Young British photographer Dani Connor established a professional name for herself during the Covid-19 pandemic, after becoming stuck in Swedish Lapland. Dani was volunteering at a wildlife reserve in the province when much of the world went into lockdown, and used the time to her advantage by building a close connection with the native wildlife – specifically a small group of red squirrels.
"I saw it as a very good opportunity to launch my career," she says. "I told myself I'd give it six months, and if I didn't get anywhere, I'd go back to my job at the Natural History Museum in London." After just half a year of dedicated effort, Dani had developed a following of 60,000 people across Instagram, YouTube and Twitter, and was being supported financially by subscribers on Patreon who had become invested in her work.
We asked Dani to share some of her top tips with student photographer Jonty Clark, who was keen to learn more about photographing animals in the wild. We provided Jonty with a Canon EOS R7, which Dani had used on a wildlife shoot in Spain, and set them up in a photography hide where they'd be guaranteed to spot fast-flying birds of prey.
Here's the advice Dani revealed on the day, accompanied by a selection of her and Jonty's best shots.