Ian Rentoul Photography

Ian Rentoul has been a photographer for over 30 years. Specialising in military aviation until the mid 1990s, he was a contributor to magazines that include Scale Models, Airfix Magazine, Aircraft Illustrated, Air International, Air Pictorial, AirFrame, Carnets de Vol, Histories Vraies de Aviation, Flugzeug, and Jet and Prop contributing articles and/or images (and was also a regular interviewer and writer for The Official Xena Magazine!) Co-authored military aviation-related photobooks, include Tornado, On Eagles Wings - The 75th anniversary of the RAF and Gulf War - British Air Arms.


In recent years he has developed his photography to include wildlife, which has now become his main interest. Ian is not only passionate about photographing wildlife, but also takes a keen interest in welfare and conservation.

"Animal species must be conserved for future generations - we have a legacy to pass on. For example it's terrible to think that the true pure-blood Scottish Wildcat is likely to be extinct outside of captivity in about 10 years and the Red Squirrel may ultimately only survive in the wild on coastal islands. Foxes and Badgers have been given a very bad reputation - unjustifiably in my view. I find all animals fascinating. Quite rightly, we are made aware of the species that are endangered world-wide, but we also have to look to our own wildlife as well. They all have their place in the world ecology and should not be overlooked. So conservation of and education about all the UK's indigenous and native species are so important".

"I've used Canon throughout my time of photographing aircraft, and 'migrated' straight on to Canon digital. So I guess I will always be a Canon person now! The main camera body I use is the Canon 7D. The lenses I mainly use are a Canon 55-250mm (which I feel is a very under-rated lens), a Sigma F2.8 70 - 200mm, a Canon EF 100-400mm f4.5-5.6L IS USM Telephoto Zoom, and a Canon 400 fixed focal length lens combined in some instances with teleconverters. I mainly use zoom lenses though because the subjects I photograph close up are quite active, but there are instances where a fixed focal lens is more appropriate. For really close in 'portrait' shots, I tend to use a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0 L IS USM lens and for really really close in work a Sigma 2.8 100mm macro lens."