Mali Davies, NiSi UK Ambassador
Mali Davies is more than a photographer, he is driven by a passion for sharing a journey of creativity, exploration, and connection.
As a creative professional with a strong sense of adventure, Mali specialises not only in delivering striking visual imagery but also in educating and inspiring others through his work.
With over 30 years of experience in the creative industry as a full-time graphic designer, he has developed a refined eye for detail and a deep understanding of visual storytelling. This extensive background continues to shape his photographic approach, allowing him to combine technical expertise with a distinctive creative vision in every project.
Alongside his professional career, Mali is also a full-time father, and balancing family life with his creative pursuits remains one of his most rewarding achievements.
He offers photography workshops across the UK, with a particular focus on immersive experiences in breathtaking locations such as the Scottish Highlands. His workshops are tailored to photographers of all levels, providing hands-on learning in some of the most photogenic landscapes in the country.
Mali’s Gear Bag
Mali’s Gear Bag
Every photographer refines their kit over time, selecting tools that best support their creative approach. Take a look inside Mali’s bag to see the equipment he trusts to transform ideas into images and bring his photographic vision to life.
Cameras
- Nikon Z8
- Nikon ZF
- Ricoh GR3
Lenses
- NiSi 15mm f/4 ASPH Z Mount
- NIKKOR Z 24-200MM F/4 – F/6.3 S
- Nikon Z 28mm f/2.8
- Nikon Z 35mm f/1.4
- Nikon Z 50mm f/1.8 S
Filters
- NiSi JetMag Pro filter system
Bags
- Shimoda Action X30
Tripods and Tripods Heads
- Benro Tortoise
Are you looking to embark on an extraordinary journey into the world of landscape and nature photography?
Mali Davies interview
NiSi: What got you into photography?
Mali:
My love affair with photography was born from family — my grandfather, mother, brother, and uncle were all gifted landscape painters. From them I inherited the creative gene, a quiet hunger to capture the world’s beauty. In 1979, a Kodak Instamatic was placed in my young hands, and from that moment, I tumbled willingly down the rabbit hole. Camera after camera carried me forward — a Praktica, a Zenit, and then a Fujifilm 290 film camera in 1990 — each one a new chapter, a new way of seeing.
Today I shoot fully with Nikon, my cherished Zf and the magnificent Z8 my constant companions. Yet through every era and every lens, one thing has never changed — it has always been about freedom. The freedom of expression that floods through me the moment I raise a camera, the freedom to wander without purpose, to explore without boundaries, and to connect deeply and honestly with the world unfolding before me.
NiSi: Talk us through your favourite shot with NiSi filters
Mali: This is no easy task, I shoot endlessly and carry a deep love for so many of my images. But if I were to choose just one photograph that captures the magic of shooting with NiSi filters, it would be an image born from a very special day: a NiSi Day at Crosby Beach, among Anthony Gormley’s hauntingly beautiful iron sculptures. That photograph is called Stand Alone.
Taken with the 6-stop JetMag Pro, stacked with a ¼ Mist filter and a CPL, all from my beloved JetMag kit, the image was crafted with both intention and feeling. It grew from a day spent in wonderful company, a gathering of like-minded souls celebrating the art of photography and the remarkable power of NiSi filters at one of my most treasured local locations.
Yet the day carried a weight beneath its beauty. I had recently lost my brother, and grief walked quietly beside me through every frame. I believe you can feel that in Stand Alone — a solitude that speaks beyond composition, a stillness that carries something unspoken. It is more than a photograph to me. It is a moment held in light and shadow, shaped as much by loss as by the lens.
NiSi: What is your dream location to photograph?
Mali: This one comes easily to me. There is nowhere I feel more at home than when I am surrounded by trees — lost within a forest, wandering through a quiet woodland, where light filters through the canopy and the world slows to a whisper. These are my sacred places, my forever favourites.
Yet I must confess a love that stretches far beyond the treeline. My heart is equally drawn to the wider vista — to the grand sweep of mountains reaching into cloud, and the endless, breathing expanse of the sea. For me, it is the intimacy of the woodland and the vastness of the open landscape that together complete the world I long to photograph.
NiSi: Every photographer has that one day when everything went wrong – tell us about yours
Mali: Perhaps it sounds like a cliché, but I rarely carry a bad experience from a day with my camera. To be out in the world, lens in hand, feels like a privilege, each moment received as a quiet joy, each outing a reminder of how fortunate I am to be doing what I truly love.
And yet, one memory does surface. A meet-up at the iconic Sycamore Gap, a pilgrimage to one of England’s most beloved trees and somewhere along the way, my car gave up the ghost. A real disaster. A painful bill, a fractured plan, and the kind of moment that could so easily have sent me home defeated.
But I chose differently. I let the recovery truck carry the car away and accepted a lift from a dear friend, pressing on to join the gathering, the people, and the tree that had called us all there. I am so glad I did. That ancient, solitary sycamore, standing proud in its gap along Hadrian’s Wall, is sadly no longer with us, lost to an act of needless destruction. Those photographs are now something far more precious than I could have imagined that day.
It taught me something I carry into every shoot: impermanence is one of photography’s greatest guides. There may not always be a tomorrow. The light will shift, the seasons will turn, and the things we love will not always wait for us. So take the moment. Make it happen.
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Mali’s photo selection
