With my work I will always try to put the earth first and do my best to portray it correctly.
Though my main focus is wildlife, you may see me take images of captive or domesticated animals too. All images with captive animals are done for a reason, to draw attention to something. Usually, images of captive animals will be accompanied by a long caption and/or blog post where I discuss the conservation efforts either for the species itself or done by the place I took the pictures. I do my best to make sure any zoo I attend is ethical and puts conservation and caring for the animals above all else, but there have been occasions where I got something wrong, and I am very happy to be educated! I think raising awareness is one of the biggest parts of conservation, and I hope my photos can be used for that.
For the domesticated animal side of things, for the most part pictures are solely of my own pets, whom I use as practice models; when I share pictures of them, it's usually just me gushing over my pet. I am extremely passionate about ethical pet ownership, though. All images with captive or domesticated animals will not be tagged as 'wildlife' photography.
I am vehemently against generative AI and its effects on not only the environment but also the human species. I try my best to avoid supporting anyone who does use GenAI, but I'm sure most understand how tricky spotting it can be these days.
My work and online profiles will always be safe spaces for the oppressed, both in animal form and human form. I do not tolerate hatred and bigotry. I am a part of the LGBTQ+ community myself, and it is a core part of me as a person and a photographer. Nature does not judge or hate; hatred only hurts the earth.
Hi, I'm Onyx! A wannabe photographer from the UK who enjoys everything nature!
I've been obsessed with nature since I was a child; I always loved just observing it, especially animals. I felt very connected to it; I've always been the type to prefer animals to people. As I got older and discovered the art of photography, I became passionate about sharing what I saw with others, which is how scipxyno (pronounced 'skip xyno', or onyxpics backwards) was born.
Photography has helped me feel even more connected to nature than ever before. When I took it at GCSE, it was the first time I set out with a certain 'project' in mind, rather than solely taking pictures as I saw things. I quickly realised how difficult it was to capture wild animals in the wild, so I did my research. I now know when the squirrels in the woods near my house are most active, the route where I'll typically come across a hare on summer mornings, where a kite nests and where it hunts.
Though I love photographing all things natural, animals tend to be my focus. When I was young (but old enough that the internet was a thing I had access to), when I wasn't outside, I'd be on my laptop or phone looking at pictures of animals. I had my favourites and always dreamed of one day being able to see them in person. Some of these dreams have even been achieved. Of course, as I got older and more aware of the world, I found out that some of my favourite animals were threatened with extinction because of humans, and it devastated me. I wouldn't have known a lot of this stuff without the photographers that managed to take pictures of them in the wild. It's my hope with my work that I can portray the beauty of nature whilst also drawing attention to those things that need our help.
Outside of photography I have a few other passions, writing being the main one. There is nothing better than writing a scene based on a photo you took, or taking a photo based on a scene you wrote. I am also very passionate about pet ownership, something that does tie in to my general love for animals and their well-being. You can find some of my pets (mainly my Husky, Bolt) in some of my pictures!
Current gear:
A Canon EOS 250D as my primary camera
A Sony HX50 as my secondary camera (AKA dog-walking camera)
An iPhone 13 Pro
Previous Gear:
A Nikon D40 — I sometimes use this if I need a certain lens that I only have for this.
An iPhone 12 mini, an iPhone 7 and various iPods.
A film camera I cannot find for the life of me.
I currently only edit on Snapseed, though I previously edited on Photoshop. I currently don't have a way to edit on there, as I only really have my phone to work with for the time being. Editing images is one of my favourite parts of photography; being able to turn an image that may initially look more lacklustre, or that some people may see as unusable, into something beautiful is an amazing feeling.
Though I do enjoy editing in many different ways, one thing I always keep in mind is accentuating the natural beauty of the image, even with my heavier edits. The only times I will digitally alter an image, it will be done with my own hand and only if something is taking away from the natural beauty. I will never use or support generative AI.
For my heavier edits, where I may blur something out that is naturally occurring, it's always done to draw attention to the subject or message/intention of the image. It's very important for me to keep things natural in my work. In most of these cases I'll always have the raw or a lighter edited image somewhere for people to see!
You may find different ways I edited one image on my different social accounts; this is typically a reflection of what the audience on that app prefers! Pinterest is mainly where I post more 'aesthetic' edits; Instagram is for my more professional ones that I believe best portray my work; other places tend to have a bit of a mix, this is all mainly because my enjoyment for editing leads to me trying out lots of different edits for one image and usually I end up with a few versions I want to use. My TikTok account is used to showcase how I edit and the different ways I might edit something, always including the raw image! Sometimes you might even find a BTS video of an image, but no promises (it's hard to record and photograph at the same time).