László Novák
(photographer)

"...I was born in Tapolca in 1957 and now I live in Balatonalmádi with my family, which includes two boys and a girl.

I became interested in nature photography in 1981 when I saw a book of nature photographs by Zoltán Tildy. Since then I have been very keen on taking photographs that have a connection with nature or of subjects free of the 'pollution' of our civilasitaion.

In my opinion people don't take enough care looking after nature these days. So with my photographs I try to connect people with nature. A few of my pictures also depict conflict between people and nature.

At first when I started taking photographs I worked alone and kept my technical 'secrets' to myself, but after a few years I met Balázs Kármán with whom I have been collaborating with ever since.

Besides photographing wildlife I really enjoy observing nature which, I think, has contributed a lot to my best successes.

I am a founder member of naturArt - the Association of Hungarian Nature Photographers - and have taken part in the largest photographic competition in Hungary („Meeting with Nature") every year since 1993. In 1995 and 1997 I won the two main awards: „Photographer of the Year" and „Nature photograph of the Year". I also won several category awards on "BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year" and GDT's "Ganzlichter" competitions.

My photographs have been exhibited in Hungary, India, Denmark and Germany and have been published in National Geographic magazine. Hungarian Television has also made a programme about our work together photographing European Kingfishers.

One of my favourite projects was a book entitled "Private Eden" which I am very proud of. This book contains our best photographs of nature. I am one of the four hungarian participant of the "Wild Wonders of Europe" project.

I use a Canon EOS system with closely complete line of lenses..."

Please visit László' website

Learn more about László at his WildWonders' page

László is a founding member of Hungary's most prestigious nature photography club, the naturArt.

Recommended reading:
Philosophy of a nature photographer (by László Novák)

Balázs Kármán
(photographer)

"...I was born on the 23rd of May, 1962, in Eger. I married in 1987, moving to Szeged where I live in a settlement near the city with my wife, Noemi, and two children, Petra and Kolos.

I attended primary and secondary grammar schools in Eger and have been interested in photography since I was 12. My first inspiration was a book by Zoltán Tildy entitled "Nature Photography".

I became a member of a photography association around this time where István Fejér helped my work. Then I graduated from Gödöllô Agricultural University in 1987. During this time I moved on to another photography association run by Albert Kresz. That was when I had my first successes, including winning the 'Birds' category in the largest Hungarian photography competition, "Meeting with Nature".

After university I got to know László Novák with whom I have taken many nature photographs. We are both founder members of the Hungarian Nature Photography Association (naturArt; 1990) and were admitted to the Association of Hungarian Photographers in 1998.

I have achieved my major photography successes in the Hungarian "Photographer of the Year" competition, which I have entered four times so far. I won the award for "Nature Photography of the Year" and the main award of "Photographer of the Year" on all four occasions that I entered (1993, 1994, 19996 and 2000). The last time Laszló Novák and I entered the competition was with our collaborative material.

Two of our photographs have been chosen amongst the best 12 bird photographs in the annual BBC Wildlife competition, which is the largest nature photography competition in the world.

Our photographs are regularly published in Hungary and overseas. It seems we are also to become main contributors to the German Naturfoto magazine. Our photos are mainly in demand for natural science magazines in Hungary, but we have also been exhibited overseas in Romania, Germany, France, India and Denmark.

We have undertaken two month-long overseas tours together visiting Madagascar and India. Our projection presentation was also a success at the GDT Festival in 2000.

My favourite camera is still the analog Canon F1N with a complete line of manual lenses. Together we use a privately developed high-tech infragate system, and a completely new self-made tripod, which enables us to make pictures at 1/8 second with a 1000 mm lens without any shake..."

Balázs, a living legend in HUngary, is a founding member of Hungary's most prestigious nature photography club, the naturArt.

Gábor Vasuta jun.
(photographer, tour advisor and expert)

Gábor was born in 1967 (Budapest) in a Roman Catholic family, and lives in a wonderfull Transdanubian village with his partner and field-companion, Christina. He is one of the most active author, birder, nature photographer and lecturer in Hungary.

He has been birding since his early childhood time, and has done conscious field work since 1989. His fauvorite group is the owls, especially the Barn Owl.

He has published 350 natural history articles since 1989 and he is everyday contributor for many newspapers and magazines. He is also the most active contributor for Birding.hu and one of our top listers.

He not only has interest for the living nature, but for cultural sights too. There is no one person in the country who visited so many old churches, former aristocratic palaces, mansions and their gardens in Hungary. He also have the same love for old trees.

For some years ago he has began photographing, and would like to estabilish an archivum for natural historians. Gábor plans to publish a CD on them, as well he would like to publish a book about his memoires and explorations.

Gábor use Leica equipment for his birding, Canon 40D with 5.6/400, Nikon D70 with macro lenses, Nikon Coolpix 2500 and 4500 for his photographic records.

Please visit Gabor's
photoblog, updated almost daily

Gábor's profile on birding.hu

Mario Maier
(photographer)

Born in 1961 in Freiburg (Germany).

Works as software developer in Erlangen, where he also lives. He has a sweet little daughter (Romana, 4).

Mario has been handling with butterfly-hotography for 12 years. His first pictures were taken with a teleobjektiv on color negative. After it his equipment naturally developed, and today he works only on Fuji Velvia, 50 ASA. He’s a keen nature- and butterfly photographer and „looks for the perfect picure”!

His hobbies are playing the guitar and singing, but he also likes driving, jogging and playing chess with friends.

He is the owner and developer of the most famous, gorgeous, and popular European butterfly-site of the Net, and we are proud and thankful, that he alowed to use his pictures on our website too.

Please visit Mario's website!

Dr. Zsolt Kalotás
(photographer, expert)

Zsolt was born in Gyöngyös city in 1952. He graduated as an agricultural engineer and special engineer of game management.

Since leaving the university he has always worked for nature protection – first he was a researcher and later began to work for the most important Hungarian nature protection organisation, the Ministry of Enviroment. Since 1989 he is the director of the Hungarian Ornithological Institute.

He is married since 1976 and has two children, who both are university students. They live in Tolna county in southern Hungary.

He has began photographing at the age of 22. He always wanted to preserve the lovely moments of the nature and wildlife. He learned the bases of photographing autodidactically. The change came in his life in 1989, when with friends he estabilished the Association of Hungarian Nature Photograhers – the naturArt. This became the most important nature photography organisation of Hungary, which supports the artistic way of nature photographing under strict ethical rules.

He has published over 3000 photos in books, nature protection magazines, newspapers, postcards, advertisements etc. He published pictures mainly in Hungary, but also in the USA, Canada, England, France, Belgium, Netherlands and in other countries too. The greatest success for him was to publish the first ever Hungarian nature photograph in the May issue of National Geographic Magazine in 2002.

He took part on the competition „The Nature Photographer of the Year” in 1998, 1999 and 2001. He gained alltogether 16 different awards in 2001, when he won the competition – and became "The Nature Photographer of the Year".

His fauvorites are the microworld and the birds. The photographing for him is not only a relaxing hobby, but the expand of his passion and a lifestyle too.

Nowadays Zsolt working on a book series of the hungarian National Parks, three of them published already.

Zsolt uses Canon and Nikon equipments (5D MarkII, 40D, F4 and F801), his favourite lenses are macro lenses and the 4/300 and 4/600 lenses.

Zsolt is a founding member of Hungary's most prestigious nature photography club, the naturArt. He also served as its president for 10 years.

Sándor Zsila
(photographer)

Sandor was born in 1958 in Budapest. Since then he has lived there. As a child he already has been interested in colours, forms and had very good manual skills. He looked forward a promiseful career on the technical university, but because of a long childhood disease he wasn’t able to attend university. He became a hard worker industrial apprentice.

He first met photographing at the age of 16, since then he is continously taking pictures. His girlfriend (now wife) often went to excursions, so he followed, and took his camera with. Then he realized, that he is interested in nature photographing more then anything else. He became the member of the Association of Hungarian Nature Photographers (naturArt) in 1989. In 1992 he was offered a job there as secretary. Since then he works for the association.

Until now he took part on ten competition, got ten awards and many diploms. He exhibiteded more than sixty pictures all over the country. In 1996 and 1997 he gained three first, and three second prizes on the „Meeting with the Nature” and „The Nature Photographer of the Year” competitions.

Since 1999 with two colleges he worked on an interactive CD. He has developed this for children to show them the beauty of nature. The CD containes 400 of his pictures and playful excercises for kids at different ages, so they can became more sensitive to the nature, surrounding us, and not only consider the lion, the zebra and the giraffe as wild animals.

Sándor using a top lineage of Nikon equipment.

Please visit Sándor's website

László Bécsy
(photographer, advisor)

Born in 1943, lives in Budapest, surrounded with the love of his two great children, wife, and his lovely father (now 95), who was party in numerous great success in László’s carrier.

He graduated at the Eötvös Lóránd University, as the teacher of biology and geography. Now he is a freelance zoologist-ecologist and nature photographer.

When he began his carrier in 1966, he decided to document all the vertebrates of the Carpathian Basin - and this stayed a lifelong aim. Later he become the foremost authority and photographer of his generation, as the journalist of the most popular animal magazine of the country (Állatvilág-Animal World), and the author or co-author of numerous comprehensive work. A complete - and now active - birder generation grew up on his stunning photos and books, usually published together with Egon Schmidt, another grand man of the epoch.

Founder member of the Birdlife Hungary (1974). He published more than 3000 pictures in different magazines, held more than 350 educational lectures with slide shows. Author of 13 books (the most popular was sold in 100.000 copies), and co-author of further 22 titles. His scientific achievement was requited by three prestigious national (governmental) awards. He wrote one of the best book ever on nature photography "Bloodles hunting", a must-read bible for every nature photographer in Hungary.

Dr. András Ambrus Ph.D.
(dragonfly expert)

András was born in 1957, in Budapest, and he finished the elementary and the secondary school also there. He took his diploma in forest engineering in 1981. He has worked at the Ferto-Hanság Natural Park since its foundation - 1991.

He is the father of 4 children. His wife – with forest engineer degree – works at the Family Helping Institute of the Commune of Sopron. They have lived at Kópháza, next to the Austrian border since 1987.

In the beginning his scientific work could be described with articles and exhibitions in connection with butterflies and dragonflies. The first important station of this was the Study Group for Entomology in the Zoo of Budapest leaded by József Szalkay.

During his university years he wrote more papers about the butterfly fauna of Zala country and the area of Sopron. This was the time when he had his first publications in scientific magazines. He wrote his diplomwork using his collection of butterflies of the beeches of Zala counry and the Sopron area. Following the encouraging of his professor in Sopron he took his doctorate at the Faculty of Natural Sciences of the Eötvös Loránd University.

From 1984 he took entomological researches at the University of Silviculture and Wood Industry in part time job. He also worked for the Hungarian Scientific Academy for 3 years, researching at the same university on entomology, at the Department of Forest Protection. At the expire of the scholarship – after 1988 – he spent one more year at the department, and after it he worked in the Róth Gyula Secondrary School as teacher.

In 1996 he joined the Informational Center for Nature Conservation of the Hortobágy Natural Park, where he works at present. He studies the wetlands of the Transdanubia, researching on invertebrata of the water. He is the specialist of nature conservation exercises.

He took the degree of candidate for agricultural sciences in 1992, with ecological and ethological works, researching on dragonflies and butterflies. He has represented Hungary in one of the professional teams /Expert Group of Invertebrates/ of the Convention of Bern of the European Council since 1996.

In the last years, with a 3 member counting „self active” group (Larva Team of the Friends of Hungarian Odonatologists) he took part in the ecological condition survey of Hungarian Natural Parks, from the Hortobágy National Park to the Ferto-lake at numerous place. Their work is indicated by many comprehensive analysis, shorter faunistic articles, scientific lectures (in Hungary and in foreign countries) and posters. From these the most considerable is, the publication named„ The Odonata fauna of the Kisalföld and the Western-Hungarian border area”, which was published at the writer’s own expense.

He took part as co-editor in many researches of the area in connection with nature conservation. During the time, spent at the Ferto-Hanság - the to 3 sided - Natural Park, he worked a lot on the elaboration of the nature conservation views of the Hungarian side. For the moment he works on the researching of the wet areas extending to the areas of Burgenland and Slovakia. In this topic he submitted a PHARE CBC work, which was accepted in the small project category.