About Mark

Hello and welcome to my Website!

My name is Mark Rossell and I was born on 13th April 1962 in Sennelager Germany.

I started bird watching in the early 1980’s. As soon as I felt comfortable identifying birds on my own I soon got into the twitching scene. I became very passionate about birds and bird lists, which is what twitching is really all about.

After several years of twitching I became tired of chasing after birds around the country, I wanted to know more about nature so I turned to moths. Once I had a basic understanding of identifying moths I soon decided to venture into another aspect of nature; photography.

I started to build a photographic library of every moth that I could. At that time, I was pleased with my efforts with my 1 megapixel compact camera. As technology moved on and cameras were enhanced, I became less satisfied with the quality of my collection of moth photos. I found myself looking at new cameras and eventually decided I needed a new 5 megapixel compact camera, as this was the best at that time and digital SLR cameras were still thousands of pounds and not within my budget without a divorce!

Shortly after I got frustrated with my 5 megapixel camera as it was useless for bird photography but OK for moths.

I then decided to buy a bridge camera which is a compromise between a compact camera and a SLR camera, although I still was not satisfied with it. I managed to get great results with insect photography, however the bridge camera was not suitable for bird photography either. At this point I was in a quandary as I was unsure as to whether to select a digi-scoping setup or bite the bullet and get a digital SLR camera setup.

I decided it had to be the full blown Digital SLR. This camera turned out to be the best decision I had made photography wise. I purchased a brand new Canon 30D DSLR camera with a Sigma 50-500mm and a Sigma 150mm macro lens, and all the other accessories that were required, camera bag, tripod etc.

I began to take photographs of all different kinds of things including birds and was pleased with the results. I know they are not of a professional standard, but that is still work in progress. My next problem soon became apparent after taking thousands of photos, what should I do with them? The answer was revealed whilst I was visiting a friend in Tucson Arizona. My friend Richard Fray who designs web sites for a living built me “markswildlife.com”. The website went live in the first week of May 2008.

My favourite local photography place is a privately owned nature reserve called Priory Water in Leicestershire. I spend many hours here photographing the flora and fauna on the reserve. The 230 acre site is managed by the Leicestershire Wildfowlers Association. I feel privileged to have watched the development of this reserve from a barren gravel extraction site in the early 1970’s to its wildlife rich current state.