PORT Macquarie couple, Ken and Michelle Dyball, are perhaps the most recognised African landscape photographers in the world.
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Born and bred in Port, Mrs Dyball met her husband Ken in high school. Both had studied photography and made a career of it after completing diplomas of photography at Port Macquarie TAFE.
They ventured to Sydney in 1996 for work, until a trip to Africa planted the seed of living full time in the bush.
“We realised, when we visited Africa for the first time, that we loved it and that is where we wanted to be,” Mr Dyball said.
“We did a two month trip and knew we wanted to live there. We went back every year, shipped a 4WD set up for camping and photography from Sydney over there, and the lifestyle is so different. It’s unbelievable living out in the bush.”
They capture sensational images of lions, giraffes, zebras and all of the other animals and creatures that live in Masai Mara, Kenya, Serengeti and the Amboseli National Park.
With such beasts roaming near their home daily, you would be forgiven to think it was a dangerous profession.
“But it doesn’t really pose any danger to us,” he said.
“We are more worried about people than animals. You can’t help getting into some situations when you live in the bush, it happens, but all in all we have always been safe.”
Now they live most of the year in Kenya. They both still have family in Port Macquarie and visit whenever they are back in Australia.
They will exhibit some of their work at the Black Eye Gallery, Darlinghurst, November 16, for 3 weeks before taking it overseas.
“We had a plan to do a coffee table book and shot a lot of colour, but over the last couple of years we have focused on black and white for exhibitions, which works well for that kind of thing,” Mr Dyball said.
“People also tend to spend more money on black and white, especially with landscape.
“We go to America with the exhibition next year for three months, hoping to exhibit in Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles (West Hollywood) and New York, and possibly Boston.
“Even when we had our business we were interested in nature photography. If we could get out in the bush or to a waterfall we were happy.”
Judging by their stunning images, happiness comes easy to the couple that will always remember their roots in Port Macquarie.