Into the wilderness with Feargus Cooney

Name: Feargus Cooney

Country: England (Originally from Ireland)

What’s in the bag? My indispensable tool is my Canon Eos 5D Mk I with a 24-105 mm Canon zoom lens. I also have an old 75-300 mm Sigma zoom which I use primarily for wildlife. I don’t use any filters because I’m quite passionate about capturing the scene as it really was. If the light isn’t right then it wasn’t meant to be in my opinion.

How much time do you spend on the road a year? I probably spend about 2 to 4 months a year travelling overseas for photography. I also spend a few weeks hiking the mountains here in the UK.

What’s your subject? Wilderness is my thing. I get a major kick when I’m able to go into an area hardly anyone has even heard of and come back with really high quality images of the wonders of the natural environment. It’s so satisfying to bring these views back to civilisation and see people’s reactions, which are most often amazement that such stunning places exist so far away from the beaten path.

I’m particularly fond of deserts. The light is so fantastic and full of feeling when you wander around at dawn or dusk. If pressed I would probably say that Namibia is the most photogenic land I’ve visited. The whole country is arid and the shapes of the rocks and the sand and how they combine in the landscape is just magical.

Do you have a favourite image? I don’t really have a ‘best photo’, but one that I’m quite fond of at the moment is a shot I took at dawn on the summit of a little known hill called Mount Amy in the Kimberley Region of Outback Australia. When I showed friends the image a few weeks after taking it they said it reminded them of something out of Avatar!

What got you into photography? I’ve always been into taking pictures. My father used to let me use his old Nikkormat SLR when I was a kid and I’d take it out in the hills around where I lived. Later I studied a degree in Documentary Photography at University. I’m passionate about seeing, and photography has always been an extension of what I find visually inspiring.

What was your first big break? I guess my first real break was getting taken on by Lonely Planet Images. Before that I was shooting a lot of work but I’m not the best when it comes to marketing myself and was living from other means. Since then though I’ve had somewhere to take my better work to and have improved my marketing somewhat as well, for example, last year I self-published cards and calendars of the Scottish highlands.

Any tips for aspiring photographers? The best tip I can give to aspiring travel and nature photographers is to be really passionate about what you’re shooting. In my opinion, as long as you’re technically savvy you don’t even need to be that passionate about photography itself. For me the subject is everything. Don’t expect to become successful overnight either. Even when you’ve been doing it for a while you’ll still have to work hard at it. But the rewards are worth it.

As far as technical tips are concerned, from my area of wilderness photography I’d say do your research as much as you can before heading out into the wild. A terrific tool at your disposal now is Google Earth. It allows you to find places far off the beaten path and assess whether they’d be visually worth the trip. Also, of course, the light is everything. Unless you’re in a deep canyon or under moody, cloudy skies, early morning or late evening will get you your best shots.

What’s your next assignment? I make my own assignments, heading out to places I’d like to see, but also that I think will produce sought after images. I’m still deciding whether the year’s big trip will be to the rift valley of Africa or a trip through eastern Europe for a more cultural trip than I usually do.

Feargus' remarkable shot of Mount Amy in the Kimberleys, Western Australia.

See more amazing images of the wilderness on Feargus’ website and Lonely Planet Images.

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See images from the most beautiful place to photograph on earth.