SPECIAL ISSUE

THE MASTER AT WORK

Peter Scoones is the godfather of underwater filming, an obsessive perfectionist whose artistic vision is matched only by his technical savvy. Colin Doeg tells the story of one of Britain’s greatest divers

The rains have fallen hundreds of miles away on the Angolan Highlands and now the fast-flowing waters have reached Botswana’s Okavango Delta. Some 15,000 square kilometres of arid grassland and dry riverbeds are flooded, transformed into a maze of islands, waterways and lily-covered lagoons. The cameraman waits underwater,

clad in black neoprene and clutching his bulky housing. A brisk current is running, so he is tethered to a heavy weight, which has been placed on the sandy bottom. The interminable journey that brought him to this point has been forgotten and he lives in the moment, all attention focused on the task ahead. At the surface a herd of elephants,

parched from months in the wilderness, has scented water. Old and young quicken their pace. Trumpeting their delight, they plunge into the cool water. Underwater, the scene he has travelled thousands of miles to record begins to unfold. The elephants splash and play, spraying fountains of water over themselves, rolling around and swimming, their massive feet kicking