The photographs on this website were taken by Will & Matt Burrard-Lucas.
We are brothers from the UK specializing in wildlife photography. To find out more about us, please visit our primary website: Burrard-Lucas Photography.
Our gorilla photos were taken during two trips to the Volcanoes National Park in Rwanda. Gorilla tourism is highly controlled in order to minimise the impact on the gorillas. At the beginning of the day, visitors are put into groups of 8 people and each group then treks off to a different gorilla family. The groups are allowed to spend a maximum of 1 hour with the gorillas.
Each trek we made to the gorillas was very different; sometimes the gorillas were close to the park boundary and at other times we had to undertake a long arduous trek up steep slopes to find them. We usually reached the gorillas mid-morning while they were still feeding. There were a remarkable variety of different habitats and we found the gorillas feeding in everything from impenetrable bamboo thickets to lush valleys carpeted in ferns.
Given the limited time we had with the gorillas, we worked as a team to ensure we got as many different images as possible. Therefore one of us used a wideangle lens at all times while the other took portraits with a long 70-200mm lens. The conditions were always a challenge and we frequently had to push the ISO on our cameras quite high as the forest can be very gloomy and you are not allowed to use flash.
Photographing the gorilla families was a humbling experience; the babies were incredibly cute as they tumbled around, playing and the silverbacks had a formidable aura of power that was a privilege to behold. Each visit flew by and it was always frustrating to leave the gorillas when our hour was up!
We can’t wait for our next opportunity to visit the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda.