He believed that the wildlife photography community needed more than just another tour company that propped people up in front of animals to photograph. With a background in biology, years of experience guiding the likes of National Geographic and BBC film crews, and what was by then a full-time career as wildlife photographer, he wanted to begin teaching people the very same skills he used in the field.

Wildlife photography workshops tend to focus only on the technical side of the craft. This is a problem. Camera settings alone will not make someone a better wildlife photographer. The single biggest thing that limits most people’s ability to progress as photographers is the lack of understanding about how to find and work with wildlife on their own.

It doesn’t matter how sophisticated your autofocus system is or how expensive your lenses are, if you can’t find the wildlife, if you cant get close, if you don’t understand behavior, then you will have a very difficult time becoming a better photographer. From mastering composition to understanding how to work with light, we must be able to work around wild animals, anticipate their behavior, understand how they will interact with the landscape, and be able to position ourselves for the best possible opportunities. This is why fieldcraft and ecological literacy are the two most important aspects of wildlife photography.

PhotoWILD Workshops is the culmination of 17 years of experience leading wildlife photography workshops based on this concept.

Blending ecology and ethology (the study of animal behavior) with fieldcraft techniques, PhotoWILD continues to pioneer this style of travel and education as the company has grown into a small team of photographers and master naturalists.