William Burrard-lucas

Country: United Kingdom 🇬🇧

Will Burrard-Lucas is a wildlife photographer from the UK. His passion for Africa and its wildlife took root at a young age, having spent several years of his childhood growing up in Tanzania. \r\n\r\nFifteen years later, whilst at university, the advent of the affordable digital cameras saw Will take up photography. Within a short space of time, his new interest in photography had merged with his passion for the natural world and, whenever possible, he would travel to photograph wildlife. At the same time, he started using the Internet to share images and build his brand. By 2010, the foundations of his business had been established and he took the leap to become a full time wildlife photographer. \r\n\r\nWhenever possible, Will prefers to get close to his wild subjects and use a wide-angle lens to capture a more intimate perspective. Initially, he achieved this by crawling up to unthreatening species such as meerkats. However, he also dreamt of doing this with iconic African animals such as lions and elephants. To achieve this he created a remote-control camera buggy in 2009 which he called “BeetleCam”. The buggy soon proved itself and to this day Will continues to use it to capture fresh perspectives in his work. \r\n\r\nWill has also developed sensors to detect animals and automatically trigger his cameras. Deploying these “camera traps” for weeks or months at a time has allowed him to capture rare photographs of secretive and nocturnal wildlife. In 2014, Will founded Camtraptions Ltd to turn his creations for remote and camera trap photography into products for photographers and filmmakers around the world. \r\n\r\nWill has always endeavoured to utilise new technologies to push the boundaries of wildlife photography. As digital cameras evolved, advances in lowlight sensitivity made it possible to photograph nocturnal wildlife in ways that were not previously possible. This inspired Will to embark on a long-term project to reveal African wildlife at night, using tools such as camera traps and BeetleCam, to capture animals under the starry night sky. In 2017, Will’s portfolio titled “African Wildlife at Night” won first prize in the Natural World category of the Sony World Photography Awards. \r\n\r\nIn 2017, Will embarked on a new project titled “Land of Giants”. The aim of this project was to document the last of Africa’s iconic elephants with tusks reaching down to the ground, in collaboration with the Tsavo Trust and Kenya Wildlife Service. In 2019, “Land of Giants” was released as a coffee table book in support of the Tsavo Trust. \r\n\r\nIn 2019, Will used his Camtraptions system to capture the first high-quality camera trap images of a black leopard in Africa. The resulting images were widely published around the world. \r\n\r\nSupporting conservation causes has long been a driving motivation behind Will’s work. Over the years he has partnered with NGOs such as WWF, African Parks and ZSL. Through his images, Will aims to inspire people to celebrate and conserve the natural wonders of our planet.