I was brought up on a farm in South Africa so bird watching and an appreciation of wildlife was part and parcel of growing up for me. My memories of childhood consist either of being up a tree / roof somewhere or cycling around. If I wasn’t off fishing the local dams, I was spending hours in my homemade bird hide on our dam, constantly wishing to expand my bird “Lifelist”. During the first 18 months I patiently recorded 150 bird species on ours and neighbouring farms - my fascination with all things wild being firmly entrenched!
When I was finally able to buy my first camera (having earned enough money through many hours of chores!) - a Pentax K1000 with a 50mm kit lens, I quickly realised that I was never going to get any decent close-up shots of birds…but having my first camera kick-started my passion for photography nonetheless.
I guess it was inevitable that my passion for wildlife would merge with my love of photography - growing up with some of Africa's finest wildlife on my doorstep.
In 2002, whilst in the UK - having travelled all over the world for work as an IT consultant, I picked up a camera again and haven’t looked back since. My love of computers allowed me to make the transition from film to digital quite easily. It always seemed a natural progression to me and once the quality of the digital sensor matched the most sensitive of film, I never looked back to the days of the dark room again. I specialise in Wildlife and Nature photography of Africa, Europe and Asia. Hopefully I will travel on some trips to the Americas soon.
Wildlife and conservation are more important to me than the photography itself and nothing can surpass the wonder of sitting in some wild place somewhere, marvelling at Mother Nature. We do after all just capture moments of her time...
Keep chasing that perfect moment and most of all enjoy it!
Check back in soon
Wayne
