Behind the Lens with Roger Wilmshurst FRPS

Emma Chaplin
, 20 April 2020
Behind the Lens with Roger Wilmshurst FRPS
Wood Mouse © Roger Wilmshurst

Tell us a bit about yourself  

Wildlife has fascinated me since early childhood - my mother used to say I watched birds from my pram. I was fortunate to have been brought up on the side of the South Downs in West Sussex, where I spent a great deal of time exploring the Downs as a boy. 

Web Broad bodied Chaser SW

Broad-bodied Chaser

My first job was with the British Trust for Ornithology in the 1960s, organising census work.

I bought my first camera in the late 1970s but changed to the much lighter Panasonic micro four thirds system in 2011. Today, I use the even lighter, more versatile, bridge camera the Sony RX10IV. 

I have always worked mainly in the UK because British Wildlife is my first love. I like Scandinavia too, and have also worked in some southern European countries.

I was granted a fellowship in the Royal Photographic Society in 1992. I have submitted pictures to wildlife libraries for over 30 years, but my interest in wildlife photography is more a passion than a commercial enterprise.

As far as wildlife photography is concerned, the great joy of it is that it gets photographers out in our wonderful countryside, and frequently are privileged to see things that otherwise they would no experience.

Collared Dove (Steptopelia decaocta)

Collared Dove

What’s your favourite shot?

This (below) has always been my all time favourite. I took it in the early 1980s, early on a cold winter's morning. It shows a lake by our house that I created about 46 years ago.The water comes from deep in the ground, so it is fairly warm, hence the mist over the water. The duck is a female Pintail. Wild ducks drop in during cold weather. 

Pintail frost email

Pintail

What are you trying to communicate with your photographs?

Any artist tries to communicate to others what they feel about the subjects. It is the same in photography. If it's driven by commercial effort, then it is unlikely to have the right feel about it. 

Web Peacock, Blackthorn SW

Peacock on Blackthorn

Who do you admire in life and photography?

I think during every stage of the development of wildlife photography the equipment available at each had its own challenges, and masters such as Eric Hosking, produced wonderful work, in spite of the limitations of equipment. He followed enthusiastically later developments, and I know that, if he was alive today, he would revel in today's digital photography. The fact is we are in the middle of a golden age of wildlife photography.

Web Goldfinch flight SW

Goldfinch in flight

What do you find most challenging to photograph?

I find photographing birds in flight most challenging. It is not my favourite way of working, because of autofocus difficulties, but, a bird in flight against a blue sky does not have much creative merit as a picture. 

Websize Kingfisher 3 email

What’s the most unexpected thing that’s ever happened with your photography?

I remember some years ago, when I had a licence to photograph Woodlark at the nest, I had followed advice about how to locate a nest. I watched the male go to the female on the nest, look a line on what I saw, and started slowly and gingerly searching. To be honest I felt I had very little chance of finding it. What joy, only a few feet away, my eyes lit in the sitting bird. She did not come off, just sat there looking at me. I will never forget it.

Hawfinch (Coccothraustes coccothraustes)

Hawfinch

Roger has been kind enough to contribute a huge body of incredible photographs for Sussex Wildlife Trust to use over many years. For more of Roger's work, see his website 


 

Leave a comment

Comments

  • Janet Daly:

    Brilliant pictures As Roger says we are very lucky with digital cameras etc which are available. Just my hard luck but I have left most of my camera skill behind due to advancing years but still have wonderful memories of the things I have seen in many different countries

    21 Apr 2020 15:55:00

  • Sue Miles:

    Wonderful photos

    22 Apr 2020 06:24:00

  • Sally Cleaver:

    This such a wonder tribute to dad. Thank you so much.

    04 Dec 2023 10:37:00

  • Sussex Wildlife Trust:

    Thank you Sally, he was a wonderful photographer and we are so grateful to him for allowing us to use his lovely photos. Our very best wishes to you.

  • Ryan Wilmshurst:

    He is such a great person rip

    08 Oct 2025 13:34:00

  • Sussex Wildlife Trust:

    We are so grateful for all of his wonderful photos. RIP indeed.

  • Ryan Wilmshurst:

    He is such a great person rip

    09 Oct 2025 08:41:00

  • Pete Moore:

    Was looking online for news of Roger this afternoon and came across this link. I hadn’t heard he had passed. Very sorry to hear the (old) news; I spent a great month in Scandanavia with Roger and Gordon Langsbury in 1991.

    28 Nov 2025 15:34:00

Time Δ Debug Message - Perch Runway 3.2
1783224235.3390 [906] SELECT p.pagePath, pr.routePattern, pr.routeRegExp, p.pageTemplate, pr.routeOrder, s.settingValue AS siteOffline FROM swt_pages_staging p LEFT JOIN swt_page_routes pr ON p.pageID=pr.pageID LEFT JOIN swt_settings s ON s.settingID='siteOffline' UNION SELECT NULL AS pagePath, pr2.routePattern, pr2.routeRegExp, pr2.templatePath AS pageTemplate, pr2.routeOrder, NULL AS siteOffline FROM swt_page_routes pr2 WHERE templateID!=0 ORDER BY routeOrder ASC, pagePath ASC
1783224235.36430.0254Matched route: news/[slug:s]
1783224235.36450.0002Server address: 216.73.217.177
1783224235.36450Using master page: /templates/pages/blog/post.php
1783224235.36460Page arguments: 
Array
(
    [0] => /news/behind-the-lens-with-roger-wilmshurst-frps
    [s] => behind-the-lens-with-roger-wilmshurst-frps
    [1] => behind-the-lens-with-roger-wilmshurst-frps
)
1783224235.36490.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783224235.36570.0008 [86] SELECT DISTINCT settingID, settingValue FROM swt_settings WHERE userID=0
1783224235.36750.0018 [1] SELECT locationID FROM swt_shop_tax_locations WHERE locationIsHome=1 LIMIT 1
1783224235.36810.0006INSERT INTO swt_shop_cart(memberID,locationID,currencyID,cartPricing,cartProperties) VALUES(NULL,'1',47,'standard','[]')
1783224235.41010.042 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22637794
1783224235.41080.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_cart WHERE cartID=22637794
1783224235.41150.0007 [nil] SELECT * FROM swt_shop_sales WHERE saleFrom<='2026-07-05 04:03:00' AND saleTo>'2026-07-05 04:03:00' AND saleActive=1 AND saleDeleted IS NULL ORDER BY saleOrder ASC
1783224235.41290.0014 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='behind-the-lens-with-roger-wilmshurst-frps')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-05 04:03:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 10
1783224235.4150.002 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783224235.41550.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postID=2056 AND postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-05 04:03:00'
1783224235.41640.0008 [13] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_sections ORDER BY sectionTitle ASC
1783224235.41710.0007 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blogs ORDER BY blogTitle ASC
1783224235.41770.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=195 LIMIT 1
1783224235.41830.0006 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_categories WHERE catID=69 LIMIT 1
1783224235.41880.0006Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783224235.4190.0002 [162] SELECT catID, catPath FROM swt_categories
1783224235.41990.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_posts WHERE postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-05 04:03:00' AND postSlug='behind-the-lens-with-roger-wilmshurst-frps'
1783224235.4410.0211Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783224235.44150.0006 [250] SELECT country, countryID FROM swt_shop_countries WHERE countryActive=1 ORDER BY country ASC
1783224235.4430.0015Using template: /templates/pages/attributes/seo.html
1783224235.44320.0002 [1] SELECT regionID, regionTemplate, regionPage, regionRev AS rev FROM swt_content_regions WHERE regionKey='Banner image' AND (regionPage='/news/post' OR regionPage='*')
1783224235.44410.0008 [nil] SELECT * FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, c.regionID, idx.pageID, c.itemJSON, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_content_index idx JOIN swt_content_items c ON idx.itemID=c.itemID AND idx.itemRev=c.itemRev AND idx.regionID=c.regionID JOIN swt_content_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev AND idx2.indexKey='_order' WHERE ((idx.regionID=104 AND idx.itemRev=0)) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemRev=idx2.itemRev ) as tbl GROUP BY itemID, pageID, itemJSON, sortval, regionID ORDER BY sortval ASC
1783224235.44540.0013 [82] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageDepth >=0 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783224235.44830.0029 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783224235.44890.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783224235.45110.0023Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template.html
1783224235.45120.0001 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783224235.4520.0008 [4] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783224235.45250.0005 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783224235.4550.0025 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783224235.45590.001 [7] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783224235.45660.0007 [9] Using template: /templates/navigation/ps_nav_template_children.html
1783224235.45960.003 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' OR pageSortPath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783224235.46050.0009 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageHidden=0 AND pageNew=0 AND pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition
1783224235.46260.0021 [1] Using template: /templates/navigation/breadcrumbs.html
1783224235.46310.0005Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783224235.46340.0003 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1783224235.46420.0008Using template: /templates/blog/author.html
1783224235.46460.0004 [1] SELECT SQL_CALC_FOUND_ROWS DISTINCT tbl.* FROM ( SELECT idx.itemID, main.*, idx2.indexValue as sortval FROM swt_blog_index idx JOIN swt_blog_posts main ON idx.itemID=main.postID AND idx.itemKey='postID' JOIN swt_blog_index idx2 ON idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey='postID' AND idx2.indexKey='_id' WHERE 1=1 AND ((idx.indexKey='postSlug' AND idx.indexValue='behind-the-lens-with-roger-wilmshurst-frps')) AND idx.itemID=idx2.itemID AND idx.itemKey=idx2.itemKey GROUP BY idx.itemID, idx2.indexValue, postID ) as tbl WHERE (postStatus='Published' AND postDateTime<='2026-07-05 04:03:00' ) GROUP BY itemID, sortval ORDER BY sortval ASC LIMIT 0, 1
1783224235.46670.0021 [1] SELECT FOUND_ROWS() AS `count`
1783224235.46710.0004 [1] Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783224235.47030.0032Using template: /templates/blog/comment_form.html
1783224235.47130.0009 [6] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_comments WHERE 1=1 AND postID=2056 AND commentStatus='LIVE' ORDER BY FIELD(webmentionType, 'like', 'repost', 'comment', NULL) ASC, commentDateTime ASC
1783224235.52110.0499 [6] Using template: /templates/blog/comment.html
1783224235.5230.0019Using template: /templates/blog/post.html
1783224235.52320.0002 [1] SELECT * FROM swt_blog_authors WHERE authorID='20' LIMIT 1
1783224235.52410.0009 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/what-we-do' OR pageSortPath='/what-we-do' LIMIT 1
1783224235.52470.0006 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-002' LIMIT 1
1783224235.52530.0005 [7] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-002%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783224235.52720.0019 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783224235.52770.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783224235.52950.0018 [6] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783224235.53070.0012 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783224235.53110.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783224235.53160.0004 [38] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783224235.53370.0022 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783224235.53420.0005 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783224235.53610.0019 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783224235.53910.0031 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/visit' OR pageSortPath='/visit' LIMIT 1
1783224235.53980.0007 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-004' LIMIT 1
1783224235.54030.0005 [30] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-004%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783224235.54240.002 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783224235.54270.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783224235.54450.0018 [29] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783224235.54670.0021 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/make-a-difference' OR pageSortPath='/make-a-difference' LIMIT 1
1783224235.54720.0005 [1] SELECT pageID, pageParentID, pageDepth, pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition='000-005' LIMIT 1
1783224235.54760.0004 [11] SELECT * FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageNew=0 AND pageHidden=0 AND pageTreePosition LIKE '000-005%' AND pageDepth >=1 AND pageDepth<=2 ORDER BY pageTreePosition ASC
1783224235.54950.0019 [1] SELECT pageTreePosition FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pagePath='/news/post' LIMIT 1
1783224235.54980.0004 [2] SELECT pageID FROM swt_pages_staging WHERE pageTreePosition IN ('000-006-001', '000-006', '000') ORDER BY pageTreePosition DESC
1783224235.55150.0017 [10] Using template: /templates/navigation/footer-nav.html
1783224235.55310.0016Request time: 0.2169
1783224235.55310Process time: 0.2168
1783224235.55310Memory: 1.6532