After graduating and cancelling his PhD, he began wildlife photography and filmmaking. His photography career continued with exhibitions and competitions, but he shifted to television presenting, starting with the award-winning 'Really Wild Show' in 1986. Since then he has presented many nature shows for BBC and Discovery Channel, often with 'wild' in the title, such as 'Wildshots' and 'Wild Watch'.

1. Post graduation and a cancelled PhD, he began taking still photographs and trained as a
wildlife film cameraman. The photography continues with exhibitions and invitations to judge
prestigious competitions but the camerawork gave way to presenting. Chris began with the
award winning ’Really Wild Show’ in 1986 and has been working ever since. Credits include,
‘Wildshots’, ‘Wild Watch’, ‘Go Wild’, basically lots of things with ‘wild’ in the title. ‘X-Creatures’,
‘Postcards from the Wild’, ‘Hands on Nature’ and most recently ‘Natures Calendar’ almost had
more inventive programme names.

2.  Packham was educated at Bitterne Park Secondary School, and the University of Southampton
School of Biological Sciences, where he studied at the Zoology department. He also attended
Southampton's Taunton's College from 1977 to 1979, where he studied Art, Biology, Chemistry and
Mathematics.
 Packham is known for his television appearances, notably in the BAFTA-winning BBC1 children's
programme The Really Wild Show and nature photography series Wild Shots on Channel 4, as well
as the BBC One series The X Creatures and BBC Two's Hands on Nature and Nature's Calendar. He
was until recently the lead presenter on the BBC South region's version of the BBC local television
series Inside Out, and also works on BBC South East Inside Out with Kaddy Lee-Preston.
 In June 2009, he became a presenter on the BBC Two show springwatch. where he made a game of
inserting the titles of songs by The Smiths into the script for each episode. In 2010, he did the same
thing with song titles from The Cure.
 He formed the production company 'Head Over Heels' with producer Stuart Woodman, making
wildlife programmes for Discovery Channel, National Geographic, and the BBC.

3.  In the 80s with very little photographic experience he sold his punk rock guitar and bought a
camera and one telephoto lens and then set off on a mission to try and infuse the world of
wildlife photography with a little more artistic content. He considered that the bulk of the images
championed at that time were subject led and that photographers were pre-eminently obsessed
with pin sharp, wholly illustrative photographs and that the results were almost always
unattractive to the eye. He felt that the overwhelming and simple beauty of nature was being
wasted wholesale by photographers who never taxed their emotions or imaginations.
He has photographed such wildlife as:
•Wild animals, e.g. tigers, leopards, elephants etc.
•Variety of birds
•Different rural areas
•Different weather conditions e.g. snow
•Mountains, hills etc.
•Wild plants and flowers

4. This is one of the many landscape photographs of Chris Packham. It follows the theme
wildlife as it is a natural form and it is wild.
“I get real excitement from photography. It’s humbling to observe other
people living in developing countries, interacting with wildlife as part of their
daily ritual.” – Chris Packham.

5. Websites used:
 http://www.chrispackham.co.uk/
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2010/05_may/07/springwatch7.shtml
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Packham
 http://www.chrispackhamphotos.com/
 http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/news-and-advice/my-life-in-travel-chris-packham-bbc-
wildlife-presenter-1991546.html
By Rachel Simpson