Biography

I have always been fascinated in wildlife from a very young age and have a special attraction to the parrot family. I have photographed approximately 390 species and sub-species either in the wild or in captivity. Most of which I have seen in the wild.

As I started to work in the late 1960’s, I was disappointed in the lack of images either painted or photographs of the wonderful parrot family. Working at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) Wildlife Division I met many officers with the same admiration for wildlife.

Of course, Joseph Forshaw was working there at the same time and  he has had a significant effect on me as he was in the process of writing Australian Parrots and subsequently Parrots of the World. So now we had illustrations and this only increased my desire to learn more about parrots. Of course the latter book was superbly illustrated by the remarkably talented William Cooper. We now had images of the entire parrot family and this drove me wanting to photograph and see them wether in the wild or captivity. I do admire seeing them in the wild and watching their behaviour.

Over the years, cameras and lenses have improved so much that it is not impossible to get great images. Having said that when you target a certain species you should arm yourself with prior knowledge of the birds habits which obviously can make the task easier.

Even armed with this knowledge it doesn’t mean you will get the image. Indeed, it can be very frustrating especially if your quarry has many leaves or branches in the way. This probably frustrates most photographers especially me, to distraction, but once you get a great image all the hard work is forgotten.

I am now in the process of publishing a photographic portfolio of the Lories and Lorikeets of the world with 80+ species and subspecies it will be a significant project. I still have in the order of 6 species to complete the entire group except for the one species considered extinct on New Caledonia.