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
NationalityBritish
EducationImperial College London, MSci Physics (2006)
OccupationWildlife Photographer
Websitewww.burrard-lucas.com

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]

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.[19][20] The project resulted in a book, titled Land of Giants, which was published in 2019.[21][22]

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.[23][24] Previously, only one such leopard had been photographed in Africa, in 1909 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[25] The project resulted in a book, titled The Black Leopard, published in 2021.

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.
  • The Black Leopard: My Quest to Photograph One of Africa's Most Elusive Big Cats. 2021. ISBN 978-1797202914.

References
  1. "Will Burrard-Lucas: How to get close to wildlife - Amateur Photographer". 9 December 2016.
  2. "Noteworthy OS". Sevenoaks School.
  3. "Brothers zoom in on the beauty of wild animals".
  4. Photo, TIME. "See Rare Close Ups of Secretive African Animals". Time.
  5. "Ingenious Camera Traps Capture Striking Photos of African Animals at Night". 30 June 2016.
  6. "Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme". www.ethiopianwolf.org.
  7. "Pictures: Lion Steals Roving Camera, "Takes" Photos". 28 April 2010.
  8. "A beetlecam's view of wild lions". BBC News.
  9. "The private life of animals". Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
  10. Cheng, Selina. "Photos: African lions and hyenas, captured by a robot camera under the Milky Way".
  11. "UK photographer wins SWPA 2017 Professional Natural World category".
  12. "Camera Trap Photography Made Easy!". Burrard-Lucas Wildlife Photography.
  13. "Camtraptions Unveils New PIR Motion Sensor for Wildlife Camera Trapping". 12 June 2017.
  14. Fleur, Nicholas St (29 March 2016). "Photographing Wildlife Without a Photographer" – via www.nytimes.com.
  15. "Camtraptions launches PIR Motion Sensor".
  16. TTL, Nature (2019-07-10). "10 Years of BeetleCam: Will Burrard-Lucas Looks Back". Nature TTL. Retrieved 2019-08-04.
  17. "Ethiopian Wolf Documentary Project". Kickstarter.
  18. "Ethiopian wolf photo gallery by Will Burrard-Lucas and Rebecca Jackrel - Discover Wildlife". www.discoverwildlife.com.
  19. Street, Francesca (May 9, 2019). "Incredible pictures capture rare 'Elephant Queen' in Kenya". CNN – via www.cnn.com.
  20. Elephant Has Longest Tusks on YouTube, March 12, 2019
  21. Burrard-Lucas, W. (2019). "Last Photographs of the Elephant Queen". Burrard-Lucas Photography – via www.burrard-lucas.com.
  22. "Last photos of Kenya's 'elephant queen'". BBC Newsbeat. 2019 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  23. Goldman, J. (2019). "Black leopard spotted in Africa for first time in 100 years". National Geographic – via www.nationalgeographic.com.
  24. Burrard-Lucas, W. (2019). "Black Leopard: My quest to photograph the most elusive cat in Africa". Burrard-Lucas Photography – via www.burrard-lucas.com.
  25. 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.
  26. "The winners of the Sony world photography awards 2017 – in pictures". The Guardian. 2017-04-21. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-02-15.
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