Will Burrard-Lucas
Will Burrard-Lucas (born September 1983), is a British wildlife photographer and entrepreneur. He is known for developing devices, such as BeetleCam and camera traps, which enable him to capture close-up photographs of wildlife.
Will Burrard-Lucas | |
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Nationality | British |
Education | Imperial College London, MSci Physics (2006) |
Occupation | Wildlife Photographer |
Website | www |
Early life and education
Burrard-Lucas was born in the UK and spent part of his childhood living in Tanzania. During this time he became interested in wildlife and nature.[1] He attended Sevenoaks School in Kent[2] before going on to study Physics at Imperial College London.[3]
Career
Burrard-Lucas has been a full-time wildlife photographer since 2010. Previously, he worked for a Big Four accounting firm in London.[3]
Burrard-Lucas works with various conservation NGOs including WWF,[4] African Parks[5] and The Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme.[6]
Inventions
In 2009, Burrard-Lucas created BeetleCam, a remote-control camera buggy, and used it to take close-up photographs of elephants, lions and buffalo in Tanzania.[7] In 2011, he returned to Africa to photograph lions in Kenya.[8] He has since used BeetleCam to photograph wildlife in other African countries, including leopards in Zambia and African wild dogs in Zimbabwe.[9] In 2015, Burrard-Lucas used BeetleCam to photograph wildlife at night in Liuwa Plain National Park in Zambia.[10] This series went on to win the Professional Natural World Category in the Sony World Photography Awards.[11]
While living in Zambia in 2012–2013, Burrard-Lucas also developed high-quality camera traps for photographing rare and nocturnal animals.[12] These camera traps were based on a passive infrared sensor and took photos using a standard DSLR or mirrorless camera.[13] In 2015, his work with camera traps led to a collaboration with WWF to photograph elusive animals in Namibia.[14]
In 2014, Burrard-Lucas founded a company, Camtraptions Ltd, which produces BeetleCams and camera trap systems for photographers and filmmakers.[15]
In July 2019, Burrard-Lucas announced his intentions to take two new versions of BeetleCam back to the African continent in search of lions for a new project[16].
Ethiopian Wolf Project
In 2011, Burrard-Lucas collaborated with Rebecca Jackrel, a nature photographer from the USA, to document endangered Ethiopian wolves in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia. The project was funded via a successful Kickstarter campaign which raised $13,705.[17] The photographers spent more than a month documenting the lives of the wolves and the work of the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme.[18] The project culminated in a book titled The Ethiopian Wolf: Hope at the Edge of Extinction.[6]
Melanistic African Leopard
In February 2019, Burrard-Lucas captured the first high-quality camera trap photographs of a melanistic African leopard, also known as a black panther, in Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya.[19][20] Previously, only one such leopard had been photographed in Africa, in 1909 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[21]
Tsavo Elephants
In August 2017, Burrard-Lucas started working with Tsavo Trust in Kenya to photograph the last "Big Tusker" elephants in Tsavo. During the project, Burrard-Lucas used his BeetleCam to photograph F_MU1, a female elephant with extremely long tusks.[22][23] The project resulted in a book, titled Land of Giants, which was published in 2019.[24][25]
Awards
1st Place, Natural World Category[26], Professional Competition, 2017 Sony World Photography Awards
Publications
- The Ethiopian Wolf: Hope at the Edge of Extinction. 2013. ISBN 978-0981581316.
- Top Wildlife Sites of the World. 2015. ISBN 978-1921517594.
- Land of Giants. 2019. ISBN 978-1912751006.
References
- "Will Burrard-Lucas: How to get close to wildlife - Amateur Photographer". 9 December 2016.
- "Noteworthy OS". Sevenoaks School.
- "Brothers zoom in on the beauty of wild animals".
- Photo, TIME. "See Rare Close Ups of Secretive African Animals". Time.
- "Ingenious Camera Traps Capture Striking Photos of African Animals at Night". 30 June 2016.
- "Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme". www.ethiopianwolf.org.
- "Pictures: Lion Steals Roving Camera, "Takes" Photos". 28 April 2010.
- "A beetlecam's view of wild lions". BBC News.
- "The private life of animals". Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
- Cheng, Selina. "Photos: African lions and hyenas, captured by a robot camera under the Milky Way".
- "UK photographer wins SWPA 2017 Professional Natural World category".
- "Camera Trap Photography Made Easy!". Burrard-Lucas Wildlife Photography.
- "Camtraptions Unveils New PIR Motion Sensor for Wildlife Camera Trapping". 12 June 2017.
- Fleur, Nicholas St (29 March 2016). "Photographing Wildlife Without a Photographer" – via www.nytimes.com.
- "Camtraptions launches PIR Motion Sensor".
- TTL, Nature (2019-07-10). "10 Years of BeetleCam: Will Burrard-Lucas Looks Back". Nature TTL. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
- "Ethiopian Wolf Documentary Project". Kickstarter.
- "Ethiopian wolf photo gallery by Will Burrard-Lucas and Rebecca Jackrel - Discover Wildlife". www.discoverwildlife.com.
- Goldman, J. (2019). "Black leopard spotted in Africa for first time in 100 years". National Geographic – via www.nationalgeographic.com.
- Burrard-Lucas, W. (2019). "Black Leopard: My quest to photograph the most elusive cat in Africa". Burrard-Lucas Photography – via www.burrard-lucas.com.
- Lyons, Kate (13 February 2019). "First photographs of rare African black leopard captured in more than a century". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-02-13 – via www.theguardian.com.
- Street, Francesca (May 9, 2019). "Incredible pictures capture rare 'Elephant Queen' in Kenya". CNN – via www.cnn.com.
- Elephant Has Longest Tusks on YouTube, March 12, 2019
- Burrard-Lucas, W. (2019). "Last Photographs of the Elephant Queen". Burrard-Lucas Photography – via www.burrard-lucas.com.
- "Last photos of Kenya's 'elephant queen'". BBC Newsbeat. 2019 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
- "The winners of the Sony world photography awards 2017 – in pictures". The Guardian. 2017-04-21. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-02-15.