Libby Penman is a tricky woman to pin down. The nature of her job as a wildlife filmmaker and photographer means she is in perpetual motion from one place to the next, proving almost as elusive as the subject matter that she herself is trying to capture.

It is a vocation that involves long days ensconced in remote hides and clocking up the miles as she hikes through forests and glens, clambers up hillsides, crouches patiently in bogs or dives beneath icy water, all in the tireless pursuit of fascinating flora and fauna.

Fife-born Penman has criss-crossed Scotland to gather spellbinding footage of everything from ospreys and mountain hares to red squirrels, puffins and seals, her work featuring in the likes of BBC Springwatch, Landward and The Adventure Show.

She has also travelled further afield to explore the rugged wilderness of Alaska, where brown bears and bald eagles are among the species she encountered at close quarters.

Then there is an ongoing passion project: shining a spotlight on the plethora of urban wildlife found near her Glasgow home, such as the kingfisher living on the banks of the River Kelvin and a colony of wild Indian ring-necked parakeets residing in Dawsholm Park.

Libby has photographed creatures such as the Arctic Fox Libby has photographed creatures such as the Arctic Fox. Picture: Libby Penman (Image: free) Life is sounding a tad hectic, Libby? “It has been a bit overwhelmingly busy,” she says, with a laugh. “But as a full-time, freelance filmmaker I’m aware that is a very good problem to have.”

Penman, 29, is a rising star of the genre. She follows in the footsteps of a long line of successful Scottish wildlife filmmakers, such as Gordon Buchanan and Doug Allan, who have gone on to become household names.

When we speak in late July, Penman is in Bristol, which is fast becoming a home-from-home. “So much of my work is in Bristol at the moment because all the main production companies, such as the BBC Natural History Unit, are down here,” she explains.

“Funnily enough, I’m staying at Doug Allan’s flat right now as he is in the Arctic somewhere,” adds Penman, referring to her fellow wildlife filmmaker known for his cinematography work on TV series including The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Ocean Giants and Frozen Planet.

“He has been away for a month and knew that I had a lot of work meetings, so he kindly said I could stay at his flat in Bristol while he is off gallivanting with polar bears as usual.”

How does one become a wildlife filmmaker? Penman would be the first to admit that she didn’t follow what might be considered a conventional path. It was an idea that first took root when she began shooting footage at the local skatepark in her native Kirkcaldy as a teenager.

“That is very much how it all began,” she says. “The first species I ever filmed, if you like, were skateboarders, rollerbladers and BMXers. I was into adventurous outdoors things. I spent all of my time either at the skatepark or in the woods building mountain bike jumps.

“I have always had a real affinity with animals and became vegetarian when I was really young. The two went hand in hand.”

Penman wasn’t afraid to break the mould when it came to making her dreams happen. She recounts applying to study for a BA Film at Edinburgh Napier University with “a high school dissertation on Stanley Kubrick and all this skatepark footage”.

Libby has also photographed birds such as puffins in the furthest reaches of ScotlandLibby has also photographed birds such as puffins in the furthest reaches of Scotland. Picture: Libby Penman (Image: free) Her talent instantly shone through to the selection panel. “They said that the shots and cinematography were there, even though typically everyone else was turning up with short films they had made at their school or drama club, things that were properly directed.”

Penman went on to do an MA in Wildlife Documentary Production at the University of Salford, a period which coincided with the UK-wide pandemic lockdowns. When travel restrictions clipped her wings, she realised it was a perfect opportunity to showcase what was on her doorstep.

Finding incredible wildlife gems in urban areas has since become something of a calling card for her. “It started in lockdown because everyone had to stay local,” she says. “I live in the west end of Glasgow and had to make do with what was around me.

“If I wanted to do this, there was no point going, ‘Oh, I can’t get to the Serengeti and I can’t get up to the Cairngorms, so I can’t be a wildlife filmmaker or photographer …’ It was a case of saying, ‘I really want to do this, I happen to live in Glasgow, I’m going to make this work.’

“It was born out of necessity and that is why I first started filming urban wildlife, but then more and more different projects came along.

“Many of the best things I have filmed, I have actually walked to from my front door in Glasgow. The urban stuff has become quite a passion of mine. It is fun and I enjoy showing people what they can see on their own doorsteps.”

That joy comes across in her work, whether it is filming rabbits on a roundabout in Aberdeen or her beloved kingfisher at the River Kelvin, Penman has an infectious enthusiasm about the things she sees and documents.

Read more

“One of my favourite things is when I get amazing footage and I’m walking back to my flat, before I have even backed it up or edited it, and it is like being in on such an amazing secret. You just want to tell someone, ‘You have no idea what I’ve just seen …’

“I will be walking back through the park in Glasgow and almost want to tell a stranger, ‘I have just watched a kingfisher do this’ or ‘I have just seen the otters do that.’ It is almost like you are in the know of something really cool.”

Penman has worked on projects for the John Muir Trust, NatureScot and VisitScotland (the latter starring alongside her twin sister Pip), while a newly announced collaboration with Sony has seen her test-drive a brand-new camera lens in various scenic locations around Scotland.

Her award-winning portfolio includes Shooting Animals, named best documentary at the 2022 Scottish Short Film Festival, while the mesmerising sequence, The King of the Kelvin, took top prize in the video category at the 2023 Scottish Nature Awards.

While gazing through a lens is her forte, she is finding herself in demand on the other side of the camera too. This month Penman has been gracing our TV screens as the presenter of BBC Scotland series Back From The Brink, highlighting conservation projects across Europe.

She has also made regular appearances on The Adventure Show. “I did cave kayaking, ice climbing, hiking, paddleboarding and packrafting,” says Penman, reeling off a list of segments she worked on. “I also filmed it all and did the drone work myself.”

The latter point is something she returns to throughout our conversation, keen not to get pigeon-holed when it comes to her skill set. Alongside filming and presenting, Penman regularly directs and edits, as well as being a qualified commercial drone operator.

To that end, the sky’s the limit when it comes to her goals and aspirations. “Where I’m at in my career right now, I wouldn’t write-off doing something that wasn’t purely about animals, if it was about adventure and outdoors,” she says.

Libby's picture of a red squirrel beautifully captures its inquisitive nature Libby's picture of a red squirrel beautifully captures its inquisitive nature (Image: Libby Penman) “I absolutely love and can’t get enough of filming animals. It is so much fun. But I’m doing lots of adventure filmmaking too.”

Penman is still pinching herself that her former teenage pastime of making YouTube videos at the skatepark has led to such a prolific and fulfilling career. “It may sound a bit cliched, but I do feel lucky that basically my hobbies are what I get to do as a full-time job.

“It is so cool it has come to fruition and that this is what my days look like. Obviously, it is hard work too, but on the whole, I’m often at work thinking, ‘I would do this for free.’ So, the fact it is my job is perfect.” Scotland has a rich pedigree in wildlife filmmaking, producing a wealth of world-class talent in this field over the years. “It is the Scottish filmmakers that I love and look up to the most - the ‘Scot Squad of wildlife,’” says Penman.

“Gordon Buchanan’s shows have always been a huge inspiration for me. Doug Allan is not on screen as much, but as a cameraperson I have always known who he is and we’ve since become friends. His technical abilities are world-renowned.”

She cites another of her early inspirations as being the 2013 BBC Scotland documentary series Wild Cameramen at Work which, narrated by Sir David Attenborough, featured Buchanan and Allan, alongside John Aitchison, Mark Smith and Doug Anderson.

Penman doesn’t shy away from addressing the elephant in the room when it comes to the title of the programme. “Obviously, it was entirely men,” she says. “They are all amazing people who I look up to, but there haven’t been many women in Scotland who have done this.

“Out of our extensive list of wildlife cameramen, no one could name you a woman, because there has never really been one on screen ever.”

This is something Penman is determined to change. “I edit, I use a gimbal, I use a slider, I’m a qualified drone pilot, I shoot using drones for primetime TV,” she says, returning to her earlier point about skill set. “I work across lots of very technical bits of kit. I feel proud of that.

“With the things I'm on screen for, I like when I’m doing my thing camera diary-style and have all the kit there; I’m flying my drone, working with long lenses and doing different bits and pieces. It is unusual because you tend not to see women in really technical parts of the production.

“I’ve had a lot of messages from female photographers to ask for advice, which is nice,” adds Penman. “That happens because they have seen me and my work. It is testament to what we talk about with representation because it shows that it does matter.

A Night Spider StackA Night Spider Stack (Image: Libby Penman) “I want to do this because I have seen all these amazing Scottish filmmakers before me do it. Now people are reaching out to me because they see me doing it too. If I was purely behind the scenes, it might not have quite the same effect.”

Penman is a warm, funny and gregarious interviewee as she regales with anecdotes about some of her most memorable experiences to date. Sometimes it can take months of patience and dogged perseverance to get the perfect shot.

“I would say it is obsession-like. If I don’t get that shot, then I can’t actually relax until I have got it,” she admits. “Finally, the other week, I got an osprey shot that I’m so happy with.

“I had spent the whole summer before getting up at 3am to try to get some footage of it. But I just didn’t get anything I was that happy with. Eventually the stakes become quite high because you think, ‘I’ve tried for two summers to do this now.’

“It should have been my day off, but I drove seven hours and spent the best part of 10 hours in two different hides. It is an obsession. That’s the only way I can put it. I just couldn’t let it go.”

How did it feel to nail that elusive shot she had dreamed of? "I was literally shaking because I was so excited,” says Penman. “Even after the bird had flown away my hand was stuck to the camera because I was so intent and focused on getting the shot.

“I was buzzing with excitement. Then I got a knot in my stomach while I checked the footage to make sure it was as good as I thought it was. Sometimes when you watch something back it is not quite what you thought you’d got at the time.

“I watched it back, zooming in to check the shot was there. Once I was totally sure it was razor-sharp and in focus, I started laughing because it was such a sense of relief. I was so happy that it had worked out.”

Other times, she says, something completely magical can unfold when you least expect it. Penman recalls how she spent “all day, every day” on a boat, trying to get footage of basking sharks for her master’s degree dissertation.

“Something had happened with the weather that summer and as a freak coincidence they just didn’t turn up that year,” she laments. “But one of the days, I ended up getting footage of a minke whale instead.

“I was filming underwater beneath the boat and then this minke whale appeared. I was so buzzing about that, I completely forgot all about the basking sharks. That was amazing.”

Read more

Has Penman had any close calls or hairy moments while filming wildlife? “There are no animals in Scotland that are really dangerous,” she asserts. “Nothing I think is scary. I have been stung by jellyfish many times. Stuff like that happens, but that doesn’t bother me.

“I like jellyfish. They are just part of it and if you film in the water, you accept that sometimes you might get stung.

“Last winter I was trying to film mountain hares in horrendous conditions. Every bit of me was miserable because we were getting blasted with freezing cold wind and were soaking wet.

“Eventually I did see mountain hares, but I was struggling to even get a good shot of them because I actually couldn’t hold my hand still because I was so cold. When it gets to that point, you need to throw in the towel, go back, dry off and warm up.

“You learn from that. I rethought my layers and when I went back again, I was much warmer and able to get the shots I wanted. It made it all worth it and I really enjoyed the mountain hares.”

Watch Back From The Brink on BBC iPlayer. Follow Libby Penman on Instagram @libby.penman