in the detail.
Just seeing these beams of light
in the inky blackness
of the ocean,
it was eerily quiet
but it was like there was a
symphony going on in my mind
and Darren was sort of
conducting this orchestra.
It was just a very
surreal experience
and one I'll never forget.
So after
last night's experience
painting the George's Wreck,
we learnt a lot,
I hadn't done this before
and we learnt
that there's a critical
moment to get the picture
when there was still just
a glimmer of light in the sky,
over the three minutes
of this exposure
that was able to build up
and give us that
colour and brightness.
This just really means
that we will be going
for something
remarkable on the plane itself.
Our first
night dive on Pete's
was the culmination
of all the planning
and negotiation
and practice of painting
with light on George's.
All of that work had
gone into creating
this one very very
special moment
and we had twenty
minutes at 27 metres.
Gliding above the wreck
looking at the details through
the beam of the torch,
the colour and
the amount of life
that had been attracted to her,
it was like I was visualising
and building
the picture as I swam.
- Oh!
- Wow.
- Fantastic.
- Yeah how 'bout that.
- You're happy with it?
- Yeah beautiful sight.
The most
challenging images
are always the most satisfying
and to create this
picture over so many days
was just the most
amazing experience.
Darren's image
of Pete's Bi-plane
captures an ethereal beauty
that is truly unforgettable.
But it also highlights
that an old machine
built for death and destruction
has now become home to
an array of soft corals
and invertebrates that
continue to support life
on Rabaul's sea floor.
The world has taught me,
and photography has taught me
to capture every creature
as if it's the last,
to treat every
moment as fleeting.
Our planet moves on,
it evolves, it changes,
and tomorrow is always going
to bring me something new.
If my images can influence
just a few more people
to care for the
nature of our world,
then I feel like
I've done my part.