“Big Cat Series” – by Ron Burnell

Snow Leopard by Ron Burnell

West Country Galleries first made its acquaintance with Ron Burnell when researching and putting together the celebratory blog for the 1951 Festival of Britain.  Ron very kindly donated beautifully scanned images from the Festival of Britain catalogue “Design in the Festival”.

During our exchange of e-mails, Ron revealed that he is an accomplished and very keen amateur photographer.  We persuaded him to send us samples of his work and we were astonished at the technique and clarity of the wonderful "Big Cat Series" of photographs that came our way.  

The images were taken at the Wildlife Heritage Foundation at Smarden, Kent where they breed endangered species of big cat. The animals have large enclosures but are not 'in the wild'. Ron went on to tell us that he had an A3 calendar produced of his “Big Cats” by Photobox for 2011 which he sent to his family.

Leo by Ron Burnell

This is a photograph from the “Big Cat” series.  Ron commented “Don't worry; Leo is not as close as he looks but was certainly not tame. He was about 10 metres from me but my 28 - 300mm L Series Canon zoom lens picked up the detail”. 

The African Lion by Ron Burnell

Ron says  "The African lion is just a bit of fun really. My daughter Sarah calls him Pavarotti because he appears to be singing his heart out".

Amur Leopard by Ron Burnell

Cheetah by Ron Burnell

Puma by Ron Burnell

Tiger by Ron Burnell

Amur Leopard 2 by Ron Burnell