Where do you get your pictures from?

When people look at my books, they ask me: “Where do you get your pictures, from the internet?” They are surprised to hear that my husband and I take all the pictures ourselves. For my illustrations, I need pictures of animals in all kinds of positions. You couldn’t buy a picture of an elephant walking away, in bad light, from a stock agency. Normally wildlife photographers do not take that kind of pictures. If they do, they delete them, not sell them. The pictures for Phanhabs Savanna were taken over a period of three years in Botswana, Tanzania and Kenya. We work with three different cameras and lenses. Our big 400mm 2,8 fixed focus lens, which we call Bertha, is too heavy for me, so I let my husband handle her. I focus on landscapes with a wide-angle lens. For the mid-range we both use our 70-200 mm zoom lens. It is great to be out in the bush together, but it is also hard work. We get up before sunrise and are out in the field for most of the day. Back in camp we download the pictures, make backups, charge batteries, … , and sit around the campfire. For now we love spending our holidays like this. Who knows what the future will bring.