Mark Fellows. Close-up Macro Photographer.

Mark Fellows became interested in natural history at a young age. He grew up in Clare, in the west of Ireland, having moved there from England when He was two. He wanted to be a zoologist from an early age, and was fortunate enough to be growing up in an area where local biodiversity is impressive.

The Shannon Airport Lagoon was his local site, and the Clare coast, including Loop Head, Quilty and Ballyvaughan Bay were regular haunts. Inland, the south Clare lakes, and the Shannon Estuary provided a wide range of bird species and insect life. He was greatly influenced by Phil Brennan, who in addition to being a wonderful natural historian, is an acclaimed artist and author.

Photography

He as been using SLR cameras since is early teens; His first was a Cosina CT1G. He uses Nikon cameras (currently a D300), and process all images through Nikon Capture NX2 and Adobe Photoshop CS4.

His main bird photography lens is a Sigma 500mm F4.5 IF EX HSM telephoto. Some bird shots and many of the mammal images are taken with a Sigma 100-300mm F4 IF EX HSM lens, with a dedicated 1.4X EX Sigma converter when needed. He uses a Gitzo 3540LS carbon fibre tripod and a Wimberley Mark II gimbal head, as support. He also uses a Sigma 150-500 F5/6.3 APO HSM OS as a carry around record-shot lens.

The majority of macro shots were taken using a micro Nikkor 105mm VR AF-S IF-ED (great for handheld shots), and also use a Sigma 180mm EX DG HSM macro lens. He uses the superb Nikon R1C1 wireless macro flash system for lighting, or a Nikon SB-900 (alone or with an SB-600) flashgun for fill-in light. He uses StoFen diffusers on all flash heads. He occasionally use Kenko extension tubes for ultra close-up work. He also uses a Manfrotto 190Pro carbon fibre tripod with an Arca Swiss Z2 ball head for this work - light and portable, but rock solid. This set up allows him to position his camera at any angle, which is excellent for low level work.

If necessary, He uses a monopod or large beanbag for stability.  A Sigma 18-50mm EX F2.8 is his general purpose lens, He also use a Nikkor 50mm F1.8D, and a Sigma 10-20mm EX DC HSM ultra-wide angle lens, but these are rarely used for wildlife shots.

All photographs are ©Mark Fellowes. And is represented by Ardea, a specialist wildlife photographic library.

Website

This website is intended to be a place where he can share a sample of is natural history photographs. The galleries contain images taken since he switched to digital photography in 2005, and the majority are more recent. They include photographs from near annual spring trips to Andalucía, and images from his annual trips to Tanjung Puting in Borneo, where he runs a tropical biology field course for undergraduate students. The galleries are organized around either geographic location, or by taxonomic group. The majority of images are close-up photographs of invertebrates, birds and mammals.

Where He works

He is a zoologist working at the University of Reading. As well as being fascinating in their own right, the study of animals is increasingly important in this changing world. His work focuses on asking why genetic variation in traits that affects species interactions (for example, predator-prey; host-parasitoid) is maintained in natural populations, and what the ecological consequences of this variation is.
More recently, he as developed an interest in urban ecology, and currently he is involved in a projects investigating how urban supplementary feeding of birds influences wider community interactions, the role of cats as urban predators, and the return of red kites to urban habitats. Further afield, he occasionally as projects in south-east Asia, most recently studying how oil palm plantations affects the diversity and abundance of frogs and toads.