A couple of year later, he was given the opportunity to return and ended up living there for three years.
He started by talking through his evolution as a photographer from his first Fuji Finepix with a 16-90 zoom lens through a Canon 450D, a Canon 7D and finally a Canon 1DX using his lens of choice, a 400mm f2.8.
Although he pointed out that he was in no way a professional photographer, he then went on to present a series of outstanding images, starting with the iconic acacia tree silhouetted against an African sunset.
He then moved in to The Masai Mara with a series of intimate photographs of a pride of lions resting after a kill, followed by close up portraits of a cheetah, elephants, black backed jackals and a wide variety of birds.
With each image, he gave us the problems he faced taking each image, from coping with heat haze, being viewed by some subjects as a meat and the danger of larger animals protecting their young.
Calum also explained the dangers faced by the Kenyan and Tanzanian Wildlife Parks from poaching, the loss of habitat and by tourism. He balanced this by explaining and showing examples of the excellent work carried out by The Kenyan Wildlife Service and other organisations such as The Big Life Foundation amongst others.
From Africa, he moved on to his travels in Borneo and his visits to the Danum Valley Conservation Area.
He explained that due to the density of the rain forest blocking all light to the ground, photography at ground level is difficult, not least as most of the wildlife lives in the canopy and tree tops.
To avoid serious neck strain by pointing a heavy DSLR up to the heavens, the best opportunity to see wildlife is from the river, in his case in a boat on the Kinabatangan River where he produced images of an amazing variety of animals from Proboscis Monkeys, Silvery Lutung Leaf Monkeys, exotic birds like the odd looking Stork Billed King Fisher, lizards including the imposing Water Monitor and snakes.
Again Calum touched on the dangers faced by that delicate ecosystem especially from deforestation to make way for palm oil plantations.
Calum showed to us all that he was a talented photographer and a well informed and interesting speaker with an infectious passion for wildlife. This fact best was demonstrated and evidenced by the packed audience at the West Moor Centre to see, hear and enjoy his excellent presentation.