To say that Lloyd Webbe would go to the ends of the earth to hunt for a great photograph is putting it mildly.

This year’s Prism Award winning photographer has a side business, Safaris by Design, that takes people on safaris in various parts of Africa, including Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

“In my teens I managed to acquire a camera,” said Mr Webbe. “We used to go out and chase sunrises and moon rises in the black and white days of photography. I entered a competition at one point that was put on by the (now gone) Yankee Store in the City of Hamilton. I received the first second and complimentary prizes. I was really pleased with myself.”

He started as a professional upholsterer, but photography soon grew from a hobby to a lifelong passion and career that has led him to travel to the world. He is frequently hired by private individuals to take pictures. One client frequently flew him to Amsterdam or Paris, sometimes on the Concorde jet, so that he could take a photo of a view that the client wanted to paint.

“Now, every year, I take people on safari to African countries,” he said. “On safari there is always a greater moment than the last. A dramatic photo might be coming within breathing distance of a lion that has just taken down a kill. We have had situations where the animals would come right into the camp and you are right there face to face. You don’t think of the danger in the moment; you just think about the shot.”

He has been leading travel groups since 1986. When he first started people in Bermuda said he was crazy and there would never be enough interest in going to Africa. But since he first started he has never had trouble filling up his groups.

“There isn’t a day I walk down the street that someone doesn’t stop me and ask when the next safari is,” he said.

Every photographer has a photograph that “got away”. Mr Webbe always thinks of a photo he missed in Slaterville Springs, New York State.

“Slaterville Springs is the home of pink slate,” he said. “I had driven from Virginia all the way to New York overnight. There was an old barn, with a stream running under it. The light was reflecting off the barn, just right. I stopped to take the picture, but the woman I was driving with was anxious to get to her destination so we decided we couldn’t stop. The light was just right. You couldn’t do that again. That area is where the painter Andrew Wyeth, did a lot of his paintings.”

A lot has changed since Mr Webbe, 79, first started taking pictures in black and white film. He did not take easily to the digital era, in fact, he said, he came kicking and screaming into it.

“I was not going to be using digital,” he said. “At one point I was teaching digital photography without using digital photography. My students used to get on to me about that. One of my students had an accident while whale watching and broke his arm. He put his camera in my care. I had a job to do for an event at the Hamilton Princess and they wanted digital, and the image e-mailed to their home office that day.

“So I used his digital camera, processed the image at the office, put them on a compact disc and took them to the client that afternoon. That launched me into the digital age. I thought, ‘that’s not bad, after all’. Not having to fight with the airport security people about scanning my film was great.”

He said now he is always open to learning new things about digital photography.

“When someone tells me something about digital photography, I listen, even if I have already heard it before, because it might help in a different way,” he said.

During his career he has photographed many of Bermuda’s governors, and also visiting members of the British Royal family.

“Prince Andrew was here one year to present the Regiment with the colours. He was here during the reconvening of Parliament. I was sent to Government House to photograph him with the colours. I went up there and the colours were flying. I picked a position and waited for him to arrive, but when the prince came, they wanted the photo with the North Shore in the background. The photo they wanted had nothing to do with the colours. So on the spur of the moment I had to go and do it and you only had that much time to do it.”

Mr Webbe said that although he tells people he is self taught, he couldn’t not have done it (his career) without the influence of other photographers.

“One of the photographers in Bermuda, I would carry his bags anywhere in the world for is Tony Cordeiro,” said Mr Webbe. (Mr Cordeiro, retired The Royal Gazette photographer, won the first Prism Award for lifetime achievement, two years ago.) Tony used to work under strange, strict conditions and get his stuff done.”

He said he also had a great admiration for former Chief Department of Tourism photographer John Weatherill, among others.

Mr Webbe is currently working on organising his second mystery safari for February. Participants will only know exactly where they are headed when they arrive at the airport in Tanzania.

For more information about Mr Webbe’s photography and business, Safaris by Design see his page at www.safaris-by-design.com and www.photographyasART.ifp3.com.