Making wildlife photography pay with print

Timo Beke is living the dream. Three times a year, this talented photographer in his early 20s leaves his native Belgium to lead wildlife photography tours in South Africa. It's a career that's been decades in the making. But like many emerging wildlife photographers, Timo has had to think beyond capturing the shot to turn that dream into a sustainable reality.

As a child, Timo used to hold a square-shaped rock and pretended to take photos with it – mirroring his photography-loving parents and their Canon cameras. Over time, the stone was replaced by a point-and-shoot camera, then a Canon EOS 1200D. But it was a family trip to South Africa, where he was able to photograph nature on a grand scale, that set him on a professional path.

"On our second game drive of the trip, I told the safari driver that it was going to be my job," Timo recalls. "And from that moment on, I made most decisions in my life towards being a wildlife photographer.

"Of course, you get in and out of phases when you're in high school. You know, is wildlife photography something you can do professionally, or do I have to get an office job? But in 2023, I did an internship, hosting photographic safaris for a volunteer company in South Africa. I told them it was my dream. They told me that if I wanted to be taken seriously, I'd need to study for a guiding licence. So that's what I did."

Timo is certainly doing things his own way. As an award-winning wildlife photographer and qualified safari guide, he can get his guests into the best position to capture an animal's next move.

"I always have my camera with me," he says. "But I'm there to help guests with camera settings and review their images." He often sits behind them on the vehicle so he can see screens more easily.

"When I have a cool composition in mind, it's easier to take the shot myself and show it to them as an example. Of course, you also never know what's going to happen, and if an opportunity presents itself, I want to get the shot too."

It's this balance – photographer, teacher and animal behaviour specialist – that sets Timo apart.

Like many photographers looking to build a sustainable career, Timo has made printing an essential part of his wildlife photography business. Early on, he outsourced his printing, mainly on aluminium dibond. But his prize-winning entries in the inaugural Belgian Photo Awards (BELPA) in 2024 changed everything.

Not only did Timo win both the Wildlife category and Young Photographer award in the competition, he picked up a Canon imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 – a professional large-format A2 printer that he admits exceeded his needs at the time but has since proved its worth.

That unexpected prize would become a turning point.

"When I got it, I thought, okay, a printer – but I would have preferred a new 70-200mm lens!" he says. "And now I'm like, okay, I did not know I was going to use this thing so much."

Winning the imagePROGRAF PRO-1100 provided the perfect opportunity for Timo to take his printing in-house and open his own exhibition.

“I got in touch with a gallery that was willing to exhibit my work, and printed 70 photos myself," he says. "I had almost 350 visitors across two weekends, made all my money back from selling prints, and actually got some clients for tours out of it as well."

Timo selects photo paper to suit each image. For his action shots, he prefers the semi-gloss finish of Canon's Pro Luster paper: "It catches the light and makes the image really pop," he says. "I have a photo of a herd of wildebeest with some zebra in the middle, and if you print it on Pro Luster, it looks almost like the herd is coming at you.

“If pictures include more of the landscape or have a lot of texture, I prefer matte papers. It's the same with black-and-white photos, which I enjoy printing on Pro Premium Matte."

Print is something Timo thinks about long before he heads out on a shoot, as it can influence how he approaches photography in the field. His focus on behaviour and light creates images that translate well into large-format prints, where detail and atmosphere are better appreciated.

"I've now seen most of the animals I want to photograph, so my focus is on behaviour – interactions between individuals, interactions between different species – and then preferably in good light.

"I'll care less about noise because it doesn't really bother me in a print – especially if I'm using textured paper – so I know I can go on shooting even in low light," he says. This is especially true when he's using his Canon EOS R6 Mark III : "I can go over ISO 50,000 and know it'll be fine. It's crazy, because if I went over ISO 1,600 on my first camera, my photos looked like screenshots from a videogame."

Timo also teaches his guests not to be 'ISOphobes'. "If they've been into photography for a while, they might limit their ISO to 3,200, but I'll advise them to not be afraid to push it to ISO 12,000.

"Even when the ISO is too high and you end up getting a plasticky look when you denoise the image later, if you print it on textured paper then the plastic look is gone. The texture makes it realistic again."

The biggest benefit of printing in-house is control over quality and costs. "My profit margin is a lot bigger now, which is really good when you're trying to make a living," Timo explains.

Printing also helps him spot potential problems that aren't obvious on-screen. "A speck of dust on the camera sensor is obvious in a really big A2 print," he suggests. "So that's one of the things I pay a lot more attention to when I'm editing. When I was outsourcing my prints, I would have needed to work out if a little spot was worth the cost of fixing it. But now, I just redo it and I can be happy with the end product. I have the opportunity to create a print that I know is perfect, and I don't settle for less."

With time at a premium, a streamlined workflow is essential.

"I know it takes about 12 minutes to print an A2 image in high quality, so I use that time to refine the next shot. It becomes a flow between editing and printing."

Canon's Professional Print & Layout plugin for Adobe Lightroom2 simplifies the process for Timo. Together with printing experts at Canon Benelux, Timo created printing profiles for his exhibition, allowing him to instantly match a print's colours to the type of lighting it will be viewed under.

Having a professional photo printer at home has made Timo's marketing more flexible. "If potential customers come to my house, or I'm on a video call, I want spectacular photos behind me," he says.

"Every time I come back from a trip, I change the photos on my wall. Within a week, I'll change the five photos that I look at all day, every day. Just to remind myself why I love wildlife photography so much – because you always like your new photos the most."

He also gives his tour guests the opportunity to see their own photos in print, turning the experience into something more lasting.

"We do a few editing workshops on a trip, and in the final session I ask them to pick their two best photos. Then, when we do a little reunion in Belgium, I will present them with prints of those images."

It gives guests a high-value souvenir – and acts as powerful marketing: "They're probably going to put those on display rather than putting them in a box, and hopefully people will ask them where they took those photos."

What started as an unexpected prize has become central to Timo’s business. In an increasingly screen-based world, it helps clients connect with their images long after the trip ends.