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Nature photographer Luke Massey goes hunting for images of one of the rarest of rare cats

© Luke Massey

I remember getting a brief glimpse of a Canadian lynx about 15 years ago, and from that moment I was hooked. Most nature enthusiasts have that one species they want to see, and for me it was (and still is) lynx. I just can’t think of a moodier but more stunning-looking cat. Leopards are sexy, lions are a bit dull and jaguars are mean-looking muscle machines but lynx just have it all: the looks, the attitude. They’re awesome.

I’ve tried to see European lynx loads of times, I’ve heard them, found fresh tracks, even fresh droppings, but they’ve continued to evade me. They’re hide and seek masters.

Alongside these lynx you’ve got the Iberian lynx, the rarest cat in the world and maybe the best-looking. An amazing beard, striking ear tufts and these piercing green eyes.

As a photographer it’s my job to educate and inspire. I once read a quote by Sir Peter Scott ‘“We shan’t save all we should like to – but we shall save a great deal more than if we never tried.” I guess I’ve taken that as my motto.

My aim of this project was to tell people about this cat, to try and raise awareness of its plight and ultimately funds for its conservation. In 2001 there were fewer than 100 roaming Spain now there are more than 400 in Spain and Portugal.

© Luke Massey

Preparation

Whenever I start a new project I research like mad, it’s funny really: my school studies suffered as my photography took off. I even dropped out of university! But I’ve since come full circle and now I try and learn as much as I can about subjects, reading up on them and speaking to scientists to get an understanding of the species.

Once I’ve got that, I (if possible) head to the destination on a recce. This is usually to get the lay of the land and obviously any bonus starting photos/film for the project. I watch my subject (if I can find it) and just work out what it does, where it goes, what it likes etc.

© Luke Massey

Luckily, before I searched for the lynx I’d spent three months working with leopards in Zambia. Lynx and leopards are both secretive and are both known to ambush hunters so you see a lot of similar behaviours, which helped. The experience meant I could spot a lynx and predict almost exactly where it was going to go. On the recce we had a lynx bonanza, I think I ended up seeing 6 in 5 days, it was incredible.

The shoot

© Luke Massey

I allowed myself four months in Spain to get what I needed, but I was a little blinded by my recce’s success and I made a couple of errors. My recce was in January, peak breeding season for the lynx, and daytime temperatures reached no more than 20°C, nice and cool for a fur covered animal. Conversely, when I decided to start my project in July, daytime temperatures were hitting the mid-40s. Big mistake. Any sensible lynx (and it seems they all were) hid until nightfall. I got one usable camera trap shot and a captive-bred lynx release in 72 days, I was twiddling my thumbs and getting frustrated by the limits of what I could do. Fortunately, in early September I struck gold, I found two lynx in a bush right by the footpath.

© Luke Massey

Lynx are not hunted; in fact their numbers are plummeting due to habitat destruction and a rapid decline in their main food source, rabbits. They’re so unthreatened by humans they’re relatively tolerant of us. That’s not to say they’re tame by any means – if you find a GPS-collared lynx, it’ll be gone in seconds, and if you surprise an un-collared lynx, chances are it’ll beat a hasty retreat too. However, this couple were relaxed, and I followed them as they went about their business. They stayed around all day and I got some great stuff.

© Luke Massey

Alongside wild encounters we worked with the Iberlince Project in Extremadura, attending medical examinations of captive-bred cubs and even some releases. It was important to tell the whole story of what was being done to save the lynx from imminent extinction – if humans hadn’t stepped in 15 years ago, there wouldn’t be an Iberian lynx to even do a project on.

© Luke Massey

We knew, or at least we expected, that we’d be allowed to attend the release of captive bred lynx into the wild, but we were told by multiple people that it would be incredibly unlikely we’d be able to actually enter a veterinary surgery and see the lynx be collared and have their health checked before release.

© Luke Massey

It was therefore a privilege to get this access and to watch Vicky Ascencio and her team at work, these people and their colleagues across Spain and Portugal have given this iconic species a second chance, now the next generation, and hopefully many more generations to come can head into Iberia’s hills to spot this cat.

© Luke Massey

Success and the aftermath

Despite the initial lynx drought, amazingly the project did come together. I’m really pleased with what I got and I feel it really made a difference. We got some artists on board who made lynx-themed pieces, and their endeavours have raised over 500 euros to date. We also teamed up with the charity Wild & Free, who raised £1200, and all of this money has been donated to NGO LPN in Portugal, who are creating lynx habitats.

© Luke Massey

We also had a six-page feature in Geographical magazine, which goes out to 135,000 people so it was a great way to educate people of the lynx’s plight.

Luke Massey is a wildlife and nature photographer and videographer, and he can be reached at www.lmasseyimages.com. Luke was speaking to Jon Stapley

Stuart Freedman was born in London and has been a photographer since 1991. His work has been published in, amongst others, Life, Geo, Time, Der Spiegel, Newsweek, The Sunday Times Magazine and Paris Match covering stories from Albania to Afghanistan and from former Yugoslavia to Haiti.

We sat down with Stuart recently to talk photography and discuss his latest Kickstarter-funded project – The Englishman and the Eel; a journey into the culture of that most London of institutions, the Eel, Pie and Mash shop.

© Stuart Freedman

How did you first get into photography?

I did a politics degree and in my final year discovered a magazine called Photography. Edited by Nigel Skelsey (Telegraph) and Victoria Lukens (who I’d go onto work for at the Indie on Sunday Magazine a decade later) it was a beautiful and serious magazine (in contrast to all the other photo mags at the time) that showcased extraordinary work. I had no interest in photography up until that point but I thought, ‘this is what I really want to do’. I was of course a terrible photographer (still am) but that initial spark was the way in for me. After graduation, I came back to London put a really appalling folio together and just went from there… I first joined Select Photos in the early 1990s shooting mostly for European magazines moving to FSP/Gamma Presse a few years later. I’m very proud to have been a full member of Network Photographers in 1999 where I stayed until we sadly closed when I joined Panos.

[gdlr_quote align=”center” ]I’ve spent the last twenty five years making work mostly in Asia and Africa. I wanted however to re-explore my roots and The Englishman and the Eel is an attempt to do just that – recording these simple spaces that hold within them much of the memories of a rich, largely undocumented cultural heritage of generations of working-class Londoners in a city whose only constant is change.[/gdlr_quote]

© Stuart Freedman

Says Stuart “Today’s eel, pie and mash shops are now havens for what the East End once was – but this is not a work of nostalgia. I’ve travelled to Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland to photograph eel fishing. I’ve made work at both Barney’s and Mick’s Eels, the two companies that process the fish. I’ve photographed and written about Millwall fans (who sing of the eel) and recorded those that now eat their pies and eels at home, too elderly and frail to journey to the shops. Lastly, I have followed the bleed of the East End to it’s new spiritual home in Essex where Pie and Mash shops are undergoing something of an renaissance. Identifying as they do with a re-imagined and distilled working-class culture that is geographically separate from their traditional roots.

© Stuart Freedman

“The Englishman and the Eel is not an encyclopaedic record of every shop, rather I’ve documented what I believe to be the most interesting and significant ones to make a book that I hope is a tribute to a changing institution and I’ve used the eel as a metaphor and symbol of that cultural change. In that sense the book is a companion piece to my last, The Palaces of Memories (Dewi Lewis 2015) – a finalist for best photobook at POYi in America in 2016 – about the Indian Coffee Houses that reminded me so much of my own past – the greasy spoon cafes of Hackney – during my twenty years working and living in India. The Coffee Houses were translational devices that allowed me to see an everyday India away from the stereotypes and understand that people were the same the world over. I hope The Englishman and the Eel will, in the same way, introduce the eel, pie and mash shops to another new audience.”

You’ve been a friend and customer at Fixation for many years. To what extent do you rely on us for your work?

Well, Fixation is the only place I’d ever come to – and ever have come to – for repairs and servicing. No question.

What camera equipment do you use?

I use a couple of Canon 5D Mk III’s and a Leica M-P(240) – but over the years, I’ve used pretty much everything from 6 x 6 to 5 x 4.

You mention that The Englishman and the Eel is almost a companion piece to your last book. Do you have any plans to produce a trilogy?

I don’t think so. I think I’ve said enough about spaces of memory and my past and the next book will be something completely different.

© Stuart Freedman

Stuart was speaking to Tim Stavrinou.

To learn more about the project, visit Stuart’s Kickstarter page.

The book will again be published by Dewi Lewis late in 2017.

www.stuartfreedman.com

© Stuart Freedman

About Stuart

His work has been recognised in many awards, from amongst others, Amnesty International (twice), Pictures of the Year, The World Sports Photo Award, The Royal Photographic Society and UNICEF. In 1998 he was selected for the World Press Masterclass and the following year for the Agfa Young Photojournalist of the Year.

In 1999 he was invited to speak on Capitol Hill in the USA about the atrocities in Sierra Leone where his initial work on the Mutilated premiered. In 2004 he addressed the Oxford Union about the continued suffering of that country.

His work has been exhibited widely. Solo shows include Visa Pour L’Image at Perpignan, The Scoop Festival in Anjou, The Leica Gallery in Germany, The Foire du Livre (Brussels), The Museum of Ethnography (Stockholm), The Association and the Spitz Galleries in London. His work on HIV/AIDS in Rwanda and from post-conflict South of Lebanon have toured extensively internationally.

He regularly judges awards and has twice been a judge for the Amnesty Media Awards. He has guest lectured to students in schools across the UK at amongst others, Swansea Metropolitan University, Falmouth University, Regents University and The London College of Communication (LCC). In addition he has written (and taught) the Photojournalism module for the Visual Journalism MA at Nottingham Trent University.

In 2016, his new book, The Palaces of Memory was a finalist at POYi for Best Photography Book of the Year and was chosen for The American Photography Annual (AI-AP).

He continues to write and photograph for a variety of editorial and commercial clients and is a member of Panos Pictures in London.

Mexico’s Baja Peninsula, home to the San Ignacio Lagoon, is one of the most remarkable places on earth according to Chris Breen, founder of The Natural Travel Collection.

Chris has been leading trips to Baja for four years with a specific goal in mind: to observe and photograph the thousands of grey whales that migrate down the peninsula and visit some key lagoons each spring.

© Chris Breen

[gdlr_quote align=”center” ]This is a place where the whales want to touch you and play with you, roll around for you, and open their mouths so you can rub their baleen

[/gdlr_quote]

“They blow bubbles for you and disappear to scratch their bellies on the under side of the boats or push on the stern of the boats to turn them round. It all seems to be such fun for them and it’s impossible to know who is enjoying it more, the whales or us.” says Chris.

We caught up with Chris to find out more about his recent trip, and to find out exactly why he keeps returning year after year.

You’re obviously very passionate about your photography. What sort of kit do you take with you on these kind of trips?

After having all my Canon gear stolen in South Africa a few years back I switched to Nikon which I love. I carry a D750 and a D700 with three Nikkor lenses – a 17-35mm ƒ/2.8, 24-70mm ƒ/2.8 and an 80-400mm ƒ/4.5-5.6. As I’m photographing from small boats and the whales are adept at getting everything wet I have two or three small towels in my pocket so I can regularly dry my kit if the whales are on form! I also take a GoPro Hero4 which is good for occasional underwater shots. Most importantly though, I don’t spend all my time behind the lens – the whales need attention too!

You’ve been a customer of ours for quite a while. How much do you rely on Fixation for your gear?

I was introduced to Fixation a few years back and rarely go anywhere else now. Regular camera servicing, sensor cleaning and of course buying good equipment (both used and new) all goes through Fixation.

Do you rent any equipment for your trips or do you prefer to own it outright?

I mostly use my own gear but the rental service is a lifesaver. Before going to Mexico I had the sensor on my D750 cleaned and you discovered that the camera body was damaged with no time to repair it before I went. The rental service came to my rescue with a D750 body in my camera bag within 24 hours – it’s hard to fault that!

© Chris Breen

What got you out to Baja California in the first place?

One of my friends had been telling me for years how good it was for wildlife, but as I was travelling quite a lot already I couldn’t really see how I  could fit it into my schedule. Over a beer or two (it’s often the way!) we agreed to lead a trip together to the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula with a view to seeing grey whales. It was a couple of years in the planning but we led two very successful trips in 2014… and that was it, the whales stole my heart! I returned home after two weeks of whale watching twice each day I told my wife how amazing it was and booked flights for my wife and kids to visit in 2015 (I already had a full trip for 2015 as well so I just stayed on for another wonderful week when my family went home!). It’s now an annual pilgrimage – and though it sounds strange, it is about as close as it’s possible to get to a religious experience.

© Chris Breen

Its obviously a lovely place but why do the grey whales go there?

Good question – well, the grey whales have the longest mammal migration of any mammal on earth and they swim 12,000 kilometres from the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic to arrive in the Pacific lagoons in mid to late December in order to breed and have their young. The males disappear northwards from about mid February but the females and their young stay in the lagoons until mid April. Its amazing because there is no food for them to eat here so the adult females are surviving for four or five months without food, feeding their young calves and travelling 24,000 kilometres as well – they are almost ‘super beings’!

© Chris Breen

But why do they want to play – this isn’t something that I have heard of before?

No one really knows, it is possible that they like the sound of the engines purring away in the water, or perhaps they are just bored of swimming length after length of the lagoon (which they need to do in order for the young ones to increase their strength to prepare for the long journey north) and are inquisitive about what is on the surface. Whatever the reason, they certainly make the most of it – and  if the young ones are a little tentative to begin with, their mothers dive down and blow bubbles under them to push them up to the boats. Once they see how fun we can be they just keep coming back for more!

© Chris Breen

I thought it was unethical to touch wildlife…

Well I would agree everywhere else in the world except here. In simple terms we would never chase the whales, we wait to see if they want to play with us, and if they do then we will play. But, if they want to play with us and we don’t want to play with them, they will simply go to another boat that does want to play – and have all the fun they can!

© Chris Breen

Are there many boats in the lagoon then?

No not at all. The lagoon is mostly set aside for the whales – it is their private sanctuary. However there is a small part of the lagoon that is set aside as a whale-watching zone and 16 boats are allowed into it. The boats are only allowed in for 90 minutes and it is very strictly controlled.

You would obviously recommend this as a trip then!

Yes, it should be at the top of everyone’s list – it really is the most amazing wildlife trip possible on Planet Earth, and I certainly plan to return every year if at all possible. So far I have done nearly 200 hours of whale-watching in the coastal lagoon and its not nearly enough to get it out of my system!

© Chris Breen

Chris was talking to Tim Stavrinou. If you would like to join Chris on his next trip to Baja California and experience the amazing wildlife and wonderful photographic opportunities of the area, he is travelling to the region again in 2018, this time on a small vessel departing from San Diego and cruising down the entire Baja Peninsula. The trip is called Great Whales of Mexico’s Pacific Coast and it is aboard a 25 berth motor cruiser with a naturalist onboard.