Will Burrard-Lucas

In 2009, Burrard-Lucas created BeetleCam, a remote-control camera buggy, and used it to take close-up photographs of elephants, lions and buffalo in Tanzania.[7] In 2011, he returned to Africa to photograph lions in Kenya.[8] He has since used BeetleCam to photograph wildlife in other African countries, including leopards in Zambia and African wild dogs in Zimbabwe.[9] In 2015, Burrard-Lucas used BeetleCam to photograph wildlife at night in Liuwa Plain National Park in Zambia.[10] This series went on to win the Professional Natural World Category in the Sony World Photography Awards.[11]

While living in Zambia in 2012–2013, Burrard-Lucas also developed high-quality camera traps for photographing rare and nocturnal animals.[12] These camera traps were based on a passive infrared sensor and took photos using a standard DSLR or mirrorless camera.[13] In 2015, his work with camera traps led to a collaboration with WWF to photograph elusive animals in Namibia.[14]

In 2014, Burrard-Lucas founded a company, Camtraptions Ltd, which produces BeetleCams and camera trap systems for photographers and filmmakers.[15]

In July 2019, Burrard-Lucas announced his intentions to take two new versions of BeetleCam back to the African continent in search of lions for a new project.[16]

In 2011, Burrard-Lucas collaborated with Rebecca Jackrel, a nature photographer from the USA, to document endangered Ethiopian wolves in the Bale Mountains of Ethiopia. The project was funded via a successful Kickstarter campaign which raised $13,705.[17] The photographers spent more than a month documenting the lives of the wolves and the work of the Ethiopian Wolf Conservation Programme.[18] The project culminated in a book titled The Ethiopian Wolf: Hope at the Edge of Extinction.[6]

In August 2017, Burrard-Lucas started working with Tsavo Trust in Kenya to photograph the last "Big Tusker" elephants in Tsavo. During the project, Burrard-Lucas used his BeetleCam to photograph F_MU1, a female elephant with extremely long tusks.[19][20] The project resulted in a book, titled Land of Giants, which was published in 2019.[21][22]

In February 2019, Burrard-Lucas captured the first high-quality camera trap photographs of a melanistic African leopard, also known as a black panther, in Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya.[23][24] Previously, only one such leopard had been photographed in Africa, in 1909 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.[25] The project resulted in a book, titled The Black Leopard, published in 2021.