Men's Journal

From free-dives to whales in heat, Roger Munns endures it all to capture shots for Discovery’s new series Life.
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By Dacus Thompson
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For Discovery’s new series Life — from the producers of the BBC’s acclaimed Planet Earth — cameraman Roger Munns and crew spent 21 days in the South Pacific tracking humpback whales. Munns’s job was to get underwater shots of the 40-ton behemoths, diving in with little more than snorkeling equipment and a high-def camera. The upshot is the first full sequence of the whales’ mating cycle caught on film.
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MJ: How did you get these amazing shots?

RM: We tried to anticipate where they were going, and then I’d just jump in. You have to free-dive, because scuba-tank bubbles can disturb them, so I’d take in a deep breath of air and dive down about 30 feet. It was kind of like jumping out in front of 10 40-ton trucks.

MJ: How nervous were you?

RM: I was confident they wouldn’t do anything to hurt me, as it’s not in their interest. But they’re in heat. It’s like 10 guys at a disco; they’re literally chasing tail. And they’re animals — you just don’t know what they’ll do.

MJ: Any close calls, or just another day at the office?

RM: I can last about 45 seconds before I need to hit the surface, and I’d been down about 30 seconds when I saw that a large male had surged and half-breached just above me. He came down right on top of my head. That definitely caused a few palpitations and used up a bit more oxygen (Life starts Sunday, March 21; discovery.com).

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This article first appeared in the April 2010 issue of Men’s Journal.