Footage from Jack Kelly, an Aughrim -based wildlife photographer and cinematographer, has been selected by producers of iconic nature show, Springwatch, for this year’s twenty-first season of the programme.
Jack, from Tristane, Aughrim, is the son of Sean Kelly, who played for the All-Ireland winning Kiltomer team, and Deborah, who worked for many years in Portiuncula Hospital. He attended St Augustine’s in Clontuskert, before going on to Garbally College. Despite always having a passion for photography and cinematography, he chose to study Marine Biology in college in GMIT. However, he found that while he “loved” being out in the sea, “when it came to writing research papers and such, the drive just wasn’t there.” Following the pandemic, he asked himself: “how can I be around animals as much as possible and use cameras?”, which led to his current work as a wildlife cinematographer and cameraman.
In recent years, Jack has been working with basking sharks. “The west coast of Ireland is considered to be the best place on the planet to see huge gatherings of these animals. They have some very unique behaviours that are not yet understood fully, “ he states. He is regularly in touch with producers at National Geographic, the BBC, and Irish production companies, and Springwatch were interested in featuring him in this year’s programme. “It’s a real privilege to be able to say some of my own footage has made it to programmes like that,” Jack says. “Some of the best TV presenters, naturalists and camera operators alike started on Springwatch. I grew up watching programmes with the likes of David Attenborough who turned 100 in May.” He hopes it will open up new doors of opportunity.
Amazingly, Jack is self-taught and never studied photography formally. “I remember taking a photo on my first ever mobile phone back in 2009 maybe, from a moving car, of a house with a red door nestled in a wooded area surrounded by trees. Whether it was luck or not, the shot came out perfect. From then on, I was always fascinated with viewing the world through the lens of a camera and the storytelling journey you can bring people on.”
His best advice is: “To just start. Take whatever camera you have and just go and shoot something. I learned about different exposure settings by taking photos of flooded fields on our family farm.” In the local area, he recommends the waterways around Ballinasloe for bird photography, and the woods in Garbally, Woodford, or Ballygar. “Ireland has so much wildlife”, he adds.
Jack has a bucket list of locations to visit, including the Galapagos Islands, famous for inspiring Charles Darwin for its biodiversity, the Raja Ampat archipelago in Indonesia, which has over 1,500 islands, and Antarctica. He would also love to film: “the Great White shark underwater without a cage”. He’s filmed “Oceanic white tip sharks” in Egypt. Once described by the great French naturalist Jacques Cousteau as: “the most dangerous in the sea”, the Great Whites are a species that he has his eyes set on.
When not working, Jack is: “big into keeping fit… a musician, and singer-songwriter. I do love to travel also where my camera and drone will nearly always join.” When not travelling for work he is still based at home in Tristane, Aughrim, and still helps out on the family farm.
Springwatch is showing for three weeks until June 12. To see more of Jack’s work, find him on Instagram @mr_jackelly and TikTok (@mr_jackelly), on Facebook as Jack Kelly, and online at www.mrjackkelly.com.
When not working on wildlife shoots, he is available for a range of camera work, weddings, music videos, photo-shoots, commercial and event work etc. Email: Mrjackkellyfilm@gmail.com for any enquiries.
