Growing up in the bushveld of South Africa my passion and appreciation for nature started at an early age. As a child I was fortunate to spend school holidays travelling with my family to numerous game parks and winderness areas throughout Southern Africa as well as spending a lot of time on our family farm outside Modimolle in the Waterberg.
I was born in 1978 and during my school years stayed just outside of Pretoria on a small-holding in the Bronberg. After school I studied Engineering and graduated in 2000. Then I travelled through North America and Europe before returning to Pretoria where I still live today and work as a business systems implementation consultant.
I have always loved technology and in 2000 I got the chance to take up nature and wildlife photography which combined a few passions in life - nature, technology and art. I enjoy photographing all aspects of nature, from the big to the small, landscapes to macros, but my real passion is for birds, and in particular trying to portray them as art. This led me to study all the principles and philosophies of art, and today I have an obsession for using natural elements in the design of my images. My philosophy in photography is to portray common subjects in a refreshing new and spectacular way. I now spend every opportunity I get at local bird sanctuaries or travelling to exotic destinations trying to capture that perfect photograph.
Nature and wildlife photography provided me the opportunity to meet like-minded people from all over world. I like spending time with them out in the field, photographing and talking about all aspects of photography and travelling. I have recently become involved in presenting workshops and leading photo safaris which I find very rewarding by sharing knowledge about photography and also the post-processing side of digital photography - which these days contributes a great deal in getting the most out of your images.
My bird and wildlife images have been published in various magazines and calendars. I was also thrilled to have received a second place and two highly commended places in the bird section of Fuji Getaway's Wildlife & Environmental Photo competition 2008.
Please have a look through my images on my website and if we haven't met already, hopefully we will meet soon on one of ours endeavours of trying to capture that perfect photo!
Fact File:
Born: 20 November 1978
Photographic interests: Birds, Wildlife, Behaviour, Action, Landscapes
Languages: English, Afrikaans
Equipment: Canon DSLR (1D Mark III, 5D Mark II), Canon Lenses (600mm F4 IS, 70-200mm F2.8 IS, 24-70mm F2.8, and 16-35mm F2.8)
Publications: Birder's World (USA), Kings of the Skies by National Hohe Tauren (Austria), and Getaway Magazine
Awards: Fuji Getaway Wildlife & Environmental Photo competition 2008: 2nd place Birds, and 2 highly commended photographs in Birds
Cell:
Email: isakpretorius@gmail.com