 So, my name is Khan Mika. As you've heard, I'm a wildlife photographer, and today I'm going to be sharing with you my story and how my story through taking photos of the natural world brought me to a place where I wanted to share my visions with how I think we should be protecting our world for conservation purposes. So, I was sort of by saying the best part about being a wildlife photographer is that you get to experience things that the ordinary person can only dream about. And throughout my journey, I've been fortunate enough to do and see things that people can only just, they can't comprehend, and it's so hard for me to talk to people about it, because it's one of those things where unless you experience it, you don't understand, and that's where I come in as a photographer. I try and let the people that don't get the opportunity to experience the natural world to experience it. I've been able to go canoeing in the Great St. Beesie River in Zimbabwe, and I've come face to face with elephants while doing so. I've gone hiking with the Samburu people in Kenya, which has been one of my favourite experiences in my whole life, and I've also been able to cable cut across the border between South Africa and Botswana, with crocodile swimming underneath me. I've also been able to experience the true beauty found in the Ngorogoro crater in Tanzania, which is my favourite place in the entire world. Now, since the name of the talk is called Close Encounters, I thought it would only be right if I shared some of my close encounters with you. And with this picture in particular, it was often morning game drive. I wanted to try out macro lens for the first time, and for those of you that might not know, it's to take pictures of small insects or very up close things. So for example, people's eyes, if you've seen any pictures of that. So with regards to taking this picture, it was one of those things where I went to go get my camera to go and try out, see what I could take pictures of, because it's insects. They're everywhere. And that's when I saw this orange blur run past me. I wasn't sure what it was beginning, but then after I got my camera and went after it, a solifuge, which is what this creature's name is, started chasing me because they chase after people's shadows. So it's quite an experience. Often chasing after me and me running away, I eventually found out that if I stayed still and lie down, it would come up to me and I could get the photo that I wanted. So with this, I got the photo and as I came closer, because I left my cord up to it, it flared its pincers in almost the top of, like, get away from me, which I did. But I got the photo I wanted to show what it's like to be on the praise perspective on this type of picture. Straight after this, I looked at the picture on the LCD, which is the camera screen. And I realized when I looked up, it was gone. And that's when I felt something crawling up my leg. So as you can imagine, I was glad I was wearing khaki that day. Needed to change your pants off to it. But that's just one of my experiences. Another one, which I like to talk to about, is the time I was charged by a leopard. Tortoise. So with this starting in particular, we went to a place called Machati Game Reserve, which is where I do a lot of my photography as I've been going there for two months for the last eight years. And I wanted to go into one of my favorite hills in the area to experience the sunset and to talk about what we had seen with my family. With this starting in particular, I saw a rock. And I thought, whatever, it's just a rock. It's so rocky in the area that I paid no attention to it. But then as the day went on, we started talking, the sun was setting. I realized that the rock had moved. And that's when I thought, you know what, let me go and find out what's going on. So I walked up and tried to investigate. And that's when I saw the leopard tortoise. So immediately I ran to go get my camera to capture the last rays of the setting sun. And I got the picture that you see behind me now. To get this, though, it's not a nice story. I had to go crawling around all over the rocks and stuff and ended up going on top of a thorn bush. So to get this photo, it was all worth it because even though I had a whole bunch of cuts and I was impaled one or two times, I got the shot I wanted. So that's how all that matters. Now I've talked to you about the smaller creatures that I've been able to have encounters with. But I've also had encounters equally as large creatures like the elephants and the lions. And the reason I brought up the whole point of talking about the smaller creatures is a lot of people don't pay attention to them. And it's one of the most important things I've found that people should say, have a bit of focus on them. Because the one thing with photography, you don't need to go to Africa to go and take photos. You can go into your back garden. You know, there's always something you can do. But carrying on with my story. With this photo in particular, I came face to face with the crocodile. We drifted down the river in the Okavango Delta. And I managed to get this shot. And although it seems really close, I was closer. I've come face to face with big male lions and I've also been in such a close proximity to two big bulls fighting over a female that I couldn't actually take photos of them anymore because it was too close. I couldn't focus. With all that being said, I think it's only right to begin from the really beginning. And with that being said, this is my story. From the day I was born, nature and wildlife photography had always been a big part of my life. As my parents were always involved with wildlife photography and were very passionate about the bush. As far back as I can remember, I was going to our local game reserves and taking photos of everything. And I always remember asking my dad if I could borrow his camera and he would always reluctantly respond with, okay, but don't drop it. Because if you do, we're going to feed you to the lions. So as such, I'd make sure that no matter what, I wouldn't drop his camera. During this journey of learning how to get into this photography and what photography really was, because I was always fascinated with what my dad could do with the camera and take what we saw in front of us and put it into a little screen, I eventually, after whining and whining for seven years, got my very first camera, which I like to call the pocket rocket. So the pocket rocket, I actually brought it here today, was the first camera that I ever owned. It's exclusive to me and it was something that I took everywhere. I remember going to our local game reserves and taking pictures of everything. And when I mean everything, I mean everything. With one picture in particular, which was one of my first pictures I ever took, was Oven in Yala and it's not very good, it's blurry, it's, yeah, I don't like to look at it very much. But I look at it now because it shows where I come from and how I've progressed as a photographer as well as a person. Now with that being said, yeah, it's a nice picture. I took it. As I was growing older with my wildlife photography, I started to realize that I wanted to share with my memories with what I saw with my friends and family and I wanted to capture them as photos. To do this, I'd obviously go to the game reserves and take photos. But I realized somewhere along the line that that wasn't enough for me. I wanted to capture what I thought the true beauty of nature was and to share it with the world because as I said previously, a lot of people don't get to experience what it's like to go into the bush to see a giraffe like this. And that was my goal as a photographer was to bring the bush to the people, not the people to the bush. I remember when my dad always said, as I was a youngster, that animals aren't going to be around forever and that you must take the most of every experience you get, no matter how big or small the opportunity, because they're not going to be there forever. And the animals you photograph today might not be there tomorrow. So as a youngster, as a little 10-year-old, I didn't really understand what he was trying to say. But as I grew older, I started to realize, and with this picture in particular, it's of an elephant that's been shot in crossing the border of South Africa and Botswana during the dry season. It was shot and ravaged forward skin for the black market. And after seeing this, it made me realize what I wanted to do with my photography, to not only share what I thought the beauty of nature was with the world, but to show, to raise awareness for how the animals in our world aren't going to be around forever and that if we don't make the change, change won't happen. I remember specifically going through my story, going through, as I grew older, his words kept on ringing a bell in my head. I always had it at the back of my head talking about why we should be protecting animals. And as a youngster, I didn't understand this, but slowly through taking photographs and seeing the world, I started to understand what how beautiful nature was and why we should be protecting it. I remember that for me, a lot of people think that nature, we should always show the beauty of nature to protect it. And I disagree with that entirely. I'm one of the people that will rather show both the ugly, such as this leopard trying to kill, eating a kill, and the pretty, to show the entirety of nature and why we should be protecting it. Because let's be honest, a message is just a message. For a company with a photo and people understanding what we're trying to do, we can make a difference. My first ever awarded picture was of the picture you see behind me called Vanishing Lion. I took it when I was 11 years old. And it's of a picture where I took when I went to Kenya for my mom's 40th birthday. It's a picture that talks about the hostility of how the lion population in Africa is decreasing at a rapid rate and how my grandchildren might never be able to see a real African wild lion. To take the shots, I wanted to try a different technique, which was quite new to me as an 11-year-old. I had to slow down my shutter speed and do a zoom action. It's a long story. But as soon as I took this photo, it reminded me about how it almost looked as if the lions were fading. And in this picture, there's two lions. But you only see one. So, well, mainly. So it kind of reminded me, gave me the sense that the lions were fading from our world and vanishing, disappearing off the frame. And with that, it won the under-14 category at a competition called the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards, which when I came, it was the under-14 category. And I placed in 2014 as an 11-year-old. To this day, lions have been one of my favorite animals to photograph. And there's a big passion of mine to protect them, as you can see by the pictures I've taken behind me. This is on one of my last trips to Botswana. Now, you may be wondering what this Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is that I previously mentioned. And in the words of myself, it's the Mount Everest of Wildlife Photography. There's no higher place. It's a competition where there's over 45,000 entrants from all over the world. And it's exhibited in the Natural History Museum in London. It's a competition where the top 100 pictures get selected and will be exhibited in London and tour the world. And it's to raise awareness for both the population of the world's wildlife and as well just showcasing the beauty of nature and why we should be protecting it. During this experience, I was fortunate enough to meet Sir David Attenborough, who actually signed my first book as I made as a 13-year-old at the time. So that was really a special moment for me and one that I'll cherish for the rest of my life. Throughout all of this, I've been able to get the award of my dreams, and my dreams came true when I won the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award this year. Well, last year now. Time flies. Now, before I go on to talking about what the picture won, how I won, I thought it'd be right to mention how it was started. So this was during when we went to Kenya for my mom's 40th birthday, and we went with a photographer called Greg Datoi. Now, he's the Wildlife Photographer of the Year for 2013. And I was so fascinated with what he could do with a camera that I stuck to him like Velcro. And I was so inspired and excited by what he could do and what he called his job, because I thought it was more like a holiday. So I wanted to learn as much as I could from him. And I remember asking him about a picture that I took when I was 11 years old. And straight after I asked him what he thought about it, he went up to me and he said, Scar, look at this competition and show my parents the wildlife photographer of the year. And he told me in a couple of years time, when I'm an adult, I might have the potential to place in the competition. But to his dismay, I made it the next year. And this is me and Greg in London. The whole point of my photography shifted when I realized that I hadn't made it into the competition for four years. Because after I took my original shot of vanishing line, I entered each year. And to no avail, it didn't place anywhere. I realized that I was missing something and that some of my pictures placed and others not. And what this was, was I needed to make people feel something. I needed to evoke an emotion, a feeling. And that's when it all dawned on me that I just needed to change my perspective. And that the common shouldn't be seen as mundane. And that with a change of perspective, you can even see a baboon or a bird or a zebra as something super extraordinary, if given the right approach. And that you don't need to see exotic things, you just have to have an exotic approach. A picture I like in this too is a picture called Dawn of the Beast, which is of a volubius actually making a poo. It doesn't sound very photogenic, does it? But it's a picture that I saw an opportunity to make look as best as I could. And to showcase that even though it's a common thing, it's beautiful. So now the picture that won, the whole wildlife photographer of the awards, is called Lounging Leopard. It's a picture of a leopard I've been following for the last eight years and I've actually been fortunate enough to grow alongside her from just older than a cub to having her second litter now. I've been able to photograph her since I first started my photography journey and have been able to grow alongside her. So it's been a really awesome experience for me, especially with this photo being my winner. This leopard in particular is very special to me, not only because of how long I've been taking photos of her, she broke her leg as a cub and as a cub, a leopard's like to drag their kills up trees, but she couldn't do this because of her injured leg. But through a miracle she somehow managed to survive and to this day is doing really well. So this is her cub. I've recently just taken photos of her. They're both beautiful. I love them. So to summarize my whole talk, I'd like to say that the youth play a very important role in conservation especially because whether we like it or not, the previous generations haven't left the youth with much to do. We have to fix a lot of things and the thing is we don't have the experience or the knowledge to fix them, which is why I believe that if all of us work together we can actually make a difference. And that's all I wanted to say. So thank you very much for your time and I hope you enjoyed my story.