Butterfly World and Zoo. Walk into the lush tropical gardens at Butterfly World Zoo and be greeted by the sound of running water, birdsong and free flying butterflies, while taking care not to step on the green tree iguana lying on the path. Visitors soon realise that this is not only a butterfly park, but indeed a sanctuary for exotic animals, a bird sanctuary, a place where reptiles gets the highly specialised care they should and a whole lot more. This interactive animal attraction is the perfect family outing close to Cape Town, South Africa.

I shot this entire collection with my Canon PowerShot SX740 HS (40x Optical Zoom Point-and-shoot Camera.) This is not my usual camera, but all I had with me that day. The big difference (except for the weight), is that this camera only captures images in a jpeg or compressed (smaller) format. That means I don’t have all the post production options available to me. Usually I shoot in RAW (the highest quality any camera can shoot in - uncompressed format) that allows you ample opportunity to manipulate the image in Adobe Lightroom. I prefer to make very few adjustments to my images. My preference is to be out in nature where I ‘read’ the light and compose the images on the fly using instinct and experience. That way I don’t have to spend hours in front of my computer… the very thing I’m trying to escape from!