My journey as a wildlife photographer

My journey started in 2018 with my first camera and telephoto lens in the country of South Africa. A Nikon D3400 and a Tamron 18-200mm. Not top of the line gear at all, but it was better than any simple compact camera I had had in the past.

As I encountered all these beautiful like leopards, lions, elephants, rhinos and buffalos — so all of the Big Five — as well as hundreds of impalas and other species and got them on all camera, I quickly got hooked. None of them were really any good, aside from a few lucky shots here and there. But it's hardwired in my DNA to always want to do better next time.

Back home

Upon returning to my home in The Netherlands, I then started honing my craft. Walking through the woods for miles on end, looking for local wildlife, such as fallow deer and Konik horses or grey seals in a nearby bay. All the things I have available in my direct vicinity.

During that time I moved away from shooting in auto mode to full manual mode. No longer was I shooting JPEG, but RAW, so I could do more with the captured images in my editing process.

To the zoo

But the limited number of different species that really sparked my interest and the much more appealing species from Africa calling to me, without the budget to go back on a regular basis, lead me to a zoo.

Little did I know at the time, that this would be where I would start making major strides towards becoming a professional photographer.

• I rapidly started upgrading my gear over and over again, which improved the image quality.
• I got to photograph the species that interest me, so my heart was more in the images I captured.
• I learned more about those species and their behaviour, better preparing me for future encounters in the wild.
• I got to improve my technical skills to a professional level.
• I first started making a little income from photography, which I used to re-invest in my photography career.

Ready for the real work

By the time 2024 came around, I had grown my skills to a solid level and had collected my dream setup of the Sony A7R V and Sony 400mm f/2.8. That meant it was time to get back into traveling abroad to find the world's most beautiful species.

The first trip booked was a tour focused on photographing tigers in India. With tigers being my all time favourite species, that just had to be my first destination. And after that? There's a big world out there!