I grew up in a small town in the
heart of a highly agricultural area of Germany. The nearby forest and small
river were the places where I spent a lot of time during my childhood and
adolescence. My parents, who both studied biology, introduced me to the
wonders of nature and the passion for nature has never left me since. I
soon got involved with the local branch of a nature conservation organization
where I monitored birds for distribution mapping and led bird tours, teaching
participants to identify birds by their calls.
At the age of 14 I received my first SLR camera, a Nikon EM, which I
still own. I spent a lot of time taking pictures of wheat fields after
a thunderstorm,
moss on the trees in the local forest and flowers at the riverbed. My
school provided classes in black and white photography and access to
a b&w
lab where I spent long evenings.
A photo workshop in the local zoo was the first contact to animal photography
and I was completely overwhelmed when the sponsoring photo shop asked me
for the permission to exhibit one of my pictures in their gallery.
I immediately started to save money for a 400 mm, f5.6 lens, with which
I was sure to make the most wonderful pictures of all the birds and mammals
I often encountered near my home. Alas, it proofed to be much more difficult
than I imagined, and now, many years later, I came to accept that nature
photography is a never-ending learning process.
I am a member of WWF, Frankfurt Zoological Society, GDT (Society of
German animal photographers) and NFS (Swiss nature photographers) and
PGB (Society of Photography of Berne).
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Photography subjects: Animals, plants and landscapes.
Countries visited: Canada, Cambodia, Ecuador (Galapagos), Germany,
Japan, Kenya, Norway, Scotland, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey,
and USA. Hobbies: backcountry skiing, rock climbing, mountaineering, bicycle
tours, travelling, and, although completely lacking the sufficient
skills and talent, I like playing the piano.
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