Of course I’m a photographer because
I carry a camera and I take pictures
but I define myself as a nature lover.
My work started as me trying to achieve
whatever picture of whatever animal
until it was a moment that something made a click inside me.
And then it becomes like loving the animals,
loving to spend time with them,
and starting to care and to work towards conservation.
We are in South Africa in the Kalahari.
The Kalahari is a stunning place.
This colourful landscape and mountains,
this red soil that makes this place so vibrant.
And it’s full of wildlife.
Well we can find cats like cheetahs,
lions and of course you have gemsbok
and a lot of other wildlife.
But we were interested in the most difficult ones
like the pangolin and the wild dogs.
For me the time I spend in Africa is priceless.
It’s a lot of pressure spending so much time and energy
in the trip and having just 5 seconds to get a
picture that is made in less than a millisecond.
It’s so important, the camera that you have,
that allows you to get that picture.
Speed in cameras for wildlife photographers
is super important because
you have to be fast.
The 1DX III is like a big step,
the improvements this camera has are absolutely amazing.
We are speaking about animals that fly
or just move or run so the increase in this
to 16 frames per second is amazing.
We can get every little movement
and you have it in the frame.
Subject tracking AF following the wild dogs
is really great.
Even when they go behind a bush
the camera is still focused on them.
Quality in my work is very important
because sometimes I do very large prints
and you can see every single detail of the animal.
It's difficult to describe it with words
but once you see the image it's like
so, so good.
The pangolin is the most trafficked animal in the world
and difficult to photograph.
Most of the time you will find it at night.
The 1DX III ISO performance is out of this world.
And there’s no colour noise at all,
just a little bit of grain.
It is amazing what you can get.
I could use more light but
I don’t want to disturb him
so I’m shooting with a high ISO.
Look at that! look at that body!
It’s about time, time for your photography.
It’s a continuous evolution,
continuous pushing boundaries.
It’s always looking for something else,
something that you haven’t done before.
The WiFi transmitter allows you to go 150 metres
away from your camera,
so that opens a huge range of possibilities.
If my work its beautiful it’s because animals are.
The beauty is in them.
I’m just a witness.
I just go with my camera and they are there
so they are connecting to people,
straight to their feelings.
Meerkats are very popular animals,
people connect very easily with them
because they have families like we have.
They take care of the babies while the others go for food.
Two baby meerkats are right there, just coming up from the hole.
Come, come out.
I’m optimistic because I trust in the power of people
and the power as a photographer I have
through the pictures.