Remember this Name: Cai Priestley

Hi everyone. As part of a push to update my blog more often, I am starting up a new monthly feature called 'Remember this Name', with the intent to shine some light on up-and-coming nature photographers.

For my first Remember this Name feature, I'm starting close to home with a young guy that reminds me of myself twenty years ago (yes, sad but true...I'm now getting old enough to say stuff like this, yikes!).

Cai Priestley first arrived on my radar about a year ago when he began emailing me from Banff with a few simple questions about wildlife photography. The emails soon morphed into chats about where he might find wildlife and mentions of what wildlife he'd run into.

Then, a little over a month ago, Cai called me out of the blue to tell me he'd found an injured moose that wolves had attacked. I needed little further prompting to decide to call him back and arrange to meet him so I could find out more about this injured moose.

I was very surprised to meet a humble, young guy that has a burning passion for wildlife and for wildlife photography. After a few sessions in the field together sitting waiting patiently (and impatiently) for the wolves to reappear at the moose's location, I began to realize more and more that I was sitting beside myself, albeit a much younger version of myself. Wildlife photography is a passion that burns very deeply inside of me, and I could see it burning just as strongly in Cai.

Spirit - leading male of the Pipestone wolf pack in Banff National Park
© Cai Priestley

Perhaps most surprising of all to me was that Cai, even at the age of 22, has a fierce protective love of wildlife built into him and has a very high standard of morals and ethics in wildlife photography, which I find very refreshing in today's day and age of game farm shooting and wildlife baiting (stay tuned in 2011 for a series of articles in Outdoor Photography Canada that I will be writing versus photographers that take the other side of this ethical debate).

Cai's slow rise to a career in wildlife photography took a few baby steps recently when he opened his first gallery showing in Banff at the Symiotics Gallery/Salon downstairs in Harmony Lane Mall on Banff Avenue. The show was recently covered in the Banff Crag & Canyon newspaper and will be open now until the end of next week (end of the 2nd week in May). If you get a chance, drop by to check out some of Cai's local wildlife photography work.

One of the Gallery pieces that will be showing in Banff until May 14th, 2010
© Cai Priestley

You can also view more of Cai's work on his Facebook fan page.

Cai's work from around the world is also featured on his Facebook fan pages.
© Cai Priestley

Interested in having your wildlife or nature photography featured in Remember this Name? Send me an email along with some sample photos and a brief bio!

Thanks and stay tuned for more updates in the near future!

John