Rachel Bigsby is a wildlife photographer with a special interest in seabirds. Entirely self-taught, her work blends creative vision, deep subject knowledge, and ethical fieldcraft to reveal the hidden lives of her subjects in visually compelling and emotionally resonant ways.

Rachel is the recipient of the Natural Artistry award in Wildlife Photographer of the Year and the Portfolio Award in Bird Photographer of the Year. She is also a Nikon Creator, RSPB Ambassador, and a published contributor to National Geographic, among others.

Alongside her photographic work, Rachel is regularly invited to deliver compelling lectures exploring her creative process, conservation ethos, and the stories that shape her photography at prestigious venues including the Natural History Museum, the Royal Geographical Society, and the National Museum of Scotland. She also volunteers on seabird conservation projects and leads international photography expeditions and workshops, sharing her passion for her subjects and her commitment to their protection.

Rachel has carved her own path through discipline, resilience, and an unwavering dedication to her craft. Her imagery does more than depict wildlife — informed by years of independent research and hands-on conservation experience, her work reveals the lives of her subjects in ways that are both scientifically grounded and artistically profound.

Keynote Presentation 1:

The Art of Wildlife Photography: Making a Creative Impact

This talk is not just another guide to wildlife photography — it is an invitation to see differently.

In a world saturated with step-by-step tutorials and gear-focused advice, The Art of Wildlife Photography: Making a Creative Impact offers something entirely different: a compelling blend of creative insight, practical experience, and personal philosophy. It encourages photographers to move beyond the technical and into the expressive — placing storytelling, emotion, and connection at the heart of every frame. Through this, Rachel demonstrates how bird photography can make an impact not just scientifically or ethically, but artistically — inspiring change by capturing the beauty and fragility of the natural world in new and thought-provoking ways.

Keynote Presentation 2:

One Species, One Hundred Stories: Bird Photography — Making an Impact Through Focused Storytelling

In this talk Rachel explores how to make a powerful impact by telling the complete story of just one species. From documenting daily life to portraying moments of triumph, challenge, and even death, she shares how to create a diverse, meaningful portfolio that goes far beyond single ‘hero shots.’

Combining fieldcraft, patience, and a deep understanding of her subject, Rachel demonstrates how photographers can build a body of work that not only captivates audiences but also contributes to science and conservation. This talk will inspire you to slow down, dig deeper, and create images that reveal the true character and complexity of your subject — one species, one hundred stories at a time.

Glenn Smith is a passionate wildlife and nature photographer based in Southwest Sydney, with a particular focus on Australian native birdlife, flora and fungi. With over 48 years behind the camera and more than a decade of serious practice, Glenn has developed a distinctive photographic style known for its clarity, ethical approach, and creative use of light—especially in Flora and Fungi photography.

Glenn is the long-time resident photography educator at the Australian Botanic Gardens, Mount Annan, where he has led workshops on bird photography, macro and close-up work, post-processing and ethical nature photography since 2016. His images are frequently featured in exhibitions and competitions, including multiple wins in the Macarthur Nature Photography Competition and the 2018 Canon Light Awards.

Glenn is currently working on a long-term project to photograph all 198 bird species recorded at Mount Annan, while also building a comprehensive photographic archive of the Gardens’ native plant collection. His practical, no-nonsense teaching style and deep respect for wildlife make him a valued speaker, mentor, and contributor to the Australian nature photography community.

Presentation:

Focus with Purpose: Making an Impact Through Nature Photography

Glenn will explore how even beginner photographers can make a powerful impact—on their subjects, their communities and themselves. Glenn will share his journey from simple snapshots to storytelling images, discuss his long-term projects capturing the birds, fungi and flora of the Australian Botanic Gardens and highlight how ethical practices are crucial from the start. Through practical tips and inspiring stories from his students, Glenn shows how focusing on ethics, intent and connection to nature can help build both photographic skills and respect for the natural world. Perfect for photographers of all levels seeking to create images with purpose while protecting the wildlife we love.

Dr Margot Oerebeek, Manager Birds on Farms, has been passionate about nature from a very young age and has always been interested in ecology and animal behaviour. She completed her Master’s in behavioural ecology in The Netherlands and then moved to Adelaide to do her PhD in the ecology and impacts of avian ticks. That is where her passion for birdwatching and later nature photography started.

In 2010-2011 Margot was one of the assistant wardens at the Broome Bird Observatory where she conducted bird tours and assisted with shorebird research. Since then, she has been a senior zoologist for an environmental consultancy, a research assistant for avian behavioural research at UWA, a Regional Cat Management Coordinator for northwest Tasmania and now the Manager Birds on Farms at BirdLife Australia. Birds on Farms is working with landholders to increase the condition, extent and connectivity of native vegetation on rural properties to improve populations of woodland birds.

Margot is an enthusiastic birder, but has a broad interest in everything that walks, crawls, swims or flies. Most of her photos end up on eBird or iNaturalist.

Presentation:

Bird Photography impacting woodland bird conservation on farms.

BirdLife Australia’s Birds on Farms is working with rural landholders to monitor woodland bird populations and protect and restore their valuable habitat.

Since its start in 2017, Birds on Farms has demonstrated the powerful role citizen science can play in advancing bird conservation on private land. The project connects rural landholders with experienced birdwatchers to conduct standardised surveys. This has generated a rapidly growing dataset and provides critical information on threatened and declining woodland bird species.

Photographers and birdwatchers play an important role in increasing landholders’ knowledge and passion for the birds on their property. The program organises many engagement events on bird identification, woodland bird habitat and restoration techniques. High quality images of birds allow landholders to identify details not often seen in the field and generate a strong emotional response to the subject. Additionally, birdwatchers support landholders by helping them to identify the birds on their property and providing insights into habitat preferences.

These interactions increase landholders’ awareness and understanding of the ecological value of their land and the birds it supports, which, in turn, encourages the adoption of conservation practices to better support these species.

To date, more than 500 properties across regional Australia have joined the initiative, and over 350 hectares of woodland habitat have been protected and restored. These numbers reflect Birds on Farms' ability to increase landholders’ appreciation of birds, facilitate practical conservation outcomes, and foster a community committed to protecting woodland birds.

Leila Jeffreys is a contemporary artist working across photography, moving image and installation.

She is best known for images of birds, photographed at human scale, that explore and subvert the conventions of portraiture. Jeffreys, who lives and works in Sydney with her husband and son, sees her avian subjects as living beings, part of a practice that expands viewer’s hearts by drawing attention to interdependence between species. Jeffreys’ work is a result of years-long periods of research and exploration. In the tradition of artist-activists, she conducts fieldwork, collaborates with conservationists, ornithologists and sanctuaries and champions programs to protect and restore endangered habitats.

Jeffreys has exhibited in Australia and around the world for fifteen years, everywhere from Sydney and Melbourne to Paris, Brussels and Los Angeles. In 2023, her work was curated into The Best in Show at Fotografiska in New York, as part of an exhibition dedicated to animals in contemporary photography that toured Tallinn and Stockholm. She featured alongside the world’s most respected photographers as part of Civilisation: The Way We Live Now, a landmark 2023 exhibition at London’s Saatchi Gallery.

Presentation:

In the company of birds

Photographic artist Leila Jeffreys shares her journey from an unexpected beginning to an international art practice focused on birds. Through intimate portraits and immersive installations, she explores how beauty and wonder can shift our perspective and inspire care for the natural world. In this talk, Leila offers a behind-the-scenes look at her work, which involves close collaboration with wildlife carers, scientists, and rescued birds. She reflects on how bird photography can make an emotional and lasting impact, not through urgency, but through connection.

David Stowe is an award-winning bird and wildlife photographer, educator and tour guide with three decades of experience behind the lens. His photography journey began with weddings and portraits before he discovered his true passion: photographing birds and wildlife. A devoted father and husband who loves coffee and birds in almost equal measure, David brings both technical expertise and genuine enthusiasm to his work. His competition awards and judging credentials reflect his mastery of the craft, but it's his passion for education that truly drives him. In 2017, David co-founded Flock Wildlife Tours with ecologist and photographer Henry Cook. What started as a vision to help people create better images has become his primary focus and greatest joy. Specialising in small group tours and personalised one-on-one workshops, David is dedicated to sharing his knowledge, as well as supporting local communities and capturing images that aid conservation efforts.

Presentation:

Going beyond Straight out of Camera to create images that make a visual impact.

David will discuss and demonstrate techniques to show how you can increase the impact of an image not only through what we have captured in camera but how we can transform it in the edit on the computer. 

He will illuminate the creative process and how to compose and use selective adjustments to lead the eye of the viewer where you want them to look and create an image that has more impact.

Photography has been a lifelong passion that started in primary school. Nature has always featured strongly in this. Glenn also has a long involvement in nature conservation starting with environmental activism during his university years in the 1970s and early '80s in Queensland where he completed his PhD in biochemistry.

Bird photography became a dominant interest when Glenn joined BLP in 2013 soon after acquiring his first DSLR. He has been a member of the BirdLife Photography's committee since 2016, is an active image moderator on the BLP website and has contributed a range of instructional articles and videos on bird photography and image processing over the last decade. Glenn also launched and managed the BirdLife Australia Photography Awards in 2018 for BLP and ran it for the next two years. He continues to assist 'behind the scenes'. As a result of his contributions, he was honoured with a life membership of BLP in 2022. Glenn regularly contributes images to BLP and competes in member competitions as well as international competitions. His international achievements include commendations in the UK-based Bird Photographer of the Year in 2017 and 2020 and selection for final judging round in the prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year every year since 2020.

Presentation:

A tale of riflemen, bird photography and scientific discovery

I never would have thought that a delightful walk with my camera in an iconic mountain setting would lead to publication of a paper in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. But that's exactly what happened after I took a series of high resolution shots on a walk and followed them up with a local expert, leading to a new scientific discovery and a formal paper with my name on it. This is the story about how the remarkable capabilities of our cameras can advance ornithology and science.

Kate Millar is the CEO of BirdLife Australia. Since joining BirdLife in July 2023, Kate has been out on the ground meeting community, staff and stakeholders across Australia. Prior to joining BirdLife Australia, Kate was an Executive Director with Emergency Recovery Victoria. Here she coordinated State relief and recovery programs, emphasising community engagement and the importance of sustainable partnerships. Kate also worked in economic development with Regional Development Victoria and as a Strategic Adviser at the Victorian Coastal Council after an eighteen-year career with Parks Victoria. Kate began her career with Parks Victoria as a Ranger and worked her way up to senior executive positions including General Manager of Park Planning. Kate loves spending time in nature with her family – Cape Conran Coastal Park in Far East Gippsland with its wealth of birdlife including Turquoise Parrots is a favourite holiday spot.

Presentation:

BirdLife Australia: Making An Impact

As the after-dinner speaker at the conference, Kate Millar, CEO of BirdLife Australia will share the different ways BirdLife Australia, its volunteers, special interest groups and branches are making an impact. From science and conservation, to community and advocacy – BirdLifers are working hard to save our native birds. Kate will also reflect on how photography plays an important role in sharing stories from the field and advocating for our feathered friends.

Mal Carnegie is the Projects Manager for the Lake Cowal Foundation (LCF), a not-for-profit environmental trust with a primary goal to protect and enhance Lake Cowal, a nationally significant wetland located 45 km north of West Wyalong, NSW. The LCF and its project partners implement and manage a range of natural resource management initiatives within the Lake Cowal catchment, also delivering environmental education through the Lake Cowal Conservation Centre (LCCC).

Mal’s interest in photography goes back to his teenage years, but this dropped away up until about 2009 when reinstated by the rapid development of digital photography. Mostly involved in general nature photography through work related avenues, bird photography is an inevitability of the daily regime on land and water and in the air. This is augmented by the fact that the Lake Cowal region has 277 recorded bird species, most of which are wetland birds.

Mal’s other occupational hazards include in drone videography and mapping with particular emphasis on colonial waterbird breeding events in the southern Murray Darling Basin.

Presentation:

Bird Photography – An Occupational Hazard

Bird photography is a photographic genre serving our environment and our species (the humans) in so many ways: driving and maintaining natural resource management servicing species protection and sustainability, providing for leisure and well-being, as a hobby or special interest, an occupation, education for all ages, as an aesthetic visual medium (print and digital) … and for many it's a bucket-list enabler and the list goes on. Bird photography leads us all on a participatory and immersive journey into nature and perhaps its most universally recognisable and challenging animal family. It is available to everyone, satisfying all levels of motivation, ability, technical skill, travel and equipment budgets.

As an occupational hazard for those working in the natural resource management space, bird photography is vital as a monitoring and data collection process to allow analyses across the interconnected range of elements within any ecosystem to inform management strategies and actions aimed at ensuring protection and enhancement for long-term sustainability. The photographic outputs also form an important and engaging part of the communication of information to land and water managers, students, special interest groups and the general public via education frameworks and the media.

The tools utilised in these processes encompass the entire range of photographic/video-graphic devices and associated accessories, from advanced digital/mirrorless cameras and lenses, action cameras, trail cameras, tablets and mobile phones, to the many variations of drones.

Dr Graham Cam (PhD) is a research biologist, ornithologist, photographer and educator and has engaged in bird photography over the last five decades.

Graham is a former President and an Honorary Life Member of Birdlife Photography (BLP) and was recently presented with the 2024 BirdLife Photography Tom Oliver Award for photography education.

Teaching the principles of bird photography and post processing is a passion Graham regularly shares with BLP members and the wider photographic community. Graham has been invited by the National Trust of Australia to display his bird photography in 2022 & 2024. Whilst no longer a BLP committee member, he continues to act as an image moderator for BLP and is an accredited judge for the NSW Federation of Camera Clubs. In 2024 and 2025 Graham accepted the role of Coordinator for the BirdLife Australia Photography Awards - BAPA.

For 25 years of service to bird conservation, Graham was awarded an Honorary Life Membership of The Australian Bird Study Association. For the last 57 years he has studied birds using a variety of techniques including bird banding, censusing and photography.

Graham’s passion and dedication to the conservation of Australian birds and their habitats extends to promoting ethical wildlife photography. As a former member of a CSIRO Ethics Committee, his advice to photographers is that the welfare of animals comes first, even if it means missing that once in a lifetime image.

Presentation:

The BAPA – BirdLife Australia Photography Awards.

Photography as an indispensable ambassador for bird and wildlife conservation.

The role of individual photographers and national/international photography competitions in driving conservation efforts through raising public awareness, influencing established mind sets, connecting people with nature, and providing valuable data for research and management.

The second part of the presentation will examine entries submitted to the BAPA in 2024 & 2025 – the major pitfalls encountered by some entrants and how entrants can ensure their photos progress through to the Qualifying Round of judging, and beyond.

Georgina Steytler is a passionate conservationist with a deep love of the natural world which she captures in her unique and engaging style of photography. With a particular talent for the artistic image, Georgina loves teaching the art and joy of bird and flora photography through workshops, talks and articles, education she delivers with a particular emphasis on promoting ethical photography. She has judged many nature photography competitions, both in Australia (including Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year, Australian Photography Awards and BirdLife Australia Photography Awards ) and internationally (including Birdo Photographer of the Year, Close Up Photographer of the Year and WildArt Photographer of the Year), and won numerous major awards including category wins and multiple commendations in Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Bird Photographer of the Year (incl. Portfolio Prize/Creative), and Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year 2016 (Incl. Portfolio, Threatened Species & Popular Prize). She has two books published with Australian Geographic: For the Love of Birds (November 2021) and For the Love of Flora (October 2023). In 2023 Georgina was featured as the bird photographer in the international campaign launch for the Nikon z8, beginning her close working relationship with the Nikon brand and Nikon Australia, as a Nikon z Creator and Nikon School teacher.

Presentation:

The Secret to Unlocking Your Ultimate Bird Photographer

Do you feel like you are missing something? Do you struggle to get better bird images? Do you want to know how to use your bird photography to make a real difference? Do you really appreciate the impact that bird photography can have on your mental health? This talk will challenge traditional notions of bird photography and teaching methods, discuss mistakes made (especially by me), and uncover the biggest thing holding people back from maximising their photographic potential. I will also share the impact bird photography has had on helping me cope with a recent family bereavement. Includes take home step by step exercises to help find the better bird photographer in all of us.

Michael Mulvaney has spent 40 years as a driving member of the Red Hill Regenerators Landcare group. He worked for the Commonwealth, NSW and ACT governments as an environmental planner and ecologist. He has supervised citizen science involvement in scientific studies of Little Eagle, Superb Parrots, Gang-gangs, fire and orchids, urban pollinators and the Small Ant-blue Butterfly. However, he is probably the world’s worst photographer. This is ironic as he is one of the founders and administers of Naturemapr a platform that hosts and verifies the identification of over a million image sightings. While pretty much useless himself, he readily appreciates and acknowledges just how much a good image can and has advanced our understanding and management of Australia’s wildlife, from discovery of new species to documenting previously unknown behaviours.

Presentation:

In Science - A picture is worth more than a thousand words

Michael will advocate, using a host of actual examples, the significant impact that bird images, taken by everyday citizens, have made and can continue to make to our understanding and knowledge of Australian birdlife. Amongst other impacts, he will explain

• that most of our knowledge on Gang-gang diet and nesting ecology derives from citizen photographs;
• how good quality photographs can be used to track the movements and behaviours of identified birds;
• how they provide definitive proof of the presence of rare species and unusual bird behaviour;
• how they have significantly contributed to wider bird research projects and
• how they can be a very useful and inspiring education tool.

Angela Robertson-Buchanan, widely recognised as “The Bird Photographer,” is an award-winning creative bird photographer, published children's author and lecturer with Nikon School and the Australian Museum. Originally hailing from the United Kingdom, Angela now resides in Sydney, where her roles as a conservationist, bird advocate and wildlife carer specialising in parrots drive her creative and environmental pursuits.

Angela seamlessly merges her love for wildlife and photography, crafting compelling images, projects and exhibitions that carry a powerful conservation message. Her work not only celebrates the beauty and diversity of birdlife but also raises awareness of the challenges these creatures face in the modern world.

Among her numerous accolades, Angela has been a finalist several times in the prestigious Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year award. She has also curated and held solo exhibitions that highlight her commitment to conservation. Angela is also the founder and curator of an annual bird exhibition held in conjunction with National Bird Week and the Aussie Bird Count ‒ an event by Birdlife Australia to inspire Australians to become involved in bird conservation. Each year, 20% of exhibition art sales are donated to BirdLife Australia’s conservation work, and the exhibition has raised over $25,000 in the six years it has been running. Angela's photographic techniques align with her respect for nature. She relies on natural light rather than flash, a passion she teaches in her workshops ‒ as well as the importance of maintaining high ethical standards when you are working with wildlife. Angela loves photographing urban birds and is fascinated how they interact with the man-made environment.

Presentation:

Loving, Photographing & Saving Birds

Angela has been a resident in the Inner-west of Sydney for 20 years and has noticed changes to the local bird life, both positive & negative. Throughout the years, through her photographic art, children's books & wildlife rescue work, Angela has explored themes such as habitat connections, baby bird growths, rescue stories, behaviour & relationships with our urban environment. Angela will present her photographic journey exploring these themes and how photography is a powerful medium in making an impact with bird conservation.