Profile
Profile
I spent over thirty five years in the corporate world, was appointed as an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia (AO) for “service to environmental protection through management control and treatment of industrial and hazardous wastes, and to the community”.
My deep interest in conservation of nature and environmental protection continues today.
Nature is where I find quiet contentment, balm for spirit, and a place of healing for my soul when hurried and harried.
For nearly 20 years, the ocean is where I found, and still find, solitude.
In 2006 I discovered the world of digital photography. This world is now combined with my affections for blue water sailing, travel, wildlife photography, nature preservation, and conservation photography.
I am a self-taught photographer (“I make all the mistakes myself”) and photograph to convey the intrinsic value of the natural world. Above all else, I am interested in telling stories with photographs.
My photography is not a portrayal of environmental vandalism or an elegy to vanishing places. Other, equally ardent photographers cover these aspects very well.
Rather, my focus is on the use of imagery to encourage the preservation of what is, in a context of eco-tourism, whilst understanding the attendant challenges and constant tensions between human, development and nature.
When I photograph wild creatures, I see them in my viewfinder as ambassadors, simply seeking the preservation of their usually diminishing habitat.
In turn, my images seek to be beacons to a stronger connectedness with our natural world and to inspire a more respectful interaction with our environment.
If we are to know a true connection to nature and our environment it will have to happen in our own hearts and souls.
If the images I capture help others to embrace even a small part of their Earth again, I would be rewarded.
Wherever I can I seek to protray the subject’s individuality, as every place, mammal, animal, bird has an individuality.
Some are sensual, some are rugged; others are wild, gracious or serene.
Like each human being, individuality is unique to any place or wild species and it changes through the seasons, and even throughout the day.
A peaceful zen morning can quickly turn into a perfidious stormy afternoon.
A gracious cheetah, can, within minutes, turn into a ferocious killing beast.
It is nature’s spirit that I seek to frame and turn into picture stories.
Like any friend, it is important to treat her with respect and curiosity; to be sensitive to what the animal, bird or landscape is trying to tell me.
In order to portray the individuality of an animal or bird, it is important to get to know them; to be with them when they are being themselves, as if they did not know they were being comosed in my frame; to be like a chameleon and meld into their environment.
Then, as a photographer, I become connected to the natural world, to the matrix from which I was born, which sustains me, and to which I will, one day, return.
Each of us is a very important part of this matrix, and we are in a position to preserve and enjoy it, or destroy it.
This position is a privileged one, but is accompanied by an authentic calling to recognise the fragility of this matrix.
I am fortunate to live in a rather unspoilt and unpolluted part of the planet, under forever changing light, under clear skies, in the midst of magnificent land and seascapes, and within driving distance of one of only five universally recognized biodiversity “hot-spots” on the planet – a blessing afforded to a few.
Thank you for visiting and I hope you enjoy the images.
Denis Glennon AO, AIPP, Dip Eng., B.A. (Hons), M.Sc., Grad Dip Ed.
All images shown here are of wild creatures, treated with respect and photographed in their natural habitat and behavior.
