Lou Coetzer Nature Photographer

Lou Coetzer Nature Photographer Head Adjudicator
Nikon Africa Photographic Awards 2010 and Head Adjudicator and Director of Natures Best Photography Africa 2015/16/17.
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Highly acclaimed multi award winning photographer, master of three genres, holder of three Fellowships and one Associateship from The Photographic Society of South Africa, winner of the SA Professional Sport Photographer of the Year, father of the Nikon Training Academy, Inventor of the worlds first revolving custom photographic chair installed in vehicles and boats across the African continent, presenter of a Master Photography Talks series at the Natural History Museum London.

OM SENSOR ON THE EDGE : Klipspringer Lodge Selati Reserve SAAfter one of my Historical Vault posts was rejected in an OM...
02/09/2026

OM SENSOR ON THE EDGE : Klipspringer Lodge Selati Reserve SA

After one of my Historical Vault posts was rejected in an OM group because it was taken with Nikon, I thought we should set the record straight with something properly OM.

This rare porcupine was photographed from a night hide a few weeks with the OM-1 Mark II and the 50-200mm F2.8 lens.

For me, this image is strong proof that the OM sensor is more than good enough for serious professional work.

ISO 6400.
EV -3.
A black background.
Protected highlights.
And still enough shutter speed to produce beautiful, pin-sharp detail.

At neutral exposure, getting the same shutter speed would have pushed the ISO requirement much higher — roughly into the ISO 51200 range.

That is the point.

Use the exposure intelligently.
Protect the highlights.
Let the blacks go black.
Set yourself up for success.

This is where OM technology and good exposure thinking meet.

METADATA

OM-1 Mark II + 50-200mm F2.8 /
F2.8 • 1/1000 sec • ISO 6400 • EV -3
Aperture Priority

THE HISTORICAL VAULT #20 | Burchell's Zebra, Etosha National Park Date: 2012/07/26 / Time: 07:46:23 My favourite place...
01/09/2026

THE HISTORICAL VAULT #20 | Burchell's Zebra, Etosha National Park

Date: 2012/07/26 / Time: 07:46:23
My favourite place on earth to photograph Burchell's zebra must be Etosha.

Mushara.
Kameeldoring.
Andoni Flats.

Those places offer incredible repeat business.

Hundreds and hundreds of zebra streaming to waterholes.
Clean backgrounds.
Dust.
Action.
Interaction.
And all the low-hanging fruit a wildlife photographer could ask for.

Your job is simple.

Position yourself for light.
Choose the background carefully.
Wait for nature to tell its story.
Then do not miss it.

You can build an extraordinary portfolio of exciting zebra images almost overnight on a trot.

PHOTO TIP

Most of my older zebra action images were made with fixed focal length lenses.

That placed a huge burden on vehicle positioning.

One moment you are too far.
The next moment you are too close.

This is where I do not think OM photographers fully realise what they have been handed.

The 150-400mm F4.5 gives you a full-frame view of 300-800mm.

Add the built-in converter and you have 375-1000mm at F5.6.

For this kind of fast-changing wildlife action, that flexibility is not a small advantage.

It is bloody marvelous.

METADATA

Nikon D4 + 850mm / F8 @ 1/5000 Sec / ISO 400 / EV-1.7 /A

WHEN TWO NEEDS COLLIDE.Caring sounds simple when only one need is visible.It becomes much harder when two legitimate nee...
28/08/2026

WHEN TWO NEEDS COLLIDE.

Caring sounds simple when only one need is visible.

It becomes much harder when two legitimate needs pull in different directions.

In the wild, we watched a moment unfold that forced exactly that tension into view.

No villain.
No easy answer.
Just a decision with consequences beyond the individual at the centre of it.

That is where care becomes more than kindness.

It becomes judgement.

Wild Lessons for a Wired World asks what human capabilities matter most when intelligence is no longer only inside us.

14 Wild Lessons.
Publishing November 2026.
Pre-order price: R1 150.

Discover the book
https://www.seeingbeyondtheobvious.com/wlwwlanding

Lou Coetzer | Anton Musgrave

WILD LESSONS FOR A WIRED WORLDWhen intelligence moves outside us, what must remain human?Across 14 chapters, real moment...
04/08/2026

WILD LESSONS FOR A WIRED WORLD

When intelligence moves outside us, what must remain human?

Across 14 chapters, real moments from the wild help us explore, remember and strengthen the human capabilities that may matter most in an AI-shaped world.

Judgement. Intuition. Care. Adaptability. Creativity. Awareness. Courage. Communication. Clarity.

Wild Lessons for a Wired World brings together more than five decades of Lou Coetzer observing and photographing real behaviour in the wild, and Anton Musgrave’s more than three decades of thinking about leadership, disruption, strategy and the future.

The First Edition will be available in November 2026.

Pre-order price: R1 150.

Discover the book and pre-order your copy here:

Discover the book and pre-order your copy through the link in my bio

Lou Coetzer | Anton Musgrave

WILD LESSONS FOR A WIRED WORLDWhen intelligence moves outside us, what must remain human?Across 14 chapters, real moment...
04/08/2026

WILD LESSONS FOR A WIRED WORLD

When intelligence moves outside us, what must remain human?

Across 14 chapters, real moments from the wild help us explore, remember and strengthen the human capabilities that may matter most in an AI-shaped world.

Judgement. Intuition. Care. Adaptability. Creativity. Awareness. Courage. Communication. Clarity.

Wild Lessons for a Wired World brings together more than five decades of Lou Coetzer observing and photographing real behaviour in the wild, and Anton Musgrave’s more than three decades of thinking about leadership, disruption, strategy and the future.

The First Edition will be available in November 2026.

Pre-order price: R1 150.

Discover the book and pre-order your copy here:
https://www.seeingbeyondtheobvious.com/wlwwlanding

Lou Coetzer | Anton Musgrave

THE LIVING VAULT # 6 | Locusts in Flight, Samara Karoo Lodge Central Karoo SAI never really bought a mirrorless system....
03/08/2026

THE LIVING VAULT # 6 | Locusts in Flight, Samara Karoo Lodge Central Karoo SA

I never really bought a mirrorless system.

I grew into the Olympus OM system because I ran out of shutter speed in my Nikon DSLR world.

The lure of 1/32000 Sec was too much to resist.

Then came the cherry on the cake.

Pre-recording.
60 frames per second.
Action already captured before you fully react.

This image was made during a locust invasion at Samara in the Karoo, Central South Africa.

Two locusts.
In flight.
In interaction.
Tiny subjects.
Violent movement.

Shot with the 40-150mm F2.8 and 1.4x converter, and still not enough depth of field.

Look at the rear wings and tail area of both locusts.

That is the challenge.

For me, bird action photography is no longer the final frontier.

With the right setup, we can nail the smallest birds anywhere in the world.

But insects are different.

Smaller.
Faster.
More chaotic.
Less predictable.
Depth of field becomes brutal.

That is where the real action challenge now lives for me.

The insect world.

PHOTO TIP
Do not waste the power of a high-speed mirrorless camera.

Use the shutter speed.
Use pre-recording.
Use the frame rate.
Then go and find subjects that still challenge the system.

METADATA

E-M1X + 40-150mm F2.8 + 1.4x Converter - Full Frame 420mm / F5.6 @ 1/12800 Sec / ISO 1250 / AV / Date: 2021/04/12 / Time: 14:15:58

THE LIVING VAULT #5 | Broad-billed Hummingbird- Tucson ArizonaDate: 2023/05/06 / Time: 18:35:30My first photograph of ...
31/07/2026

THE LIVING VAULT #5 | Broad-billed Hummingbird- Tucson Arizona

Date: 2023/05/06 / Time: 18:35:30

My first photograph of any hummingbird.

A Broad-billed Hummingbird, photographed south of Tucson while attending a NAMPA Congress.

When I arrived at this hotspot, I was amazed.

Feeding areas everywhere.
Multiple flash setups.
Local photographers clearly had the system worked out.

And yes, I get it.

With flash, if you know what you are doing, you can get a well-exposed, pin-sharp hummingbird image.

But what about all the moments after the flash has fired before it is ready to go again ?

What about using the camera itself?

High shutter speed.
Continuous autofocus.
Action tracking.
No flash dependency.

At 1/25600 Sec, the camera is doing serious work.

So why do many photographers still avoid this route?

Simple.

ISO fear.

Low ISO.
Slow shutter speed.
Then flash becomes the only realistic answer.

Hello, my friend.

Push the ISO you can edit.
Take the shutter speed.
Let the camera work.

PHOTO TIP

Do not buy a high-speed camera and then use it timidly.

Your shutter speed is useless if you are too scared of ISO.

METADATA
OM-1 + 150-400mm F4.5 - Full Frame300-800 F4.5 / F5.6 @ 1/25600 Sec / ISO 2500 / EV -2.0 / AV

SHUTTER SPEED | The Photo Does Not Care About Opinions I get told this often:Lou, you do not need that shutter speed.May...
26/07/2026

SHUTTER SPEED | The Photo Does Not Care About Opinions

I get told this often:

Lou, you do not need that shutter speed.

Maybe.

But the final photograph itself is always the judge.

Look at these three images, edited through the same DxO workflow, but photographed across very different camera generations.

2011 DSLR:
1/4000 Sec was considered fast.
Good image.
But the action still sits on the edge of what the shutter could hold.
Nikon D3S + 600mm F4 / F8 @ 1/4000 Sec / ISO 800 / EV -1.0 / AV / Date: 2011/07/29 / Time: 16:44:53

2021 E-M1X:
1/16000 Sec changes the conversation.
Water, wings, feet and body tension are recorded with far more authority.
E-M1X + 150-400mm F4.5 mm/ F4.5 @ 1/16000 Sec / ISO 800 / AV / Date: 2021/09/15 / Time: 07:49:58

2023 OM-1:
1/32000 Sec gives another level of freedom.
Fast wings.
Enough ISO.
Protected highlights.
A file that still edits.
OM-1 + 150-400mm F4.5 mm / F4.5 @ 1/32000 Sec / ISO 4000 / EV -2.7 / AV / Date: 2023/05/11 / Time: 12:27:48

The point is not to guess what shutter speed nature will need next.

That is the trap.

The point is to be set up before the nature story moment arrives.

PHOTO TIP
Stop asking: What is the minimum shutter speed I can get away with? You don't always no and I bet you will err on the side of caution ending
up just being part of the portrait pandemic.

Ask this instead:
What is the highest ISO my camera and editing workflow can handle effectively - all the time, so I can take the maximum shutter speed before nature surprises me?

That is where the freedom and fun starts.

THE HISTORICAL VAULT #19 | Coastal Brown Bear, Lake Clark, Alaska USADate: 2017/08/07 / Time: 07:21:18By this stage I h...
25/07/2026

THE HISTORICAL VAULT #19 | Coastal Brown Bear, Lake Clark, Alaska USA

Date: 2017/08/07 / Time: 07:21:18

By this stage I had a few Lake Clark trips under the belt.

I understood coastal brown bear behaviour well, and I knew how I wanted to photograph them.

Agro was running up and down flat out, trying to catch salmon for her two second-year cubs.

My group and I stayed with the sun behind us.

The rest of the photographers were upstream, photographing her as she ran upstream.

Some of my own group even pleaded with me to go and check why all the other photographers had chosen that position.

I told them we were positioned for light.

The moment Agro swung around, especially when she had caught a fish, she looked straight at us.

Glorious light on her face.

The others could never get that from where they were.

Eventually I went to check.

Then I came back and confirmed it.

We had made the right decision.

PHOTO TIP

If you do nothing else on any photographic scene, think about the light.

Position yourself for light.

After that, everything becomes easier to control.

METADATA

Nikon D500 + 300 mm Fixed with 1.4 X Converter -420mm / F5.6 @ 1/5000 Sec / ISO 800 / AV

THE HISTORICAL VAULT #18 | Chudop Pride , Etosha, Namibia Date: 2013/05/19 / Time: 08:10:04This was not a fight.They we...
24/07/2026

THE HISTORICAL VAULT #18 | Chudop Pride , Etosha, Namibia

Date: 2013/05/19 / Time: 08:10:04

This was not a fight.

They were playing.

Having fun.

I, on the other hand, was not having quite as much fun.

The lions were close, active and all over the place, and I made a basic strategic error.

I chose the fixed 400mm F2.8.

In one minute I amputated more tails, legs and heads than should happen in a month of photography.

That aged me about two decades on the spot.

To make it worse, it was overcast and I did not use my standard EV -1.3.

That cost me shutter speed.

And in a fast-moving feline ball of play, shutter speed and depth of field matter.

The painful part?

My 70-200mm F2.8 with a 2.0x converter was lying next to me on a second body.

That was the better tool for the story.

Oh my goodness, the F-words were flying around.

And it had nothing to do with aperture.

PHOTO TIP

Being set up for success also means choosing the right lens before the action starts.

Too much lens can destroy a great story just as quickly as too little shutter speed.

METADATA

Nikon D4 + 400mm F2.8 - Full Frame 400mm / F8 @ 1/2000 Sec / ISO 1600 / EV 0.0 / AV / Date: 2013/05/19 / Time: 08:10:04 / Etosha National Park, Namibia

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