The Photographer
A short profile of Jason Gallier
Hi, I hope you have enjoyed looking through the wildlight website. I took up photography in 1993 and for years I travelled with a trusty canon A1 and light weight tripod. I had little technical understanding and knew less about light and how a photographer uses it. Slowly I have learned many lessons and I'm constantly learning more. Originally I concentrated on landscape photography but now try to capture all nature and natural history including the wildlife that I find so engrossing. In 2003 my partner, Kate, and I volunteered with VSO to work in Malawi, Africa. Malawi is a small country in Central Africa known as the "warm heart of Africa" thanks to the friendliness of the Malawians. It has a varied landscape and some beautiful, if small, National Parks. We worked in the pathology laboratory at Mulanje Mission Hospital, a place dominated by Mulanje Massif which at its highest point, Sapitwa, reaches 3000m. During that time I decided to take my photography further and invested a lot of time and effort into it. We are both keen on wildlife and so Kate and I would get up pre-dawn to be out on safari as early as possible. Then out again in the afternoon waiting for the light. Hiking up Mulanje and Zomba gave us very fond memories and some good photographs. The scenery is stunning and it changes constantly with the weather and the seasons. My photography has slowly evolved to the point that I am now semi-professional. I am making money but not quite enough to pay the bills! It has however allowed me to buy many expensive bits of kit that as an amateur I could only dream about owning. Now I find myself striving to capture that perfect photograph. Returning often to the same places trying to catch the light and that "magical moment". Tracking wildlife through woods and fields, wading into rivers and climbing hills. It all involves more than just a camera with many other skills coming into play.