Having left University in 1980 I drifted for a while before getting a job in a hospital lab but since getting the money, and over my fear of foreign places, I have been abroad many times since 1990 when having turned 30 it was obviously time to travel.
I have been taking photographs of natural history subjects for over 40 years now and with my main interests being insects (butterflies especially), orchids, birds and mammals. In 2019 I tried tropical underwater photography (snorkeling only).
Since 1990 I visited over 20 countries, many of them several times. For natural history, historical sites and travel in general. Turkey is hard to beat, Mexico has proven very good but for a while Africa was the continent of choice with trips to Ghana (four times), Ethiopia (three times), Malawi and Tanzania as well as Morocco. I have now finally made it to South America - Ecuador in 2023 and Colombia in 2024 along with Panama. Some people like to "collect" countries but I prefer to revisit and see more the second time around!
My favourite places would include Eastern Turkey, the area around Lake Van is fantastic for many things, the worse kept secret in the natural history world Bobiri in Ghana, perhaps the best place in the whole of Africa for butterflies and Mexico for a variety of things. I can also add the Coral Triangle (SE Asia) for corals and fish and Ecuador for hummingbirds and butterflies.
On the photographic equipment front I have been using Nikon D750 cameras and a standalone version of Lightroom since 2014 and really do not want to change as I really like using the camera and software.
After eye issues (twice torn retina) in 2014 I retired at the end of Jan 2019 and also had a catarract op later in the year (brilliant improvement to sight in the eye!). In Sept 2024 the retina in the other eye also tore and had to be repaired just over a month before a trip to Mexico... Glaucoma in the right eye deterioated and a trabeculectomy in early Dec 2025 has made the sight worse (as expected) but I use my left eye for photography so should be okay...
And since 2015 a lot of my images have also been on the stock site - Alamy and in 2021 I published an e-book (see Links) (Thanks to Alan for hosting it!).
Nigel Sawyer, Jan 2026
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