Kalahari King

2022

It has been such a great experience to photograph these lively and energetic creatures, but also a great challenge — they move around a lot and trying to create portraits that capture their personalities can be tricky.

I have spoken before about wanting to create a portrait that features their instantly-recognisable faces and I think I may finally have created that.

I sensed that the portrait would be stronger if I waited until he posed in front of a shaded backdrop — that would allow for a darker background, and thus he would stand-out. The challenge then is to get the meerkat himself in the light.

I got there in the end, and his personality is at the very heart of the photograph, which is always my aim.