People who know me well will tell you how obsessed I am with wildlife and especially photographing it. But it hasn’t always been about wildlife for me, it’s actually a new hobby of mine.
I’ve always had a camera in my hand since art college back in the 90s and I went all the way through to university studying photography. I was mainly focused on Journalistic photography and studio portrait work back then. I was looking to make it my career.
The scary thing is this is all way before digital photography. I still know my way around a film camera and a darkroom. I couldn’t imagine trying to do wildlife photography with a roll of 36 film at a fixed ISO!
After uni, I decided to drop photography and went into graphic design and website development. I’ve racked up 15+ years now working in design agencies and it’s a career I’ve always loved.
Although I still had a camera in my hand in a hobbyist way during that time and mainly created landscape imagery.
And then a Meadow Pipit came to say hello
At the time, the whole globe was going through the Covid Pandemic. Lockdowns took place and gathering socially was heavily restricted. One of the only things you were allowed to do was go outside to exercise. So that’s what I did. I dusted off my walking boots and got out onto my local moors.
One night, mid-summer, I was walking on a piece of moor called Great Hill and on the way back down a Meadow Pipit flew up to a wooden post and kept a watchful eye on me. All I had on me was my DSLR (Nikon D3300) and a 55-200mm lens.
I tried to snap a couple of pictures of this wonderful little bird and that was the exact moment I was bitten by the wildlife photography bug.
I didn’t even know what species of bird it was, but I was massively intrigued and engrossed in finding out.
From that moment I found myself focused on photographing Wildlife.
Some of my earliest wildlife photographs
A steep learning curve
Photographing wildlife is a totally different challenge than photographing landscapes and peoples portraits in the studio.
Wild animals are unpredictable and most move around very fast.
The key to success is getting closer, not being discovered and being very patient. I find myself doing a lot of research on a species to find out the best way to approach photographing them.
The more I read and experience the deeper I get hooked in to this fantastic past time.
I’ve always cared for animals and felt that amazing connection with them. I much prefer animals over humans to be honest. My approach from day one is make sure I’m not disturbing the animals or put them in any danger in any way.
I’ve heard some horror stories on how far wildlife photographers will go to get a photograph and I will never be one of those people.
Wildlife Photography is a huge part of my life now and it is a lifelong hobby for me now. It’s help me immensely with my stress and anxiety.
I’m at my happiest when I amongst wildlife.
Some of my latest wildlife photographs
