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Lesley Wood FSINWP

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It was a brave choice to submit a black and white panel of wildlife images for a Fellowship qualification, but Lesley Wood stuck to her choice and her beautiful images of African animals in the wild charged through the judging process. Lesley is one of the Societies' most recent Fellows having achieved success at this year's Convention in January.

"I thought it could go one of two ways," Lesley told me when we caught up the week after the Convention. "With all the images being monochrome, it was always going to be a love it or hate it choice for the judges." It turns out that the judges - and everyone else in the room - loved the series of prints showing such majestic animals looking so natural.

Originally Lesley's photography business was focused on shooting family lifestyle sessions and weddings. After deciding to turn professional, Lesley completed a flurry of further education in 2006 including Aspire's Bespoke Programme enabling her to kick off her lifestyle business. However, it was a chance encounter with 11 Cavalier King Charles puppies in 2008 that led to a momentous moment in Lesley's career. Winning Pet Photographer of the Year in January 2009 fueled Lesley's desire to photograph animals. "My whole business changed overnight" says

Lesley when I asked how winning an award for pet photography affected her photography. "The picture that won the award was actually the very first picture that I shot of dogs, I'd never done any pet photography before that!"

It's quite a remarkable story, to win such a prestigious award at your first go out of the gate, but it has encouraged Lesley really to really find her niche in photography and to shoot what she really enjoys. "I love being outside with the dogs and their families, coming back muddy after a shoot. It seemed logical after that to photograph horses too since I had one as a teenager." Moving on to photographing bigger animals in the wild was a natural progression for Lesley. "Photographing lions is like photographing domestic cats, in a way. They behave very similarly - although you do have to remember that they are a cat that can eat you!" Botswana, Ecuador, The Galapagos Islands, the Amazon rainforest, Kenya, Camague ...the list just goes on. Highlights of Lesley's wildlife photography also include handwritten letters from David Attenborough supporting her work; not many wildlife photographers can claim that kind of encouragement!

Shooting wildlife on location in Africa brings its own particular set of problems to a photographer. How do you take all the gear you want to shoot with, while not making the plane groan under the weight of it all? "I take two camera bodies and two lenses," says Lesley when I ask what she managed to fit in her baggage allowance. "I really like the Canon EF 28-300mm because it's really sharp and useful for pet photography too.

It's ideal for shooting both close-up shots, as well nice environmental, wide shots. My second body is a crop sensor, so I use the Canon EF 300mm with a 1.4x converter - and occasionally even a 2x converter." But of course, there's always some compromises when choosing what gear to take on a wildlife photography trip. "I'd love to go bigger. I'd really love a 500mm but I just can't physically carry all of the gear on my own. You have to juggle what you can physically cope with and what you really need to get the pictures. It's no good taking a huge lens if you can't use it, but I seem to find a balance that works ok."

Lesley doesn't seem to show any signs of slowing down, with plans already being made for her next big projects - yes that's projects with an 's' - one doesn't seem to be enough! "I'd love to get a picture through the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. I've got through to the final four times now but never into that elusive last 100 images." On top of that Lesley is also considering running workshops in Botswana as well as getting more involved in judging photography competitions. It's a big job, but somebody's gotta do it!

Shooting for a Fellowship
Meeting travel and wildlife photographer Steve Allen at the SWPP awards night in 2009 sparked a friendship that would help to inspire a Fellowship. Heading out to Botswana with Steve as the fulfillment of a lifelong dream; it was my first experience of Africa and I was hooked!" Lesley tells me. "It took four years worth of trips to gather all the pictures for my Fellowship panel. One of the pictures is from the original trip that I took with Steve and some are from the most recent trips I have taken to Botswana; there's something from all of them."

I caught up with Lesley's mentor, Steve Allen, to find out more about what it was like to accompany the journey to such an exciting wildlife Fellowship. "Lesley was so easy to mentor. It helps that we've known each other some time and I know her work quite well but we worked together as a team to pick the right photos and get a good layout for the panel." Of course Steve was watching the judging from the back of the room, rooting with the rest of us for the panel to pass. "It was an unusual panel because of it being in black and white and that did attract a few comments from the judges, but they obviously liked it! The fine art approach that Lesley took to the presentation was unusual but exactly the kind of print that she usually produces for her business".

But overall Steve just seemed to burst with pride when I asked him how he felt about Lesley receiving her Fellowship: "I couldn't be happier because Lesley genuinely deserves this. I was never in any doubt, I knew inside that she'd got the right shots. I'm also looking forward to hopefully having Lesley coming on board as a judge too, it'll be great to work together in the future!".



Updated 27/04/2026 16:44:22 Last Modified: Monday, 27 April 2026