MARSEL VAN OOSTEN
Great White Pelicans II Marsel crawled closer to the pelicans with his wide-angle lens, when one of them started to investigate the lens with its beak.
YOU started out as an art director in advertising. Do you ever wish you’d started in photography when you were younger? Yes, but I don’t regret my days in advertising – I think my work as an art director has shaped me into the photographer I am now. During my advertising career, I learned so much about so many different genres of photography, style, mood, light, composition, post-processing, aesthetics; and I made ads for seven different car brands. Very few nature photographers have that kind of experience, and it’s the reason I’m such an all-round nature photographer.
Did you learn any lessons in advertising that have also been useful in photography?
I quickly learned that no-one has asked for your ad, and that people on average spend less than two seconds looking at it. That means you have to try to bring your message across in
