'For nocturnal creatures, there's nothing better than camera traps' — how an award-winning wildlife photographer used old secondhand DSLRs and custom camera traps to make discoveries that 'stunned' Kenya's Masai Mara rangers

Sony World Photography Award 2026's Wildlife category winner's series 'not just pictures of pretty animals'

18 Apr 2026, 21:00 by https://www.techradar.com/uk/author/tim-coleman · TechRadar

News By Timothy Coleman published 18 April 2026

(Image credit: © Will Burrard-Lucas)

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The winners at the Sony World Photography Awards 2026 have been revealed, and once again the prestigious contest, which this year attracted 430,000 entries from over 200 countries and territories, was packed with incredible photography and stories.

I was fortunate to get a sneak preview of the exhibition — which is open to the public at Somerset House in London until May 4, 2026 — and its 300 plus works, to hear from the 10 category winners and attend the glitzy award ceremony. And best of all, I had the opportunity to sit down with the Wildlife category winner Will Burrard-Lucas to discuss his 'Crossing Point' series created in Kenya's Masai Mara national park.

The project was seeded in cooperation with the Safari Collection and local government to provide vital data of the iconic national park's wildlife, primarily to track rhino numbers, but the highly-detailed photos made many more discoveries that 'stunned' the park's rangers, despite them being intimately familiar with the park's wildlife.

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I was already familiar with Burrard-Lucas' wildlife photography, but less so with how he makes the photos, so I was keen to discover more about his unique camera setup. What he shared with me was fascinating.

'For nocturnal creatures, there's nothing better than camera traps'

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Will Burrard-Lucas' wildlife photography is captured using a variety of setups, from daytime shoots with Sony mirrorless camera gear in hand, to camera traps paired with 'old secondhand DSLRs' and left in place for long periods — the latter was his approach to the 'Crossing Point' project.

Low-cost trail cams are ideal for recording wildlife, but the image quality is typically poor and not detailed enough to distinguish specific animals. Burrard-Lucas, on the other hand, uses top-quality camera gear, paired with his self-developed camera trap system.

Burrard-Lucas' camera traps are his own 'Camtraptions' devices, and are based on a highly advanced motion sensor — the latest version being the culmination of years of development — which works with a number of leading digital cameras for wired or wireless operation.

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