My Story
A Wild! Life
A once-upon-a-time academic and business executive, I have worshipped at the altar of digital content – in all its forms – and have spent almost 40 years playing in the intersections of art, communication and technology. As an academic in the early 90’s, I developed and taught multimedia curriculum. By 2000 I was shepherding a Montreal start-up towards the front lines of the emerging mobile content industry. I have produced “content” for most of my professional life and have worked creatively with brands as diverse as Blue Note, HBO, Disney, Much Music, Deepak Chopra and Family Guy. Whether lecturing, managing, consulting, designing or producing, I have always been driven by the creative process.
Two Worlds Colliding
In 2008 I made a decision to resign as the Chief Operating Officer of a successful mobile content company. It was time for a sabbatical, which would be followed by a return to the business world and a fresh perspective on my career. I had fallen in love with Africa on a short trip to Tanzania in 2007 and so, in September of 2008, I decided to return to the continent. I would spend 10 weeks traveling through South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. It was early November and I was in northern Namibia looking for desert elephants when a brief satellite connection to the internet revealed a sharp and sudden drop in my bank accounts back home. My passion for wildlife photography had abruptly collided with the 2008 stock market crash. Unbeknownst to me at the time, a world economic recession would soon lead me to abandoning the Boardroom for the backseat of a Land Rover.
Change is Good… Change is Terrifying
Upon “re-entry” to Canada, I was faced with the challenge of a job search during an economic downturn. As well as a Canadian winter. But all I could think about was the spectacle of African wildlife I had been so lucky to spend my time with and photograph. After considerable soul-searching and very few returned employment phone calls, I decided to put my executive life on hold and return to my creative roots to explore a new livelihood. I worked on a portfolio of images and began building visual narratives from the lives I had observed. I immersed myself in my photos and rediscovered moments I had forgotten and found new ones that were only revealed through a closer exploration. The beauty of a photo is that it has the power to tell new stories each time you return to it. It was these images and stories that formed the basis for my first solo photo exhibit. I have always been a storyteller and educator and so I began accepting invitations to speak about photographing wildlife, the conservation crisis we currently face, and following your passion. Quite by accident, my Wild! life had begun.
Following My Heart
I am fascinated and deeply passionate about wildlife–especially the iconic species on Africa! I have had so many close encounters with incredible animals, from endangered black rhinos and wild dogs to cheetahs and leopards. It has been like living a dream. I have spent long hours sitting quietly, lost in the minutia of the daily lives of these wondrous creatures, the only sounds coming from the world around them. I fix my lens on the smallest details; the hairs on a tail, lashes of an eye or the curve of a belly. Watching and learning about their social hierarchies, their hunting and survival instincts, or play and family dynamics, has been an endless education. It has also shaped my creative choices for making images that tell their stories. Easily drawn to the ever-changing patterns of skin, the kink of a whisker, the hook of a beak or place of a paw, I am constantly astonished at finding myself in a position to observe these wild lives up close. They have taught me to see with new eyes. In their world, I am transported by the smells both pleasant and pungent and the sounds—especially at night! It has been a privileged experience and it has led me down a new path in life. In today’s world, working as an artist translates into creating and posting enormous amounts of digital content. When I am not on long shoots in Africa, my days at home are filled with editing images or video, writing stories and answering comments and questions. My hope is that through sharing my images and stories I can spark the imagination of my audience and awaken their passion to the brilliance and beauty of the natural world we have all been gifted–and to the enormous loss that would come with losing it. Thank you for your encouragement. If you enjoy the content I post online and would like to help support my work in some small way, please take a look at my WIld! art cards and prints, or consider joining the Wild Bunch or Armchair Wanderers for a peek behind-the-scenes while I am on my safaris.
Safari Snippets!
A magical visit from a young elephant as I was sitting on my porch watching the river in South Luangwa national Park. He was quite relaxed and very intent on browsing for fallen nuts around my porch. Luckily I had my iPhone with me, so without moving or making eye contact with my new friend, I blindly pointed the iPhone towards him and hoped for the best!
Wild! Adventure
Let Me Take You There
As a photographer and storyteller, I am always trying to bring my audience up close to the extraordinary wildlife that has transformed my thinking and shaped my creative expression. However, the Africa I have come to love is changing. The global conservation crisis is sadly reflected in the changing wildlife on the Africa continent. Every year I visit Kenya I see fewer elephants. The ivory poaching crisis has reached epic proportions with one elephant dying every 15 minutes. The black market price tag for rhino horn now exceeds $50K a kilo and has decimated the rhinoceros population. Lion numbers are falling, cheetahs are running out of time and seven of Africa’s vulture species are on the edge of extinction. With a growing urgency I work to create and spark connections between my audience, the extraordinary animals I photograph and the conservation crisis that is threatening their existence. Conservation efforts in wildlife destinations like east and southern Africa need your help.
If going on safari is on your “bucket list” I urge you to move it up to the top. Don’t wait too long as it might soon be gone. Come with me to see this spectacle of nature! I lead small, intimate groups to Kenya for first-time and seasoned travelers alike. Whether you are an experienced photographer or are armed with an iPhone, I will help you discover new ways of seeing. These incredible adventures start before you leave home and will continue on in your memory long after you return. So come with me to this magical place that exceeds imagination — your life will be enriched and you will be enriching the lives of those working to sustain these wild places.