I’ve been utterly blessed this past year to explore and photograph in many different areas of our beautiful planet. My personal aim each year is to try and take twelve photos that mean something to me. One per month. This year has been so hard to choose but here goes …

Seeing desert elephants has been an ambition of mine for years and my encounter this year was just so so special. More info and photos of desert elephants are here.

Four whale sharks circling around me for over an hour in Derawan. Simply mind blowing. There’s more photos and video clips here and information on how to Dive Derawan.

An early morning sighting of three cheetah cubs which crossed the road right in front of my car in a playful bundle.

Sunrise at Sossusvlei was a hugely spiritual experience.

It’s a crap photo but a fantastic memory. On a dive site called Meditation Wall in Borneo we saw three Thresher Sharks at quite a depth including this one which was remarkably close.

Patterns in nature … the rain forest reflection in a waterdrop after a tropical downpour.

I spent a couple of months in Nicaragua and Costa Rica at the start of 2018 and Nicaragua will always hold a special place in my heart. The above tree frog is just one of many great memrories from this lovely country.

I always head to Borneo every year for my orangutan fundraising trips. I was having a wander along a path on the edge of the forest when I had an extraordinary close encounter with this mum and baby at Camp Leakey. Orangutans are the best mothers in the natural world and it’s always lovely seeing the close bond between them.

Manta Rays have the largest brain relative to body size of any fish and diving with these highly intelligent animals is just incredible. This year I was lucky to spend many days at Sangalaki with one of my favourite animals.

Every mountain gorilla encounter is wonderful but this year’s trip to Uganda was particularly special.

A long exposure with no light pollution in the Quiver tree forest of Namibia.

I’m lucky that I get to see chimpanzees very regularly but our encounter this year in the Kyambura Gorge was one of the best ever. This young chimpanzee came out of the forest and did a complete somersault right in front of us before disappearing back into the fauna. More photos of this sequence are here.