End frame: Water Lilies, Okavango Delta, Botswana by Frans Lanting

Katherine Keates

A photographer for many years, Katherine’s love of photography has led her to explore many avenues within the art and craft of photography both at home and abroad. She has explored, photographed, and written about places she has traveled worldwide.

Katherine strives to present her unique vision and apply an artistic approach to her photographic work. She actively seeks the magic in the mundane and loves to tell a story with her images.

Her images have won awards in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions, Epson International Pano Awards, Px3 (Paris), Female Eye Film Festival, Travel Photographer of the Year, RMG Exposed, Chasing the Light and more.

katherinekeatesphotography.com

Completely entranced and with goosebumps stippled arms, I sat staring at the large cinema style screen in front of me. I could barely take a breath. Before me was an underwater world that was filled with mystery and inexplicable beauty. The speaker’s voice faded into the background as my mind’s eye wandered around and through a watery realm. Like Alice in Wonderland, I had been shrunk and placed in an environment I had never imagined seeing. Mesmerizing light from above filtered through the veins of the translucent canopy and gently painted my surroundings. I felt the teasing tug of the river current as the stems of the giant lily pads slowly waltzed to the rhythm of nature. The fantasy was holding me captive, and I did not want it to end. I felt one with the image before me.

Such was one of my most overwhelming visual experiences with a photograph. It was one that helped me understand the profound power of an image. In fact, it may have been a pivotal moment for me, as a novice photographer, to recognize the true significance and impact of capturing and portraying the true magic of nature.

I was roused from my reverie when the next image came up on the screen and the voice of the speaker once again reached my ears. It was the voice of world-renowned photographer Frans Lanting. From that moment on I was hooked on every word.

Considered one of the greatest photographers of the natural world, Frans Lanting is best known for immersing himself, literally and figuratively, into the environment and capturing aspects of nature seldom seen. His eye-level, expressive images always excite viewers as they share his discovery of the extraordinary wonders of the world.