Dave Abbott is a DoP and producer specialising in natural history and adventure travel documentaries and destination media. Since 1998 Dave has worked for broadcasters all over the world, filming both topside and underwater for clients including National Geographic, PBS, NHK, Arte, GloboTV, TVNZ, Discovery, NHNZ, and Tourism NZ.

Dave has a degree in ecology and marine science and over 2500 logged filming dives, holds a NZ inshore skippers ticket, flies filming drones and has a wealth of experience in travel to remote places around the world. In addition to broadcast filming work, Dave has also accompanied extended science and advocacy expeditions (in the role of underwater cameraman) to the Kermadec Islands, Stewart Island and Fiordland, Palau, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and Indonesia.

Above water Dave’s topside filming assignments have taken him to Africa, Alaska, the Arctic (Svalbard) Canada, Australia, Norway and all over New Zealand, and his cinematography has been featured on programming around the world – covering subjects as diverse as Great-white sharks and Kiwi conservation, Marine reserves and Giant octopus, shipwrecks and spawning events, environmental campaigns and tourism destination promotion.

Dave has a deep appreciation for wild places and wild creatures and a particular passion for sharing the underwater world with others; – in a world of superficial television programming and compromised ‘reality’ he has maintained a strong commitment to preserving the integrity of a story and its characters.