The Black Leopard My Quest to Photograph One of Africa's Most Elusive Big Cats

About this book

This inspiring book tells the story of a photographer's journey to find the mysterious black leopard.

There are few creatures as gorgeous and elusive as the black leopard. In Africa, these magnificent cats are so rare as to be the stuff of legend. Will Burrard-Lucas's love for leopards began during his childhood in Tanzania and propelled him into a career as a wildlife photographer. In his quest to create intimate portraits of animals, he developed innovative technology, including a remotely controlled camera buggy and a high quality camera trap system for photographing nocturnal creatures. Black leopards had not been scientifically documented in Africa for more than 100 years, but in 2019, Burrard-Lucas tracked down and photographed one of these elusive cats in Kenya. In this compelling and visually stunning book, Burrard-Lucas tells his story of creativity, entrepreneurship, and passion for wild animals, alongside awe-inspiring images of lions, elephants, and the black leopard itself.

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Biography

Will Burrard-Lucas is a British wildlife photographer. He spent part of his childhood in Tanzania where he first developed a love of nature. He developed an interest in photography whilst at university and shortly thereafter, started focusing his lens on the natural world. He became a full-time photographer in 2010.

Burrard-Lucas is an advocate for wildlife conservation and works with various conservation non-governmental organizations, including WWF, African Parks, the Tsavo Trust in Kenya, and the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme. He founded the website WildlifePhoto.com to provide nature photographers with online services, products, and educational resources, and in 2009, Burrard-Lucas created the BeetleCam, a remote-control camera buggy which enables photographers to take close-up photographs of wildlife. He later created a high-quality camera trap system for photographing rare and nocturnal animals, and is the founder of Camtraptions, a company specializing in products for remote and camera trap photography.

His work has been featured by numerous international media outlets including The New York Times, the Guardian, the Telegraph, the Washington Post, National Geographic, CNN and BBC. Since 2015, Burrard-Lucas has focused on a long-term project to reveal African wildlife at night creating and using new photography techniques. His resulting work has been recognized in several international photography awards including GDT European Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2016, 2017), Sony World Photography Awards (2017), Travel Photographer of the Year (2019) and Siena International Photo Awards (2019).