Behind The Lens

Albert Froneman.

- Marietjie Froneman

A good deal of Albert Froneman’s life revolves around birds. They are the subject of his job, the focus of his photographs, the reason he leads photographic tours to remote areas. He even made them the passion of his wife, Marietjie.

Looking back on his childhood, it seems inevitable that Albert would become involved with birds. From an early age he went on trips with his parents to game reserves and while they were driving around trying to spot a lion or leopard, he started noticing animals of the avian kind. Birds were everywhere, at every turn the car took: soaring in the sky, perched in trees, targeting insects on the road. They were even on the animals his parents had come to see: oxpeckers on rhinos and cattle egrets on buffaloes. Albert’s life became one big bird watching experience as, armed with binoculars and a bird book, he began to create lists and tick off bird species wherever he went.

He soon wanted to capture the beauty of birds and his passion for photography began with a 1970's Nikon F camera that belonged to his father. As he progressed from taking simple identification shots, his list of equipment grew bigger and better until finally he was able to achieve the type of action or behavioural shot he was after, such as the photograph in the Photo Finish feature in this issue (see pages 78‒79). Today you will find in his camera bag a Nikon D5 and numerous telephoto lenses, his pride being a Nikkor 500mm f4, which he combines with a 1.4x teleconverter.