(airy bright music) - [Announcer] SIGMA is proud to support photographers and filmmakers around the world, and we believe creativity and sustainability go hand-in-hand.

(waterfall thundering) (birds chirping) (airy electronic music) - [Announcer] Mpix is a proud supporter of "View Finders."

From our materials to our American photo labs, we believe your adventures are worth celebrating.

Mpix, print what matters most.

- [Announcer] Support is provided by Visit Oconee, home of "View Finders," with historic landmarks, parks, and year-round events.

Learn more at, visitoconee.com.

- [Announcer] Troncalli Subaru is a proud sponsor of "View Finders."

(waves crashing) (waves crashing) - [Sir Richard] So I was 28 when I discovered this beautiful island.

Somebody said, "Did you name Virgin after the Virgin Islands?"

And I'd never heard of them, and decided to come down for the weekend, and to tempt a lovely lady that I'd fallen in love with, to come with me, and somehow that happened.

♪ Don't worry ♪ (wistful music) ♪ About a thing ♪ ♪ 'Cause every little thing ♪ ♪ Gonna be all right ♪ - [Sir Richard] I wasn't serious about buying an island, and from above this island I saw it and, you know, the pristine reef all the way around, the rays, the turtles, beautiful reef and beautiful beaches, and just fell in love with it.

(wistful music continues) ♪ Singing don't worry about a thing ♪ ♪ 'Cause every little thing ♪ ♪ Gonna be all right ♪ - [Sir Richard] Then I fell in love with this lovely lady and, you know, it really is heaven on earth.

(wistful pensive music) (waves crashing) (waves crashing) - A 75-acre paradise in the British Virgin Islands.

- One the most species-diverse locations in the world.

- Home to a highly accomplished conservationist.

- This is Necker Island.

I'm Paul!

- I'm Chris!

- [Both] And we're the View Finders!

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (bright rhythmic music) ♪ Don't worry ♪ ♪ About a thing ♪ ♪ 'Cause every little thing ♪ ♪ Gonna be all right ♪ ♪ Singing don't worry ♪ ♪ About a thing ♪ ♪ 'Cause every little thing ♪ ♪ Gonna be all right ♪ - It's a little jewel.

It has more species than any other island in the world, including the Galapagos, so it's remarkable.

Almost every corner you turn, you're gonna find, you know, you might turn the corner and jump in, run into a giant tortoise, which weighs, you know, 1 1/2 tons.

You might look up and you'll see a lemur jumping between trees.

You then may see a flamingo flying overhead.

I mean, it is just a magical, magical island.

The island evolved over time, depending on whether we could afford to do anything with it.

The key in my mind was to try to make sure that we enhanced it and we didn't in any way have anything that, you know, that sort of set this beautiful island back.

I've always loved wildlife and I've spent my life trying to protect species that are disappearing.

(wistful triumphant music) ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh ♪ - So on Necker Island, we've tried to reintroduce species that are disappeared.

- Conservation and sustainability efforts are a big part of the guest experience on the island, and a big part of that is also the wildlife conservation.

And guests have an incredible opportunity to experience that.

- [Bystander] Oh!

We got you.

You getting this?

- Oh, my God!

I was not expecting that!

(laughs) - Lemurs were all over Africa, and then the monkey evolved and they didn't kill the lemurs, but they just pushed them out of country, by country, by country.

Fortunately, before they'd completely wiped them out, by taking their food away from them, Madagascar broke away from Africa and 152 species of lemurs survived.

- Lemurs, we look at lemurs as one of our pioneering flagship species here on Necker now.

They're in dire straits, have completely been eradicated from Madagascar where they're from naturally.

- Sadly, the habitat is being cut down and basically its trees being exported, wood exported to China.

- So ringtail lemurs, these guys, the most common of, are the most recognizable in any facility around the world you go.

If somebody said, "We've got lemurs," you are almost guaranteed it's gonna be ringtail lemurs.

They're very adaptable.

- Whoa!

- They're very adaptable and easygoing.

- Well, hello!

Can I do this?

Is that all right?

Can I pet him?

- You can do that.

- We brought seven species of lemur here.

It's been a fantastic success.

We've got... We started with 20 lemurs, we've now got 200.

- This is an experience, man.

- Oh, it is so cool.

What are you thinking as far as your approach to these?

- Honestly, I'm just... First, I just wanted to take this in 'cause I've never been in an atmosphere like this where lemurs are just jumping over me.

This is not the zoo, okay?

This is something higher, a higher level than the zoo.

- Far!

- But now, for photography, I'm just going with a wide aperture.

I wanna try to blur the background, everything that's behind them, try to isolate them from anything that may be behind them, and use some of these nice little trees that we have here, dead trees here, to kind of like create leading lines into the lemurs.

But these guys are so friendly.

I mean, they're posing for pictures for us.

So, I mean.

- [Chris] Yeah!

It's so cool!

- What do you see?

- Well, one thing I'm trying to do, I'm trying to incorporate two of them as best I can.

So I'm moving around and I'm trying to get one in closest, like close to the lens in focus, maybe another one blurred in the background to create depth and show there's, you know, multiple lemurs here nearby.

But there's just so much here.

- Watch this!

- And it's so cool.

Oh, my gosh.

Let's see.

We gonna do?

There we go!

Like, literally.

I might actually just go ahead and take the shot, Paul.

- Selfie!

(camera clicks) ♪ You ♪ (airy wistful music) (camera clicks) (camera clicks) ♪ You, oh, oh ♪ (flamingos squawking) - So imagine 500 years ago, these guys used to exist throughout this region here.

They were hunted into extinction about 500 years ago, predominantly for food and their feathers because they're such beautiful colorful birds.

And at some point around 1991, an effort was made through the Bermuda Zoo to reintroduce them into the BVIs.

- So, we brought in 25 flamingos from Jamaica and we waited 10 years.

You have to have at least 25 flamingos to breed.

There's no, you can't just bring in two for it to work.

- And subsequently around 2010, we had our first baby chick born on Necker Island.

Amazingly, when that happened, you could imagine how we all were seeing one egg then hatch out.

And over the years, from 2010 till now, we have had over 2,000 babies born right here on island.

- Chris, this for me is like a dream come true, man, to experience this in real life.

I mean, what was your approach?

I see you with the long lens on there.

What did you do?

- Well, first of all, it's so cool 'cause these are, like, wild.

They're free to leave at any time.

They're not in a zoo.

That just to me feels a little different.

I was trying to get a variety of different shots.

I was trying to get in real tight and compress a lot of color with one sharp flamingo eye and beak, also drips of water.

I was trying to time it so when they pulled their heads up and the water dripped off the end of their beak, I would freeze droplets of water falling down, so.

- That's good!

- I had it on a very fast frame rate and I took, I just took a lot of pictures.

- Yeah!

- Hundreds of pictures!

But I think I got a few frozen.

- [Paul] I was thinking of it a little differently.

- [Chris] Okay!

- The one confusing part of this, to be honest with you, is that there's so many, and what I was trying to do is kind of focus in on maybe one, is just focus on a beak, focus on the eyes, and get the nice background, maybe some flamingos in the back that can give you that nice color, the nice red and pink in the background as you shoot the eye or the beak.

(camera clicks) (airy ethereal music) (camera clicks) (airy ethereal music continues) - [Vaman] There's not a better word to use really in my experiences than saying, "Magical."

- [James] I have a pinch-me moment every morning.

- To me, it's a sin if we ever let one species disappear.

That is unforgivable.

(wistful music) (waves crashing) - [James] 75% of the animals on Necker are all endangered species.

- We reintroduced scarlet ibis.

We reintroduced iguanas.

- And he got a rock iguana, it's one of the most critically endangered species in the world, period.

To be able to establish back a population of them here on this island, we, by far, we've got probably 85% of the population that exists in the world right here on Necker.

(wistful music continues) (leaves rustling) (waves crashing) - So, as much as possible, I don't like things, seeing things in cages.

I like them to be out and about.

Yeah, free on the island.

But there are some things that we keep, we keep locked up, just until they get to a certain size.

So through here we have some baby tortoises.

Just show you baby giant tortoises.

So that's... What is that?

About six years old now?

(Chris laughs) - [Chris] Is it getting you?

- [Vaman] Five years old.

- What?

Five years old, yeah.

- Yeah.

- So this will live 240 years.

- [Chris] Oh, my gosh!

- And... We'll keep it in this area just for a little bit longer until it's a bit bigger so it doesn't get run over.

- So this big boy here, his name is Umpire, he's an Aldabra giant tortoise.

They're from the island of Aldabra in the Indian Ocean and some tiny islands that surround, make up the Aldabra ethos, so to speak.

Largest of all tortoises in the world, really all the species.

These are the largest on land.

Tortoises could get up to this boy here, Umpire, he's about 82 years now and he is probably about close to 800 pounds.

Giant tortoises, they live quite a long time.

On average they live up to 187 years of age.

The oldest known that we have had that lived, lived to be 240 years.

The human species, what we could learn from these guys is that they've been around forever and how have they done that?

Adapted to the changes in the environment and otherwise.

Then you take life slow and you live long.

(camera clicks) (airy bright music) (camera clicks) (cheerful music) (rhythmic whistling) - Paul, you got a turtle friend down here.

(Paul laughs) Hey, can you get a shot of this real quick?

Let's get a shot of this.

This is what happens on Necker.

On Necker, you never know.

Wildlife just strolls right past.

- [Paul] Roams freely.

Yeah!

- [Chris] Well... - We're in their territory, man.

(laughs) - This has been an incredible experience.

- Yeah!

- And we're about to have a sunset.

- Yep!

- What are you thinking about?

- I like the way that sun and the sky is looking right now.

Like the beams coming out, the rays coming out from the clouds.

- Yeah!

I'm trying to decide if I wanna go building, natural elements, a blend of both.

I don't know!

But it's dropping really quick.

Maybe we'll get an afterglow, maybe not, so I don't know how much time we're gonna have for this.

But when are we gonna be here again?

- Next week, right?

No!

- Well, that would be awesome but I don't know if it's happening.

So since we don't know, let's make the most of it.

- Let's go, man!

- Let's go!

♪ Here's a little song I wrote ♪ ♪ You might want to sing it note-for-note ♪ ♪ Don't worry ♪ ♪ Bo bo bo bo ♪ ♪ Be happy ♪ ♪ Bo bo bo bo ♪ - What I like here is that if you look out there, you'll see the sun is coming down, but it's got some clouds right in front of it, but it's a type of cloud that you can see the sun underneath, the sun rays from underneath, and you can also see the sun rays shooting out from above.

- I've come down to the beach because I think it offers all of the different flora that's down here, offers better framing.

The sun is trying not to block, so this might be a fizzle, but I'm gonna quickly move around, try to frame up a shot that I like, and get it before it's gone.

- So if you can see my viewfinder here, you'll see all of this.

Here's the foreground and it's tremendously underexposed, about two, almost two, almost three stops under.

But this is what it's gonna look like once I bring the shadows out.

My little turtle's still there.

- So the sunset has fizzled, which I was afraid of, and it just happens.

And sometimes you're someplace amazing and you really wish you could get something different but you can't, and that's life and that's landscape photography.

So I'm pivoting quickly.

We still have a bit of a pastel hue to the sky even without a great sunset, and so I've come down, I'm using the leading line of the waves and the rocks along this beach that go up to one of the structures here on Necker.

And the way those are facing, they're actually catching some light from the fading sunset.

And so I think this could be kind of a cool beachy pastel shot with some movement to the waves.

Give it a dreamy look that I think will work well and it's gonna be kind of my Plan B, if you will, to the sunset.

So let's see how it turns out.

♪ Don't bring everybody down ♪ (camera clicks) ♪ Like this ♪ ♪ Woo, woo, woo, woo ♪ ♪ Woo, woo, woo, woo, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Don't worry ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, woo, woo, woo, woo ♪ (camera clicks) ♪ It will soon pass ♪ ♪ Whatever it is ♪ ♪ Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh ♪ ♪ Don't worry, be happy ♪ ♪ Woo, oh, oh, oh ♪ (waves crashing) (seagulls squawking) (waves crashing) (bright upbeat music) (bright upbeat music continues) ♪ Flicker in your eyes when you're waking up ♪ - In 2016, Virgin Limited Edition and Virgin Unite founded Unite BVI, and the reason for doing that was to bring people together, partnerships together, great ideas together.

- My colleague, Lauren and I, we collectively put together a proposal for Richard that said, "You are doing so much globally but we'd really like to do something here in the BVI locally.

What do you think about doing a foundation here?"

And he said, "Yes, I love it."

And so, thus began Unite BVI.

We try to pair up great ideas, people, and resources to empower action for sustainable positive impact.

- And that's how we as Necker Island are able to support and help the British Virgin Islands because we can get involved in existing projects, let it be education, let it be conservation.

- Mangroves are critically important.

They really serve as a coastal protection for the BVI.

Ground Sea Adventures was a kickstart BVI small business loan award that we gave out in 2020 and Alex Dick-Read, who's the owner of Ground Sea Adventures, was creating an ecotourism business.

- You'll see the mangroves are growing, they're trees that grow in the sea, and they have lots and lots of roots.

And those roots create a perfect hiding place for baby fish so that even the big baby fish can't get in as deep as the little baby fish, and so everything is sort of protected by the network of roots.

That was number one.

Then the other thing is they protect coastlines.

Each one of those roots is actually essentially an anchor.

And when we got smashed to pieces and everything was destroyed in 2018, in 2017, by Hurricane Irma, the mangroves were smashed from above but not one of them was pulled out of the ground.

Those anchors stayed in place, and by staying there they break up massive wave energy before it takes out its anger on the shoreline.

So they protect the coast and they protect baby fish.

Now in my lifetime, since we were, like, learning that at school as kids, they've discovered that mangroves, as an ecosystem, mangrove and seagrass beds, which is what we see right here, they're grabbing more carbon and locking it away than any other ecosystem on earth by a huge amount.

(waves crashing) (airy wistful music) ♪ Rise up this morning ♪ ♪ Eyes on the rising sun ♪ - Well, Paul, we got a little lost on the way to the spot.

- Did we ever.

- And so, we're a little bit more rushed than we normally would be, but we're here.

- Right now, it's just a puzzle, just figuring out a way to put the puzzle together.

- Sometimes light hits things and it comes alive and it's not necessarily the shot you're here for.

- Be ready to move.

Yeah!

- So, but speaking of be ready to move, let's move 'cause it's coming fast.

- [Paul] All right, man.

- So this is happening so fast.

The sun literally has started coming up right when I got to this spot, which is not ideal, but it is what it is, so I've quickly set up to get this shot.

- I'm trying to get this little alligator thing in my shot, the little wooden structure, along with the greenery, the palm tree.

I think you have to have the palm tree in this shot because of the whole atmosphere, the whole Caribbean atmosphere that we're in.

And the sun is coming up right now, so I'm gonna have a pretty good balanced shot.

I'm gonna have a lot on the left side of the frame, but I'm also gonna have the sun bringing down, you know, holding its own on the right side of the frame.

So it's gonna be pretty balanced from left to right on this shot.

- This is gonna be kind of a multi-part photograph here.

I'm gonna expose for the sun several times, center it right in the frame, and then I'm gonna do a couple of focus stacks on this greenery in the foreground and the big boulders.

And then I might do one more shot Indie filter, smooth out this water to just get the color and not the chop, 'cause all it is is chop right now, and blend all those together for this final image.

(bright dramatic music) (waves crashing) (camera clicks) (camera clicks) What's up, man?

- Chris!

Are you in paradise or what, man?

- This is!

This is literally paradise.

What a place, what a location, what a view.

What, the color!

- [Paul] Yeah!

- [Chris] All the wildlife.

I feel like I got some pretty good shots.

What about you?

- Yeah!

I got to see my flamingos as up close and personal as you can possibly get.

- [Chris] We were just immersed in them.

- [Paul] Yeah!

- [Chris] They were everywhere.

That was a incredible photography experience.

The lemurs jumping on us.

I mean, that was just nuts and it just made me smile.

It, like, brought out the kid, the childlike joy in me to have that happen.

- And then outside of the paradise and wow factor here and the photography that we did here, it was nice to see and hear about what Richard is doing with his resources.

- [Chris] Yes!

- [Paul] On this island, and what he's trying to preserve and what he's trying to keep here.

- I mean, I think that most people in the world really do genuinely care about the environment.

- It's our aspiration, I believe, that we should leave this world in a better place for the future generations because we are only borrowing it from them.

And I'm also an optimist like Richard.

I like to, like, think and say, "You know, instead of half empty of a glass, you look at half full."

- If everybody can just play a little part, if you add that all up together, it can make a massive difference.

- And do what you can to make things a little bit better.

- Yeah!

A bunch of small things equal one big thing, so.

- Completely!

This was a really big thing, photographically, experience wise.

I'm so glad we got to do this and I cannot wait to see the photos that I got from here.

- Me neither.

Me neither.

- All right!

Well, who's swimming?

Me or you?

- Let's both go, man.

(laughs) - Let's go!

Let's go!

(wistful folk music) ♪ Hollows in the woods call out ♪ ♪ Trails and mountains climb ♪ ♪ Waves and sand keep beat and time ♪ ♪ Mossy blankets, swirling streams ♪ ♪ Over rocks and dirt ♪ ♪ Run at pace with all the earth ♪ (wistful folk music continues) (wistful folk music continues) (wistful folk music continues) (upbeat folk music) ♪ Oh, we wander chasing light ♪ ♪ Still we wander chasing light ♪ ♪ So we wander chasing light ♪ (wistful folk music) (airy electronic music) - [Announcer] SIGMA is proud to support photographers and filmmakers around the world, and we believe creativity and sustainability go hand-in-hand.

(waterfall thundering) (birds chirping) (airy electronic music) - [Announcer] Mpix is a proud supporter of "View Finders."

From our materials to our American photo labs, we believe your adventures are worth celebrating.

Mpix, print what matters most.

- [Announcer] Support is provided by Visit Oconee, home of "View Finders," with historic landmarks, parks, and year-round events.

Learn more at, visitoconee.com.

- [Announcer] Troncalli Subaru is a proud sponsor of "View Finders."

(bright triumphant music)