Donal Boyd Photography

05/14/2026

Creating portraits of women standing up for wildlife and coexistence in the Amboseli landscape of Kenya.

For years I’ve strived to create portraits that communicate the strength, presence, and humanity of people protecting the natural world. These here are a small sample of the incredible women carrying stories of resilience, coexistence, and community. ICONS in their own right.

Huge thanks to for supporting the creation of this work and helping bring the project to life. Also thanks to for the continued support in the field.

Created in collaboration with and the incredible women of .

Comment “ICON” and I’ll send you the behind the scenes film from the project that’s posted on my personal YouTube channel.

By the way, if you’ve never heard of , they’re an incredible platform where you can buy sell and trade your used camera equipment. And it’s exactly how I got the FUJIFILM GFX 100 II that I used for this project in Kenya.

I’ve wanted to own this camera for a really long time and instead of buying it brand new I traded some camera equipment that I already had and I wasn’t using for this camera to start this new project.

It’s honestly a really amazing way to approach camera equipment since they’re already is so much used gear in the world might as well make sure that it is actually used.

05/07/2026

Photographing the ICONS of Kenya: Live on YouTube - Comment “Icon” and I’ll send you the link.

Check out the video and let me know in the comments what you think of these “ICONS”.

A little bit more about the series and concept below.

In this video, I’m so, so stoked to share a behind the scenes look at creating portraits of iconic women in Kenya for a photography concept that was graciously supported by .

For years, I’ve been wanting to create a series of images in medium format specifically that communicate the strength and indomitable character of the people that stand up and do something for nature, wildlife, and our planet. With the support of , I travelled to Kenya last month to do just that. And for this chapter of my new series, I worked with to document the women’s community empowerment project they support called .

More about them in the video of course… but…

By the way… if you’ve never heard of , well, they’re pretty epic. Over the years, I’ve built up quite a collection of camera and film gear and instead of always buying new, whenever I need a specific lens or camera element, I try instead to trade for it. And that’s exactly what I did for this project.

For years I’ve been working with Fujifilm cameras through a partnership I have with , but I’ve never owned my favourite camera the GFX100 II, which I’ve borrow from them for quite a lot of fine art work and impact images.

So, instead of buying one brand new, I traded an older camera I had and exchanged it for a used (practically new) GFX100 II. still loaned me a few lenses for this project, which I’m very grateful to them for! Check the video to see which lense is my favourite to work with.

Anyways, if you’re keen on seeing more images from the series and seeing how the GFX100 II works in the field, comment “ICON” and I’ll send you the YouTube link. Cheers!

05/05/2026

Atmosphere and turmoil battle out a heightened sense of intense austral updraft.

Have you ever seen mountains like this?

Chilean Patagonia.

04/16/2026

That’s a wrap!

15 years in the making.

Sharing some raw moments from the field after spending the past two weeks here in Brazil (Pantanal/Cerrado) with the team.

We were here with creating media to celebrate their 15 years of perseverance in jaguar and landscape conservation when at the start everyone said what they wanted to do was impossible.

They’ve met a lot of challenges with their initial idea to habituate jaguars in the Pantanal, but overcome so much and expanded into grander concepts of total biome protection in more regions and methods than I can keep track of. So much so that they’ve now grown into Oncafari International. And I’m honored to have witnessed a good part of this work since I first started documenting their work in 2019.

There’s still a lot of work to do and it’s clear they’re up for the task! 15 years on and still, the work continues…

Anyways, enjoy these little snippets that showcase just how hard it is to operate in these environments as filmmakers let alone to work in every single day tracking jaguars, working with local communities, and stewarding the landscape.

04/11/2026

Folks! Photo contest time!

I’m judging the photo contest for a second time this year and submissions are open! And best thing… it’s open to ANYONE, you don’t need to be a photographer, but you did need to take a photo ;) if you know what I mean.

Prizes are something like $50k in prizes!

Comment “SUBMIT” and I’ll send you a link to contest homepage. (Deadline is April 24th midnight ET)

I’ve been working with for years now, back when they had a whale in their name, if you’ve been following along since then. And the reason why I like them so much is because they’re all about storytelling and supporting visual craft in physical form. Every month they print a physical magazine. You know, like the real thing. And this contest lines up with their photo issue! So, winners will obviously get a chance to be printed in the real life magazine!

Sometimes I just get so over seeing photos on my phone and whenever I can, I try my best to engage with printed media. Magazines, prints, and the like. One of the coolest parts of the photo contest is

Circling back to the photo contest… one of the other things I like about how they run it is a portion of the entry fees are donated to a group of really rad charities supporting things like nature conservation, water accessibility, music and arts, and more.

Anyways, if you’re still reading, right on. But you should probably also head on over to contest page and enter your best storytelling image into one of the 5 categories: Film, Surf, Nature, Energy, and Oneness.

04/11/2026

Which one is your favourite?

None of this is AI by the way… a bit of a sad note that I have to call it out, but yeah, I have to call it out.

These are all photographs, which I’ve curated over the years from real life scenes.

And thing is, a great deal of effort went into the composition in the field, of course, but also quite a lot of the overall aesthetic is derived from the editing process. The color, tone, and detail.

If you want to learn my approach for creating these types of minimalistic images, specifically in the edit and in composition, I’ve packed 15+ hours of lessons into my editing mastery course “The Art of Editing”.

Comment “2026” and I’ll send you the link to learn more and to sign up to start learning today!

What is “The Art of Editing”? 👇
⁠
👨‍🏫 You’ll learn everything you ever need to know about wildlife, nature, and landscape editing across 8-modules (subject focused) and more than 30 on demand video lessons. From theory to mastering all the tools in  and  essential for creating images with impact. You will learn everything that I know about post-processing to be able to create powerful images.

04/07/2026

How I used to edit my photos 10 years ago vs now… and what held me back at the start.

In the early days, before I understood anything about building a style, my editing was all over the place. Wildly inconsistent and often flat.

Every image felt like a new experiment and nothing connected.

Looking back, it wasn’t a lack of subject matter. I had more than enough to photograph. What held me back was simple. I didn’t understand color theory. I didn’t understand how to shape light or use detail intentionally.

And honestly… I was scared to step outside the sacred Nat Geo style of “keep it objective” and “don’t push it too far.” I thought editing boldly meant breaking some unwritten rule.

Side note… I’m also curious where you stand with this… Do you lean more minimal or more expressive with your editing right now?

Anyways… That mindset of Nat Geo editing kept me stuck.

It wasn’t until I let go of that self-imposed limit that everything opened up.

I realized the camera is a machine. It records. It documents. It captures what is in front of it.

But I am not a machine (and neither are you). I feel things. I interpret. I respond to moments with emotion. So the RAW file is only the beginning.

The edit is where intention enters the process.

Now, to be clear… I’m not talking about manipulating images in a way that misleads people. That’s not the point. I’m talking about shaping light, color, and detail to bring the moment closer to how it felt. To guide the viewer. To tell the story in a way that feels honest to the experience.

There is a spectrum of editing from minimal to maximal. Nat Geo style lives near the minimal end. You do not need to live there forever. You can explore. You can push. You can create atmosphere and emotion without crossing into dishonesty.

Once I let myself do that… once I allowed editing to be a creative tool instead of something to hide behind… that is when my style finally started to form.

COMMENT “edit” and I’ll send you a link to my online editing course The Art of Editing, where I teach you how to break free from restrictive mindsets and transform the way you approach photography and editing.

04/02/2026

These are the steps I take in (almost) every edit…

1️⃣ Exposure

I set the exposure based on the subject, anchoring the whole edit.

2️⃣ White balance

I set the WB for either the subject or “not the subject”. Aka the background or whatever mood is surrounding the subject. In this image I chose the background first. I’ll define the color tone of the subject later.

3️⃣ Open up the image

Open up the dynamic range. Set it up to build contrast in the next step.

4️⃣ Tone curve

A basic S curve to start. Then I go in and refine by adding nodes and adjusting steepness. Key here is to set the end points to match your overall style across multiple images. Aka the fade.

5️⃣ Color balance

Use HSL to simplify & unify the palette.

6️⃣ Color grading

Big change here to establish the color contrast between the subject & “not the subject”.

Now at this point you probably think the image looks worse. This is normal.

Most people skip step 6 & 7, but local adjustments… that is the step that actually changes everything after defined color grading.

7️⃣ Local adjustments

This is where the whole image comes together. Shaping the color, tone, and detail with a variety of masks and local adjustments to enhance previous stages and offset and refine the color grading.

The subject further separates from “not the subject”.

8️⃣ RESET the SLIDERS

This is something I have done for years. It bakes in all the color, tone, and detail work so the sliders reset and you get a fresh base to refine again.

To do this…

I send the file to PS: “Edit In” - TIFF (ProPhoto).

Save it in PS.

It comes back into Lightroom as a fresh TIFF (saved as a new file next to the original) with all sliders reset.

Now I refine everything again. Tone. Color. Detail.

Repeat earlier steps as needed for further refinement.

Want to learn the exact techniques behind each step and understand why I make these decisions to be able to apply these methods to your own images?

COMMENT “2026” and I will send you the link to enrol my online editing course “The Art of Editing”.

03/29/2026

5 simple editing tips to drastically improve the way you edit right now. Swipe right & read ⬇️

(1) The best way to build tonal contrast isn’t the Contrast slider, it’s local adjustments using AI masking in .

By selecting the subject, you can create more dynamic images and guide attention within the frame. I often use linear gradients and radials to shape light using exposure, highlights, and shadows.

(2) Emphasise naturally occurring directional light to create impact.

One of the best ways to understand light is by studying classical paintings, which is where I draw a lot of inspiration. Many of these lighting patterns already exist naturally in your images.

Learn to spot them, then use local adjustments to enhance and shape the light in editing, refining the visual narrative around your subject. This is something I explore in depth in my online editing course “The Art of Editing”.

(3) Color contrast. The overlooked contrast.

Most people focus only on tonal contrast, light vs dark. But color contrast is just as important & often more powerful. It’s simply the difference between colors. The greater the difference, like yellow vs blue, the more an image stands out.

We’re wired to notice color contrast in nature, so images with it grab attention instantly. Learn to control color, and your images gain impact fast.

(4) On color… try to avoid the global saturation & vibrance sliders. They are not your friend. If you haven’t already… HSL and Point Color is where you need to be.

(5) Literally flip it on its head.

Use “Command + [” on Mac or “Ctrl + [” on PC to flip your image. It’s a game changer. You’ll spot issues instantly that you’d otherwise miss.

Bonus: This one get’s a lot of people… it messes with the WB of the screen. Check under the display settings. Also, Night Shift mode… don’t edit with this one on either.

💡If you’re ready to totally transform the way you approach editing in 2026, join “The Art of Editing”.

👨‍🏫 15-hours of on-demand video lessons where you’ll learn my entire post-production workflow, personalized feedback in a private FB group, and more!

➡️ Comment “2026” and I’ll send you the link to learn more & enroll today!

03/29/2026

03/29/2026

First time ever exhibiting my mixed media artwork.

What do you think the tally means?