About us
Andrew Lilley
Photography is a passion of mine but it’s only something I do in my free time. I work as a human factors consultant in a small company in Norway. Zanete and I currently live in the beautiful countryside near Ski.
For those who haven’t heard of human factors consultants, we work in the fields of human-machine interaction (HMI), ergonomics and usability, working to ensure products and systems are designed to meet the needs and limitations of their users. Put another way, its about designing products to suit the user, not forcing the user to adapt to the product.
I graduated from Loughborough University in the UK in 2000 with a Masters in Systems Engineering. I then spent the next six months backpacking, mainly in Australia and New Zealand, where my interest in nature photography took off, thanks to some stunning landscapes and wildlife which proved inspirational.
I’ve been employed by Lockheed Martin, working as designer of the user interface of the Royal Navy’s Merlin helicopter. After four years I briefly moved back to BAE Systems to work as a human factors scientist, carrying out research projects, until I moved to Norway.
If you have any suggestions for the website’s content, requests for other types of photography or articles, questions on techniques, or if you just want to criticise, feel free to write! Also, check out my microstock photography at iStockphoto, which is non-nature photography I do to make some pocket money.
Zanete Andersone-Lilley
Wildlife has been my life-long passion. Even as a child I knew I was going to be a biologist, and I was lucky to fulfil that dream. I’m a mammalogist specialising in large carnivore ecology. I did my PhD on wolf ecology (2002) at the University of Latvia, working as a zoologist for Kemeri National Park.
I currently work for WWF in Oslo, Norway. My previous job was working for Defra (Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) in Bristol, England, as a Scientific Advisor on Species. My first job was for the Latvian Forestry Research Institute “Silava” as a Latvian co-ordinator in a joint Norwegian-Baltic-Polish project that studied bears, wolves and lynx, and various human-carnivore co-existence aspects.
My interest in nature photography developed in parallel to my research. The more time you spend in the field, the more interesting things you see and the more eager you become to reflect it in photographs. I also write on nature- or conservation-related subjects. It’s fascinating and inspiring to share experiences of the natural world with those who are interested in the same things.
I’m publishing quite a lot of popular articles in the Latvian national outdoor magazine Medibas. Makskeresana. Daba. (Hunting. Fishing. Nature. in Latvian) and occasionally in foreign publications like Wolf Print or Wolf Magazin. With this website, we’re trying to combine Andrew’s photographic eye with my writing.
Apart from doing science, I enjoy various outdoor activities such as horse-riding, canoing, hiking, cross-country skiing. Mushroom- and berry-picking is also fun and it’s a deeply rooted part of the Latvian culture. I heard a saying that the Latvians are a nation that live on trees in the middle of peat bogs and eat mushrooms. There could be some truth in it. But you must see it for yourself!