My story
From a childhood in Zambia to the Masai Mara
One TV station. No internet. Large gardens. Great weather. An abundance of nature and wildlife.
That was my childhood in Zambia: days outdoors and close encounters with Africa's flora and fauna. From a young age I felt the contrast between the bustle of the city and the calm of the wild, and the thrill of spotting wildlife stayed with me. It only grew stronger when I found photography (or when photography found me).
Like most great things in life, photography came by chance. I first experimented with my father's film camera, but film and developing were too expensive to keep up. Years later, living in London, I picked up a basic Nikon DSLR, a big step up from the compact cameras I'd used, and found a creative outlet away from the day job.
My first trip to the Masai Mara settled it; a new telephoto lens may have helped. Each day was more astounding than the last, and on the first evening, going through hundreds of photos outside my tent, I was hooked. Wildlife, photography and, in time, conservation: the pieces of my creative puzzle had fallen into place.
