Michael Pitts is an award-winning cinematographer and film producer with over 40 years’ experience in locations across the globe. His work features in numerous BBC, Discovery Channel & National Geographic productions. Michael was principal cameraman for the underwater filming of two recent BBC1 series: Sir David Attenborough’s Great Barrier Reef and Mission Galapagos. He returned to the Great Barrier Reef in 2019 to film Blue Planet Live. He has received EMMYs for cinematography for The Private Life of Plants and the original Blue Planet series. In addition, he received the Kodak award for cinematographic excellence and the New York Festival’s Gold Award for his work filming Dragons of Komodo. His photographic work has appeared in magazines, books, scientific journals and newspapers. And, when he is at home, Michael is our neighbour! After completing four years working for an American aviation company in the Middle East where he was responsible for the installation and testing of the 1124 Westwind’s Jet Executive aircraft fuel systems he returned to his family home in Marshfield in 1979. It was then he recalls on a family trip to Bath where he caught his first glimpse of The Circus, one of the architectural masterpieces of Europe. He told his father ‘Dad I’m going to live here one day’. And soon after, he did just that. It was not a straightforward journey, he was ready to buy but there was nothing he could afford available in The Circus itself. But, tenacious by nature, he hung onto the possibility and was rewarded when the sale of a top floor flat fell through. He acted quickly and bought the flat with its outstanding views across the city; those memories remain with him to this day. Whilst on an investigative visit to Hong Kong to research the possibilities of making a film about the South China Sea he met his future wife, Anne Shepherd, an Administration Officer working for the Foreign Civil Service. Anne was on a recreational Dive Club Day with friends and for that first dive they were paired off as a team. The attraction was immediate; a drink followed by dinner but sadly, Michael was returning to Nigeria to continue his work as a Commercial Inspection diver in the Qua Iboe oil field off the West African Coast. This long-distance relationship continued by letters for months and then things took a leap forward when Michael returned to Hong Kong to make a film for World Wide Fund for Nature Hong Kong. Michael had made Hong Kong his base and only periodically he would return home to the UK. South East Asia was his area of operations, and he travelled extensively throughout the Pacific and Indonesian Islands, Australia, New Zealand and Japan on assignments filming for the BBC Natural History Unit but also Discovery Channel and National Geographic. After the official Handover of the Territory to China in 1997 they moved back from Hong Kong as a married couple to Holly Lodge where they raised their two young sons. Over the past four decades and like many residents of Bath Michael has observed huge changes to our city. He speaks of a time when Bath was a quiet backwater, with empty darkened streets after 10:30pm where on occasion it was possible to see King Hussein of Jordan and Queen Noor window shopping at Jollys or Sir Paul and Linda McCartney attending a reception at the former offices of the Royal Photographic Society. Michael’s journey to become an underwater cameraman started while on a family holiday in the Baltic when he was just 7 years old. His father, a member of the RAF Air Sea Rescue Team had been stationed in Sylt, an island that lies off the Northwest coast of Germany. The North Sea and the island’s golden sands were his playground. On one trip to Denmark away he was excited by the vivid blue and green hues of the Baltic Sea. With a borrowed mask & snorkel he entered the calm shallows and was enthralled by the marine scape of kelp and penetrating sunlight. It was nothing less than a life changing moment; he knew that underwater was where he belonged. He left school in his early teens enlisting in the Army to train as an aircraft engineer. He joined the fledging Dive Club at the Apprentice College honing his skills in lakes and quarries whilst, on occasion diving along the Jurassic coast. His career took him across the Mediterranean, to Oman and then Israel. From there he was able to dive in waters all over the Middle East. It was in the Red Sea where Michael first began to take pictures; initially with a Kodak Instamatic which had an acrylic housing which lasted all of 4 dives until it flooded. Just as well as the images it took were entirely underwhelming; none of the amazing colours of the fish and the corals came through. He took the leap and used all his savings to buy a Super 8mm movie camera with an Ikelite housing to capture the magical moments. Looking back at that early footage Michael realises what his viewers (frequently his parents) had to endure! In 1980 to progress his career Michael took the decision to train as a commercial diver. While, at the time, many people considered offshore diving as a hazardous career choice, and, in the 70’s and 80’s there was a great deal of truth to this. But strict regulations were being introduced which radically reduced the number of fatal incidents and serious injuries. But not before he himself came close on several occasions. The first, and most spectacular was on his first commercial diving contract in the Arabian Gulf working in 100-feet of water on a section of disused oil pipeline. Other than the occasional venomous Persian Sea snakes swimming past there was very little life here. He was having difficulty making a cut in the pipe with the Oxy Arc torch as it kept flaming out. To overcome this, he kept striking the steel interior of the pipe with the Broco rod to make the electrical contact and increase the oxygen flow. The Broco rod which can punch a hole through the thickest of steel would ignite for a few seconds and then flame out due to the solidified crude oil in the pipe’s interior. The pipe was now filling up with residual oxygen; a highly volatile gas. Suddenly everything went black and he was blown off the pipe. Lying on the seabed, dazed and confused, all he could see was stars until he looked up and focused to see a 12-foot flame roaring upward. He had ignited the oxygen; the residual crude oil in the pipe was feeding the flames. Fortunately, his diving helmet protected him and other than a severe headache he survived to tell the tale without serious injury. On another mission, twenty miles offshore inspecting weld lines for cracks, the team were working to remove the dense marine growth from designated points on an oil rig by shot blasting. He was the stand-by diver on deck when an industrial grit-hopper valve used to supply the grit to the blaster exploded directly in front of him. He was peppered with what looked like buckshot but, fortunately, his neoprene suit and protective overalls took most of the blast. Bleeding profusely, totally deafened and in shock he was lucky to remain standing. After some immediate first aid and a stiff whiskey administered by the ship’s Captain, he was helicoptered to the local hospital where, under anaesthetic, two Polish doctors spent 8 hours removing the razor-sharp grit. It was a close call as he could have been blinded and to this day he carries a reminder of that event in the form of residual particles under his skin. Michael first came to attention when he moved from still photography to filming. His aim was to produce a 25-minute documentary about a day in the life of a West African commercial diver. Twelve months later his film The Artificial Reef was complete. His costs amounted to £1,200 but he quickly recouped that and more selling VHS tapes to colleagues. Fortuitously he entered the film into the Royal Photographic Society Film Festival where it won first prize. One of the judges saw the potential and sent a copy of the film to Survival Anglia who made natural history programmes and his career as a professional filmmaker was launched. But this was a classic Catch 22 scenario - to progress he would need to upgrade his equipment. He researched what was out there and decided on a top-of-the-line Arriflex 16SR 11 film camera. In 1985 he used all his savings, took out a £9,000 loan at 14% interest with his flat as security and then borrowed a sum from his father. The total outlay was £28,000; then more or less the same cost as a smart Georgian flat in the centre of Bath! But he was on his way and has never looked back. Michael was becoming an established and it wasn’t long until he & his hero Sir David Attenborough crossed paths at the international airport in Jakarta on route to work on a new BBC series The Private Life of Plants. Sir David flying in from Australia had recently been knighted and as he approached the airport café in his trademark rumpled blue shirt & sandy trousers Michael, who had flown in from Hong Kong, was worried about on how he should address the great man. Options crossed his mind: Sir Attenborough, Sir David Attenborough, Sir David. Fortunately for all concerned Michael was able to say, ‘it’s an honour to meet you Sir David’. To which the great man replied. ‘No, the honour is mine Michael’. And in that moment a lifelong relationship was born. The rest, as they say, is history. Or would be but for the fact that Michael’s work has had impact beyond award winning entertainment. It has contributed most recently to the upcoming publication of new book on the of Geology of the Eastern Arabian Peninsula, a film for Historic England illustrating the importance of the Protected Wrecks Act of 1973 and in 2023/2025 documenting the marine habitats and the impact of rising sea temperatures in the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea for the National Centre of Wildlife in Saudi Arabia. So, if you are fortunate enough to see Michael on dry land along Bloomfield Park, please say “Hello” to One Amazing Neighbour!