THE PRO GARY JONES
CAMERA: NIKON Z 9
Gary resides near the Snowdonia National Park in North Wales. He’s been enamoured with animals and photography since he was young, and while he’s travelled all over the world photographing wildlife, perhaps his biggest passion is raptors. When he’s not following wildlife subjects to farflung places – and even scaling mountains – he runs a busy workshop schedule, and regularly presents at camera clubs across the UK. Find out more at: www.gjwp.co.uk
THE APPRENTICE REBECCA ELLIOTT
CAMERA: NIKON Z 8
Becky works as a legal translator, but she’s also fluent in photography. She caught the bug at just 14, learning the ropes using a selection of camera books her dad bought her. It’s been her main hobby ever since, but it wasn’t until a trip to Canada in 2008 that she decided to pick up her first decent digital camera. She then migrated to the Nikon Z 50, before spiralling down the Z-Series rabbit hole with incremental upgrades in the form of a Z 6II, followed by a shiny new Z 8.
CAMERA Nikon Z 8
LENS 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6
EXPOSURE 1/2500 sec, f/5, ISO560
The reintroduction of red kites in England and Scotland is one of the UK’s most remarkable conservation success stories. Go back roughly three decades and this magnificent bird of prey had been reduced to a dangerously small population in Wales. While the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) notes that the species was a ‘valued’ asset in medieval Britain, it highlights the 16th century as the turning point; the raptor was considered ‘vermin’, and hunted until the early 20th century, ultimately being driven to extinction in England and Scotland. Today, following a reintroduction programme in 1989,
