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About

About me

My Name Is

JOHAN J BOTHA

Hon FPSSA, MPSSA, EPSSA, FAPS, EFIAP, ARPS, SPSA

I am an organic chemist by trade but moved up to management of technology and business early in my corporate career. Aircraft and flying fascinated me since high school in the late 60’s. I built and flew many radio-controlled large-scale model aircraft since then and still do so currently. I retired in 2012 and then built two full-scale aircraft and learned to fly and got my PPL after retirement and I am still flying today (2023).

I became a serious photographer with my wife Margie in the early 90’s and photographed ”anything” in the beginning. My focus for the last decade and a half is, however, on wildlife and landscapes in Africa, specifically South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Kenya, Zambia and Tanzania but I have photographed also extensively in Alaska, Antarctica, South America, Australia, Europe and the United States.

Major photographic achievements

I hold photographic honours from the national photographic societies of South Africa, the UK, the USA, Australia and Europe (FIAP).

For many years I have been actively participating in global photographic competitions to measure my work against the best amateur and professional photographers in the world.  I have been a category winner in both the UK Natural History Museum Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition as well as in the Natures Best Magazine Competition in the USA. I was also honoured as the South African Wildlife Photographer of the Year in 2006. My work has been widely published (in various magazines, calendars, etc) and exhibited in South Africa, the Natural History Museum in London and the Smithsonian Museum in Washington.