Petr Bambousek OM magazine

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INTERVIEW
Photographer bio
Country: Czech Repubiic
Speciality: Wildlife
sulasula.com
O LY M P U S M A G A Z I N E | J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 1
Petr
Bambousek
Having travelled the world for almost 20 years, Petr
selects just some of his favourite wildlife shots, and
shares the narrative behind these vibrant photographs
Peíst v eštin

How did you get into wildlife and
nature photography?
I have loved animals since I was a
little boy. I was most impressed by
the reptiles I saw on my first trip to
the tropics in Costa Rica, and while
I did not find any snakes during the
trip, I fell in love with the diversity and
beauty of tropical nature, and wild
animals on the whole. Since then, I’ve
been lucky enough to travel around
the world, photographing animals for
almost 20 years.
What are your current main bodies
and lenses?
My main body is the OM-D E-M1
Mark III which, despite its compact
dimensions, offers huge potential. In
addition to the powerful stabilisation
– which I can’t imagine not having – it
has great tools for photographing
animals: like the custom AF point and
grid size adjustment; quick switching
of camera modes for different
shooting situations; and Pro Capture
Mode. I’m able to use an OM-D
E-M1X from time to time for particular
projects, which now also supports
Bird Detection AF. Because I focus on
a wide range of species, from ant to
elephant, the variety of lenses I use
corresponds to this and I have six
permanent lenses in my backpack.
I use a Panasonic Leica 200mm
F2.8 O.I.S. for photos of birds and
larger animals. I would like to replace
the fixed telefocus with an M.Zuiko
150-400mm F4.5 TC1.25X IS PRO lens
in future. I had the opportunity to take
pictures with it on my last trip to Costa
Rica, and I must say that the lens is a
real gem for wildlife photographers.
The other two most commonly used
lenses are the M.Zuiko 12-100mm
F4.0 IS PRO and M.Zuiko 60mm F2.8
Macro. The 12-100mm F4.0 IS PRO
is a great all-rounder with powerful
stabilisation, which allows you to take
brilliantly sharp handheld photos with
long exposure times. I often use this
lens for photos of a landscape with
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running water, where times around
a second are best. Together with the
60mm F2.8 Macro, these are my main
lenses for photographing nocturnal
animals. Both lenses also support the
built-in focus stacking feature that I
like to use. For the 12-100mm F4.0 IS
PRO, I also like to use a very short
minimum focusing distance of 12mm
to capture the natural environment
in which the animals live. For these
purposes, I still also have the
M.Zuiko 8mm F1.8 Fisheye PRO in my
backpack. Thanks to the wide field of
view it’s a great choice for capturing
the night sky as well as unusually
I fell in love with the
diversity and beauty
of tropical nature and
wild animals
(1) OM-D E-M1X | M.Zuiko 300mm F4.0 IS PRO
1/500s | F4.0 | ISO 400
(2) OM-D E-M1X | M.Zuiko 150-400mm F4.5
TC1.25x IS PRO
1/160s | F4.5 | ISO 200
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composed photographs of small
animals like frogs, lizards, snakes and
insects. For photos of the family I use
the brilliant M.Zuiko 25mm F1.2 PRO
because of the beautiful bokeh.
Talk us through some of your
favourite photographs.
In Croatia, I discovered a small
pond with green toads. I wanted to
capture a portrait of one with the
beautiful Paklenica mountains in the
background (3) so I took advantage
of the fact that the 12-100mm F4.0 IS
PRO lens can focus really close, and
supports focus stacking. Nearby,
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