Hout Bay father-and-son cameramen Greg, 65, and Luke, 31, Nelson have both won global award nominations for their camera work on two separate wildlife documentaries.

Luke was nominated for an Emmy award, in Los Angeles, on Monday September 16, for his cinematography on Planet Earth 3, an eight-episode wildlife documentary narrated by Sir David Attenborough and released last year by BBC Earth.

In 2022, Luke and his father both won an Emmy for cinematography for the six-part Netflix series, Penguin Town.

On Thursday September 5, just over a week before his son was nominated at this year’s Emmy Awards, Greg received an award nomination at the Jackson Wild Media Awards in Silver Spring, Maryland, for his cinematography on the Netflix series, Our Living World: The Rhythm of Life.

For this series, Greg spent three months filming desert crocodiles in Mauritania, West Africa, in 2022.

Luke, on the other hand, visited various countries such as Vietnam while filming Planet Earth 3.

Greg says he is thrilled about his son’s second Emmy nomination and is immensely proud of him.

“This nomination for Luke is huge, especially for how far he’s come in his career and at his young age,” he said.

Greg’s mother, Eileen Nelson, said she was very proud of her son’s and grandson’s achievements.

“My grandson Luke’s passion for wildlife blossomed from an early age. When he was growing up in the bushveld, he was inspired by his father, Greg, who was busy filming wildlife documentaries for different production companies across the world at that time.

“On occasion, Luke would join his father when he’d film on location in the early morning hours. Back then, the jerky rhythm of his father’s 4x4 would rock Luke to sleep, until a chorus of birds and lion roars would awake him,“ Ms Nelson recalled.

Greg recalls that his career behind the camera was launched when he started working as a cameraman for the SABC in 1985.

“I was always a keen photographer and taught myself the tricks of the trade back then. Once I secured a post with the SABC for the mobile TV unit, I was tasked with filming all the the sports and church services which lasted about three years

“I then switched departments and worked in TV news as a cameraman/editor covering hard news alongside a journalist for around seven years,“ he said.

Later, Greg landed a cameraman/editor position for a UK company that saw him touring Africa, the Far East.

“During this time, I worked on more in-depth stories, where we’d investigate the earthquake aftermaths or the genocide in Rwanda. Over time covering these horrific stories became quite traumatic and emotionally draining for me.

“Fortunately I was offered a project to film a documentary on lions in 1998. This project was very exciting for me because I always loved spending time in the bush as a youngster,“ he said.

Greg moved his whole family from Cape Town to a game farm in Swaziland, just south of the Kruger National Park, while he worked on the lion project.

During this time, the family of four, which included his wife, Sue, daughter, Megan, and son, Luke, ended up living inside a tent near a dry river bed.

He vividly recalls a terrifying close call he experienced while filming there.

“Usually I’d track the lions who were roaming with their collars, but one night, I could’nt find them anywhere. In the early hours of that morning as I was heading home, I saw that my tracker kept alerting me that the lions were near the dry river bed where we stayed.

“The sun had just come up when I arrived at our home and I saw Luke and Megan playing between the two tents. Then I noticed a whole pride of lions crouched behind a log a few metres from them, but they were unaware. I then quickly drove the vehicle between the lions and distracted them,“ he said.

Sentinel approached Luke for comment, but he could not provide a response before the time of publication.

Greg Nelson with the Emmy he received, alongside his son, Luke, for cinematography on the six-part Netflix series, Penguin Town, in 2022. Picture: Russell Burgh

Greg Nelson seen filming a shark about 5km off the KwaZulu-Natal coast. Picture: Carl Rysinger

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