I started out with my fascination/obsession with Wildlife when I was a mere 6 years old.
My Grandmothers friends Son gave me two UK Wildlife books with pictures and as soon as I opened the pages, magic and wonder worked it magic in my young head and I was absolutely intrigued and focussed with wonder and amazement.
Very soon after I got my Father to make me a Bird Table and I started to feed the Garden Birds, and with the help of a pair of my Fathers binoculars, seeing what came into the garden just totally blew my mind with all the different species.
With the help of the books I managed to identify each one and made records and absolutely awful drawings (as you do when that age), but it gained my interest further.
Then as my Parents encouraged my newfound interest, my Father started to take me out to Nature Reserves and into the Countryside to see more, and I was hooked.
I recall seeing my first Fox at this point and I was absolutely in heaven, it was so beautiful and yet so magical too….and from then on I looked at Mammals in my now ever increasing Wildlife Book Library.
This carried on and my fascination grew and grew as I got older, and I was always out when my Father could take me looking at wildlife and feeling it was my Happy Place.
I reached the Grand old age of 14, still fascintated and going out looking for Wildlife, but then something else happened……My father who had a few small camera bought a big SLR camera, a Russian Zenit TTL……..(Film Camera…..It was so big and heavy and it grabbed my attention immediately.
So then my Father encouraged me to use it and he showed me the basics of Exposure and Shutter Speds and Film ISO…….etc, …and then I can recall getting an old screen, cutting a hole in it and doing my very first Bird Photography, set up in the garden hiding behind it and taking lots and lots of photographs and
developing my “Art”………..
Then my Father bought me a Praktica MTL3 SLR of my own along with a 300mm Sunagor lens……gamechanger and boy did I love it!
So still I went out and photographed everything and I was well hooked by this point.
Fast Forward 41 years later….and I am still fascinated and obsessed by my Wildlife Photography….going out as much as possible but obviously now fully digital, and taking many Images of various Birds, Mammals and also Macro and Landscapes too.
So thats a basic back-story about me and how I got into this My Father was the main person who encouraged me and entered me into the world of Photography………..he is sadly no longer with us but I would like to dedicate this Website to my Father, my Best Friend and Mentor!
Many Thanks
Mal Gee
