I’ve been taking photographs of wildlife for around 14 years and my only regret is that I didn’t start earlier. My wife and I took a trip to the Galapagos Islands in 2009 with my trusty second-hand Minolta and medium telephoto lens and I was hooked. We now spend most of our holidays on new and interesting nature trips or combining ‘normal’ holidays with any opportunity to add to our wildlife experiences. I’ll photograph just about anything in the natural world and I’m just as fascinated by leaf-cutter ants as I am by elephants and polar bears.
Have a look around my site and pop something in the ‘search’ box if you are interested in something special. Click to enter a slide show from any of the thumbnails and click again to enlarge the image.
I write a nature blog with some random thoughts about the natural world which is published on the ‘Ray’s blog’ page of my site and can also be found on our ‘Yetton Together’ village website.
If you would like to purchase any image, please feel free to contact me at raybrownuk@yahoo.co.uk and I will send a high-resolution file. I normally accept a donation for the use of my images to support Zarach (www.zarach.org), a Leeds based charity (quickly spreading throughout the north of England) who provide beds and other essentials for children in poverty.
You can check out Zarach by using the link to the right of this page.
I live in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire and conduct photographic presentations to a wide variety of groups, both private and public, my fee being donated to Zarach. My current subjects are:
Florida – wildlife Heaven – one of the best places in the world to get up close and personal to wildlife, visiting Sanibel Island’s beaches and reserves, Sarasota’s Celery Fields and the Myakka River State Park. See America’s giant alligators in action, the magnificent osprey and bald eagle, the beautiful painted bunting and much more.
Desert and Delta (Namibia and Botswana) – wild dogs, leopards, huge birds of prey, butterflies and the beetles of Namibia’s desert with an amazing technique for collecting drinking water.
Canada and Alaska -grizzly and black bears, seals and sea-lions, bald eagles – and the calving Hubbard glacier!
Cortez to California – from the biggest animal that ever lived, the massive blue whale, grey (friendly) whales that come to say, ‘Hello’, flying mobula rays and breaching humpbacks of the Sea of Cortez and Baja’s peninsula, to the tiny hummingbirds of California. An amazing mix of intriguing wildlife.
Yorkshire Mixture – a selection of images from the sea-birds of Bempton Cliffs to the squirrels of Snaizeholme, and, of course, the birds and animals from my own back garden. A lesson in why you don’t, necessarily, have to travel overseas to get some great wildlife.
Taking Nature – a selection of some of my favourite images of animals, birds, reptiles and insects – hummingbirds, kingfishers, owls and ospreys, portraits and action – and there’s a story with each one.
Penguins and Pinnipeds, an expedition to Antarctica, South Georgia, and the Falkland Islands with its whales, penguins, albatrosses and a little of Shackleton’s amazing story, ‘SOUTH’.
Land of the Tiger – an introduction to the wildlife of four of Central India’s best reserves including, of course, the Royal Bengal tigers.
Birds and beasts of Sri Lanka – An island of beautiful birds and interesting mammals with a good measure of its endemic species, seen nowhere else in the world.
The Western Isles – Some of Scotland’s landscapes and wildlife from Mull, South Uist, the Shiants, Arran and the Small Isles. See white-tailed eagles, Atlantic puffins, otters, short-eared owls, dolphins and the mating antics of red-breasted mergansers.
God’s amazing creatures – A shorter illustrated talk suitable for all ages which shows some of the wonders of nature, large and small.
Africa in Raw, a brand new presentation for 2023, not for the faint-hearted. South Africa and Zambia’s wild animals portrayed in stills and video clips, behaving just as nature intended.
Birds of prey, another brand new presentation for the enthusiast who loves birds of prey (who doesn’t?). White-tailed and bald eagles, fish eagles, serpent eagles, harriers, kites and hawks, owls from home and abroad, one with pink eyelids and even those that fish.
My outstanding presentations for 2024/25 are as follows:
9 April 2024, Kirkheaton community centre – ‘Taking nature’
15 April 2024, Aspire at Dalton – ‘Land of the tiger’
16 April 2024, Aspire at Chestnut Centre – ‘Land of the tiger’
18 April 2024, Aspire at St. John’s Huddersfield – ‘Africa in raw’
18 April 2024, Aspire at Berry Brow – ‘Africa in raw’
11 September 2024, Ossett WI – tba
2 October 2024, Phoenix women’s group, Holmfirth – ‘A Yorkshire Mixture’
2 October 2024 – Shepley Bird and Wildlife – TBC
4 March 2025 – Flockton WI – TBC
8 April 2025 – Huddersfield women’s Probus – ‘A Yorkshire Mixture’
16 April 2025 – Huddersfield RSPB – ‘Birds of Prey’
Feel free to email me if you would like further information about the talks, venues, availability or organisations listed above. And have a look at my blog for a few random thoughts about the natural world.