About

About the Photographer

Hello. My name is Craig Roy and I live with my wife of 30+ years in the Coral Coast region of Queensland Australia. My introduction to photography in 1970 when on school excursions I would borrow my parents camera to document and share what I had seen during the event. My desire to learn photography grew from there and growing up in the bush, I would spend many hours finding and observing small birds and other living creatures and observing even the smallest details. I was fascinated by them and how beautiful and varied they were and I would spend hours just watching them, well as much as time permitted. In 1989 I purchased my first Professional SLR 35mm film camera and a few lenses and here my photographic journey really began. Like most photographers defining their genre in which they want to focus on, they try their hand in many different genre’s in an effort to find their niche and place in life and also to break up the monotony of one field. Typically like many others, I went through the Motor racing scene and nature and landscape and people. Where I found initially the Motor racing scene to be exhilarating while photographing the event, though after many thousands of images, they all began to look the same and the challenge of photographing race vehicles had become very predictable and the challenge was gone. Though I still do some motorsport photography, its not where my passion is.  

My passion in photography

Photographing Nature, Landscape and Panoramas.I get great pleasure in creating Panorama photographs and to be able to show the beauty that resides in creation and the ever changing light that has the ability to make an ordinary scene become magical and extraordinary. One of my goals is to show the Hidden Beauty of Australia and often overlooked in everyday life and those that are in hidden locations, places where most people are not permitted to access.  I enjoy the peace of being in a landscape scene and find strength in these moments of solitude among the natural world in creation. I was always fascinated with the natural world, Birds, Spiders, beautiful scenery and find myself feeling blessed to have the privileged to have spent so much time sharing the lives of such small creatures, in fact, I feel real joy when small creatures like Fairy Wrens and Kingfishers and other small birds that allow me to share the moments in their lives and when they choose to interact with me directly in a relationship built on trust. 

One photographic event

I would like to share with you one such story as the trust formed in such a relationship built over a three month period, where I was observing an Azure Kingfisher pair over this time. As to show respect and build up this relationship with these small birds I set up a perch for them to rest on and to fish from near their nest site and over a period of weeks I would slowly reposition my hide from which I was observing them from to have them become familiar with it being there and after about 2 months of moving the hide ever so slowly closer, I eventually had the hide 3 meters from the nest site and the perch that I had placed for them I was also repositioning it closer each time as well. This perch for them had become prime real estate and it was their favourite perch to rest on and fish from, though others where available nearby, but this was by far their most used one.  Each day as I sat in the hide observing them they would look into my hide and see me sitting there and they were well aware of my presence. On one particular occasion I was in the process of moving the perch one last time in an attempt to get a cleaner background for the Birds to have a more 3D appearance in the finished photograph. While I was holding the perch in one hand, one of the Kingfishers landed on my hand as I was holding the perch. It looked at me, bobbed up and down a few times turning their head as they do, looked around for a few moments then looked at me and saw no threat and then flew directly to the nest in the bank a couple meters away. All I could do was just smile to myself as I enjoyed the experience that I was allowed to be part of their lives. Long story short, unfortunately the nest was predated and no chicks fledged for this pair of kingfishers again that year as they had not had a successful brood in a number of years either due to predation or flooding of nest site because of heavy rain,  I feel their sense of loss with them.

 

“You just cant help but love these little guys and feel their sorrow when you witness such tragic events that occur in their lives”

 

Kindest Regards,
Craig Roy
Wildlife Horizons

As a photographer, I prefer not to talk about myself, but I rather have my work and the testimonials I receive speak on my behalf. If you would like to commission a Photographic work, please don’t hesitate to contact me on the contact page and I will reply for further information.

 

Testimonials

 

“I cant believe how beautiful this print is, its absolutely gorgeous and it has taken pride of place in our home and all our friends comment how beautiful it is, thank you.”
David & Pam.

 

“Your photography is simply stunning, thank you.”
                                    Anne Marie

 

“I just love this print, it is absolutely gorgeous. I cant believe how beautiful this kingfisher is, its just beautiful.”
                                                                                                                        Joan

 

“I cant believe how great this print looks, it really looks 3D and I am going to hang it in my office where I can see it everyday, if I can get my wife to relinquish it.”
                                                                                                                        Jeff

 

“Isn’t he just Beautiful, he really is.”
                                  Graham & Joan

 

“Overall Winner and Best of Show of 2014 Art and Photography Festival”

“Winner of the 2014 Photography Category in the Art and Photography Festival”

“Organizers and Judges – We have never seen a Photograph Like it, you are definitely on the right track with your unique style”