P&J snapper wins world film award

A STAFF photographer on the Press and Journal newspaper has won first prize in a worldwide wildlife film festival, with a documentary charting the life of an Atlantic seabird.

Orkney-born Raymond Besant worked for three years on his film, The Flying Dustman, which examines the challenges that pollution and climate change are posing for the fulmar.

Filmed in Aberdeenshire, Orkney, St Kilda and the island of Texel – off the Dutch coast – the documentary won the amateur section of the International Wildlife Film Festival in the USA, and picked up a merit award for scientific content.

Raymond said he could not believe he was the winner, from a record number of entries. “I really didn’t expect to win it. I would have been really happy being a finalist.”