International Otter Survival Fund

Ben Yoxon in the IOSF headquarters in Broadford

Meet Ben Yoxon, who helps to run the International Otter Survival Fund from their global headquarters in Broadford, Skye.

The fund was established in 1993 and is focused on conserving otters worldwide. It has supported education and conservation in over 90 countries from Indonesia to Tanzania to Mexico, helped by over 160,000 donors and contributors.

On Skye, Ben is always on duty. He can be called upon at night to assist with rescues of injured otters and, sadly, disposal of otters killed by vehicle collisions. Such situations can result in orphaned otter cubs which are cared for at their Broadford Sanctuary until they are able to be released back into the wild.

I tasked myself with capturing the essence of the IOSF’s work as well as possible. I wanted a picture of Ben at work, a bigger image of the IOSF 4x4 with Ben outside, and of course a picture of an otter.

But I was working within some fairly complex constraints (aside from it being dark outside as usual). For example, the otters in the Sanctuary are handled as little as possible, if at all, to retain their wild instincts and avoid becoming acclimated to humans. For this reason the IOSF doesn’t allow visitors to the Sanctuary. While a lovely picture of an otter being cuddled might be photogenic, it’s simply not something you’d want to subject these wild animals to.

After photographing Ben as his desk in the main IOSF offices (and marvelling at all the lovely otter-related paraphernalia), it was on to the next shot, hopefully a photograph of an actual otter.

On this night, young otters Louis (above) and Maggie were in the enclosure at the Sanctuary. They are both young otters who were rescued at about 10 weeks old from different parts of Scotland. Once they are old enough and ready to hunt for themselves they will be introduced back into the wild at carefully selected locations. A few weeks prior to this shoot, rescued otters Winston and Eden were successfully re-wilded by Ben on the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides.

Working under Ben’s close direction, I set up in the building that houses the indoor sleeping areas that the resident otters use. There are two of these, lined with insulation and bedded with straw, with a pipe to the outside enclosure which includes a pool and plenty of space for otters to do otter things.

This was a “one chance” shot. I had to be ready to do as soon as Ben lifted the lid on the indoor holt, where we hoped Louis and Maggie would be. I’d have time for a single image as Ben warned me they tended to move fast and were likely to head off outside straight away. It was important to get the camera completely set up beforehand. I used my Sony A7III with 16-35 lens for this, as I wanted as wide an angle as possible because I had no idea where the furry beasts would be in the holt. With everything in manual mode I dialled in about f/8 to give me a decent depth of field, a shutter speed of 1/125th to at least attempt to get a sharp shot, and ISO1600. With the inside of the holt being very dark it was all going to be very difficult. I used manual focus as I didn’t want the auto-focus hunting in the low light and missing the shot. After some practice at the other empty holt, I was ready.

Once Ben had warned me not to get close as the otters could rise up and bite, I got my distance sorted and and focus set and…

…Ben lifted the lid. Whoosh! Two brown furry things disappeared down the pipe before the lid was open far enough for me to see in. Dang. It was all over. Huge disappointment loomed over me. I thought I was ready. Everything was set up right, but it didn’t happen.

Then, just as Ben was lowering the cover down again, a little brown whiskered face with shiny eyes appeared at the mouth of the pipe. Louis had come back for a look. He stared at me for 2 seconds, just long enough for me to fire off 4 shots, one of which was good enough and you see above. Then he was off again.

Phew. Situation rescued. What a relief.

Then it was on to the last shot of the night.

Ben with the IOSF 4x4 next to the sea in Broadford

I wanted a more context-relevant image , which meant heading outside and down the road to a little spot right next to the sea at Broadford Bay. Because it wasn’t possible to arrange for an otter to need rescuing at that particular time and place, we decided to pull together a scene that would give people an idea what such a situation could be like, and that included the branding on the side of the 4x4 (as you can tell, anything I can do to help local charities is important to me).

For this one, I used my Leica Q3 and the radio-triggered flash & softbox combo that comes in handy so often. I first exposed for the ambient light, which was well into blue hour and close to properly dark. I usually underexpose the ambient light i.e. the camera calculates the “correct” exposure and I then dial it down somewhat so the background is darker than if the camera was left on auto. This allows me to then add additional light in a very controlled way with the softbox and sometimes with additional flashes.

I ended up with f/1.7, 1/60th sec, ISO 800 as the right exposure for the ambient light. I used f/1.7 to throw the background out of focus, bringing attention to the subject.

With the vehicle positioned so I’d have the sea and sky and distant coastline in shot, I then set about highlighting Ben and the vehicle with the softbox. This is easier than it sounds, but I had to ensure that Ben’s shadow wasn’t blocking the main signage on the 4x4.. The closer you get the light to the subject, the less power you need from it, and the softer the light. The softbox is just off camera to the left. The flash power is set manually on this particular flash, so a few adjustments got me to the right light output for the given exposure settings I’d dialled in, and that was that.

The beauty of a wireless flash setup is that the photographer is free to move about and try different compositions without being tethered to the lighting. This is a really flexible and fast way to shoot. It’s also easy to adjust the scene by just moving the subject and putting the light stand the same distance away from them, and carrying on.

One of the shots I didn’t use. The sky is lovely, but Ben and the car are too small in the frame making it hard to work out what’s going on.