In February 2006 I attended a photographic course at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Smarden, Kent. The WHF house a small number of selected endangered big cats with the view of breeding, and where possible, re-introduction to their home continents. Photographs from my visit can now be viewed in my gallery. The course was run by Jonathan Ryan - www.lightforge.co.uk/training/ and was held at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation in Smarden, Kent - www.whf.org.uk. The WHF is home to small number of selected endangered big cats such as Tigers, Lions and Leopards with the view of breeding, and where possible re-introduction to their home continents. WHF is an innovative charity allowing people from all walks of life, nationalities and countries, to join and actually assist (if they wish) in the long term care, and where possible re-introduction of animals and plants to their native homelands.

The WHF is not open to the public and as such is not covered by the same restrictions as zoo's and other wild animal enclosures. Typically zoo's must house big cats within a double cage, i.e. a cage within a cage, and/or have a 'dead zone' around the perimeter of the cage where members of the public are forbidden to walk. The normal procedure for photographing animals in caged enclosures is to use a large aperture that knocks the bars so far out of focus that they become invisible, however these safety precautions can make this very hard or impossible as sometimes you can't get close enough to the bars to be able to knock them out of focus or you can only knock the first cage out of focus but not the second. At the WHF no such restrictions apply and we were able to go right up to the cages often millimetres from the cats. In order to do this though we first had to be given an important safety briefing where we learnt that some of the cats were highly intelligent and would work in pairs, one sitting in the open 'posing' for photographs whilst the other would creep up to the unsuspecting photographers before launching himself against the cage and putting his paw through the bars to try and catch any loose items of clothing or flesh!

Despite the animals being in very secure enclosures we were accompanied at all times by two or more keepers who not only looked after our safety and ensured that we got as close as was safely possible but also coaxed the animals into the best positions for photographs. During one such time we were photographing one of their Tigers who was huge and more than a little angry that his feeding time had been delayed in order to permit us to take photos. A group of us were crouched down centimetres from the bars when he lunged at the fence, roaring at us and clawing at the bars. If you've ever seen a wildlife documentary of a Tiger killing it's prey you'll remember the sheer strength of these animals and the sound of their roar which goes right through you, now imagine that 3cm from your face! It was at this stage that someone thought it prudent to ask, "what should we do if somehow the Tiger escapes from his cage?". The keeper reassured us that there would be no need to outrun the Tiger, which was a relief as these animals can really move, "you just need to outrun the person next to you!"

Here are a few photos from the day.