American Express Explore the World Series brings William Burrard-Lucas to Sri Lanka

Tuesday, 24 September 2013 00:10 -     - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

By Sarah Hannan An interesting presentation of photography by William Burrard-Lucas was hosted at the Cinnamon Grand Hotel, Colombo recently. A project carried forth by Nations Trust Bank and American Express titled ‘Explore The World Series’ partners up with Cinnamon Nature Trails and The Cinnamon Hotels and Resorts to bring the world to Sri Lanka. Marking this unique experience a media briefing was held at Cinnamon Grand where Burrard-Lucas walked the audience through a series of his photographs snapped on the African continent and finally in Sri Lanka. During his assignment with Cinnamon Nature Trails Burrard-Lucas will work around wildlife sanctuaries such as Udawalawe, Wilpattu and Yala. Speaking of his adventures when capturing wildlife, he revealed that he had to use creative methods and even invent a few instruments that allow him to remotely operate his DSLR camera. His most interesting innovation being the BeetleCam now comes in a new version as the previous BeetleCams he built were tested and had few drawbacks in the design. His reason for coming up with the BeetleCam innovation was to allow himself the freedom to photograph the wild beasts up close. “The impact of the capture exhibited the interesting behaviour of wild animals and how inquisitive they are towards gadgets like a camera. I have on previous occasions gotten into situations where I have risked my life in order to get close enough to capture these behaviour patterns. At times, animals have been aggressive towards me when I’ve approached them. The BeetleCam has eliminated the risk factor and has allowed me to capture animals such as lions, komodo dragons, leopards, elephants, wild dogs, hyenas, crocodiles and hippopotami up close and at times while they devour their prey,” Burrard-Lucas. A professional wildlife photographer from the UK, William Burrard-Lucas spent a year in Zambia and is now in Sri Lanka. Burrard-Lucas aims to use innovative tools such as the BeetleCam to gain unusual perspectives. At the beginning of his wildlife photography adventures, his brother Matt Burrard-Lucas joined him to assist with his work. The brothers both share a passion for wildlife photography and have been photographing professionally since 2004 during which they were fortunate enough to travel to many remote and wild locations around the world. Using teamwork, ingenuity and imagination to take interesting and intimate pictures of wildlife they have received numerous awards for their work and have had their images displayed in the Natural History Museum in London and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. At present William Burrard-Lucas works with teams specialising in wildlife photography and carries out his projects solo. For more in depth details of his adventures visit http://www.burrard-lucas.com. Pix by Daminda Harsha Perera

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