Available Light Articles & News

If everyone’s life journey is a book, then ours is a mysterious adventure, thriller and a love story. Since we met in Beijing in the spring of 2000 it has been a roller coaster of discovery, travel, learning and romance. We’ve journeyed together to over 20 countries looking for paradise, somewhere to finally put down our roots; collect books, guitars and art, somewhere “to chill.”

We first came to Yunnan in April 2004 in search of secretive birds and big mountains, finding both, but not expecting the germination of the first seeds of an idea of home. By October 2006 we were ready to commit and lived here for 13 months, our longest period of time in one house since we met. Were it not for work pressure dragging us off, I doubt we would have left, but we returned in the summer of 2008 and are still here, this time we hope, for good.

VERMILION LAKE, BANFF by moonlight: Alister Benn

The longer we are together, the more we realize how much we have in common, a list too long to dwell on, but having that level of continued vindication is always satisfying. We’re both country people; I was raised in rural Scotland, falling out of trees, falling off rock-faces and falling off bikes, climbing hills without falling happened too and I was an enthusiastic fly-fisherman. Looking back with the fond nostalgia of middle age, it was a lovely childhood.

I got my first camera at about the age 12, an Olympus OM10, and parodying my elder brothers, became an adolescent advocate of Kodachrome 64 slide film. I had been bird-watching since the age of about 3, and was always dismayed when I couldn’t see the bird in the developed slide, even though I knew I’d pointed the camera at a Lapwing as it had flown over my head. I was unaware I needed a tenfold increase in focal length from my humble 55mm.

MEDICINE LAKE SUNSET: Alister Benn

I always seemed to have a camera around, but was enthusiastic rather than a scholar; any money I had got spent on bird books or LP records! As with most people I guess, work kicked in, accompanied by financial liabilities; leisure time was spent at the supermarket or local DIY store, trying to keep my crumbling 100-year-old cottage in a state of semi-repair. In short, there was no time or money for fun.

By contrast, Juanli grew up in a remote corner of Hubei Province in central China and had no concept of leisure, being either at school or helping her parents in their small shop. However, she has always had broad visions and after graduating from art school left the bamboo-covered hillsides for the big city; where after a couple of years, I showed up.

At this stage the knot was tied and we began our traveling; tropical South East Asia where I worked was a stimulating playground full of spectacular birds, voracious insects and leeches. I went digital in 2001 with a 2 mega pixel Olympus and took it traveling across the United States and south eastern Europe, but after a short period of digi-scoping birds in Malaysia I was convinced getting a DSLR and a longer lens would deliver the results I dreamed of.

With birds as my main quarry, I set about learning all I could about bird photography. The dark rain forests and the skulking nature of the birds demanded good technique and between October 2003 and early 2007 I devoted thousands of hours to time in the field or learning everything I could. We spent three months in San Francisco one winter and every day would visit the Palo Alto Baylands perfecting techniques for birds in flight and the vagaries of exposure theory. Many friends helped, in particular Arthur Morris and his The Art of Bird Photography, and then later as I became a regular on Naturescapes.net, where I eventually became moderator of the Asia Chapter.

ANNA’S HUMMINGBIRD: Alister Benn

Trips to Canada and the American west awoke an interest in landscapes and a new learning curve materialized; the use of Lee Filters and High Dynamic Range techniques. These days my main love is shooting at night or by moonlight, the atmosphere and stillness in the dead of night allow for a really clear mind. Juanli is the butterfly girl, waist-deep in summer flowers and the delicate fluttering wings of here subjects.

I have a reputation for being a technician, but like to think it doesn’t show in my work. Juanli, on the other hand, shoots from her heart and has an unbelievable skill in the field, instinctively moving into the correct position and is often allowed to get very close to here subjects with her unassuming approach. We both believe that full understanding of our gear and subjects allows us to shoot subconsciously; we are always looking for intimate encounters.

LITTLE EGRET FISHING: Juanli Sun

These days out travels are limited to southwest China and Tibet, feeling completely satisfied by what this remarkable region has to offer; the prolific birdlife in winter around Napa Hai in Shangri-La, the myriad of peaks over twenty thousand feet within a days drive, or the quiet, contemplative life of the temples and remote villages in hidden mountain valleys.

Our work is widely published in books and magazines from Europe, China and North America; we have donated hundreds of images for conservation worldwide and will continue to do so with consideration. Away from wildlife and nature, my architectural abstracts series A3, were exhibited in a Beijing gallery between November 2007 and May 2008.  Photography is our life and one we love to share, never guarding our hard-earned secrets from others, only encouraging people to release there own creativity and using techniques as a tool to expression rather than an end in itself.