Biggest Influences
Who have been your biggest influences?
Over the years I’ve been lucky to spent time with many great wildlife photographers, environmentalists and travellers that have influenced, inspired and supported my work, below are a few of these people and others that I continue to learn from and aspire to be as good as:
Theo Allofs, an incredibly successful and down to earth photographer who I really enjoyed spending time over dinner and a drink in India. He is a multi awarding photographer, published in more magazines that I can list and his Pantanal and Australia books are exceptional. Theo’s amazing work can been found on his website http://theoallofs.photoshelter.com/ , Theo also leads small photography groups to some of the best wildlife locations in the world, join him here https://www.focusexpeditions.com.
Jonathan Bjorklund – we met in Runde (Norway) photographing puffins, since we have travelled together to find the Musk Oxen in Dovrefjell national park (Norway), around the UK several times for sea birds, into the south of Argentina and Chile and on to Antarctica, he’s great photographer, strong outdoorsman and great travel companion. Check out his work at http://www.realphoto.se
James Warwick, really likes Zebras, I first met him in Finland when we where on the Russian border both chasing European Brown Bears and Wolverines, then somehow we crossed paths in our Landrover Defenders in the Maasi Mara! Great photographer and good friend, I look forward to getting back out in the field with him. Check out his excellent website, http://www.jameswarwick.co.uk.
Magnus Carlsson, who was a good friend, a strong wilderness man and great photographer, worked hard to set up perfect shots of his Native Swedish subjects. He learnt to fly and took some amazing landscapes over Sweden in a float plane that saw in come runner up in Wildlife photographer of the year in 2012 (click here to see Magnus’s image) . Sadly on the 22nd of Sept that summer he was killed in a float plane accident, doing what is loved, such a great loss. His website is http://www.taigavision.com shows the excellent work he and Linda did. The BBC also did a page on him which I wrote click here.
Chris Gomersall, part of the first wave of wildlife photographers, multi award winning and one of the few people I know who got paid as a job just to take wildlife photographs (RSPB official photographer), he is still one of the best bird photographers in the world and a really nice guy, who I have been lucky enough to meet several times. See his great work here http://www.chrisgomersall.co.uk/
Frans Lanting one of the early pioneers of wildlife photography his book eye to eye (find eye to eye here) was one the first wildlife photography book I owned and inspired me to travel and photograph wildlife and landscapes all over the world, http://www.lanting.com/. Frans uses his photography to communicate life and evolution, which cluminated in his book life and in his TED talk which is well worth a watch.
Vincent Munier, the toughest photographer going, who’s images are artistic and minimalist of the hardest to find animals in the world. His books are excellent, artist and different to anything you will have seen before (http://www.vincentmunier.com/shop/en/) his images can be seen here http://vincentmunier.com/indexflash.html. I got his new book Adelie for Chrismas which shows his recent work from antarctica with undewater photographer Laurent Ballesta a great piece of work.
Staffan Widstrand, a friend of mine got me ‘The Big Five’ a book on Scandinavia’s top five predators I was blown away by his style and his story telling through his images. He is one of the best in world, http://www.staffanwidstrand.se/ Staffan is the Director of the Wild Wonders of Europe Project one of the first multi photographer wildlife projects that produced thousands of excellent images and several books.
Mike Lane, Mike is a great photographer and stories teller, very handy when stuck in a hide waiting for Ospreys! His book on where to photograph wildlife in the UK should be on every UK nature photographer’s shelf. Have a look at his website here
Orangutan foundation UK – I have been lucky enough to work with Ashley and her team for a few years now. They do a great job out in Borneo working closely with Yayorin and the Indonesian Government. Educating and saving much needed habitat to ensure the Orangutans and the rest of the forest wildlife survive find out more here. The BBC did a cover of my work with OFUK, find it here
Ole Martin (AKA the eagle man) (http://norway-nature.com/), a trip in his boat will never be forgotten. From catching the fish to photographing the eagles. And the waffles. Great opportunities for lots of wildlife photography. I have spent many days on his boat and in his hides. Still one of the best wildlife photography trips in the world and something everyone should do at least once.
Miguel Lasa, a great phhotographer from Spain but based in the same town as me in the north east of England, Miguel won the impressions category in wildlife photogragher of the year in 2009 with his increbible rim lit polar bear. We have spent time photographing subjects in the UK, eagles in Norway and Ospreys in Finland. Check out his work, http://www.miguellasa.com/.
Eero Kemila, one of the first wildlife photographers, a real outdoorsman and builds the best photography hides in the world. I have spent weeks in Finland under his guidance photographing European Brown Bears and some of the best birds in Europe, including the amazing Great Grey Owl, my blog on the silent hunter was my most recent trip with Eero, I hope to spend many more days in the field with him.
