Georgina Steytler Photography is an award winning nature photographer with a passion for ethics and bird conservation. She has been a regular volunteer and long-time member of BirdLife Australia and Friends of the Western Ground Parrot (an Albany based organisation trying to save a species that, once prolific in the bushland around Albany, is now on the verge of extinction).
She grew up on an orchard in Donnybrook, Western Australia where she developed a love for the natural environment.
She currently lives in Toodyay with her husband (Chris), dog (Tawny) and two baby kangaroos (Possum and Peanut)
A whole range of amazing new images are available in her collection at jigsawgallery.com.au/collections/georgina-steytler
1. How did you start out as a photographer/artist?
A. I have always loved photography since I was at school. However, it was not until I started to do volunteer work at the BirdLife WA office just over 10 years ago that I became passionate about birds and bird photography. It became very serious (and expensive) addiction from there.
2. What is your favourite subject to photograph & why?
A. Birds and Kangaroos. Birds because they are such characters and so magical in flight. There are thousands of different birds and thousands of ways to photograph them. I also love to photograph kangaroos but this is more due to the fact that I have raised many orphaned kangaroo joeys over the years and have quite literally fallen in love with them. They are very affectionate animals and the opportunities to capture unique and beautiful interactions between them are endless.
3. What is your biggest challenge as a photographer?
A. Getting up early! I am not an early morning person by nature so making myself get up early enough to capture animals in the most beautiful light is the biggest challenge. I tend to find that birds are more active in the mornings too so getting up with the sun is essential for good bird photography.
4. What’s your next or dream destination to photograph?
A. Christmas Island! Three species of boobies, 3 species of frigatebirds, two species of tropicbirds and over a million red crabs - now that is what I call paradise!
5. Social media - love it or hate it? What platforms do you use?
A. I definitely have a love/hate relationship with social media. I am on Facebook and Instagram, but I am most active on Instagram. I try not to spend a lot of time on these platforms and to be honest, I'd rather not be on them at all but unfortunately they are essential these days for professional photographers.
6. What equipment do you use, favourite lens?
A. I use a Canon 1Dx and a 600mm F4 lens most of the time. The lens is very big and heavy but it produces such good quality images that it's hard to put down (so to speak).
7. How do you know when your photo editing is finished?
A. That's a good question. I often edit images very quickly for social media and then look at them several days later and hate what I have done. You know when an image has been edited well when it is sharo, relatively noise free and is a good portrayal of your vision at the time that you took the photo.
8. What’s the most difficult/challenging place you’ve photographed?
A. This would be a toss up between photographing albatross from a rocking boat in high swells, in the rain whilst I was violently sea sick and photographing Ptarmigan in the Cairngorms National Park in the Scottish Highlands in a snow blizzard!
9. What do you think about having jigsaws made from your images/artworks?
A. I have actually thought for years how fabulous it would be to have jigsaws of native flora and fauna of Australia and so when this opportunity came up I was delighted. It is so good to see local Australia artists getting their work represented in this fun, family-friendly medium.
