Celebrating more than four decades as a freelance nature photographer, Steve Parish rates South Australia as the best place he has ever shot.

Mr Parish, who grew up in the eastern Adelaide suburbs of Norwood and Burnside, said he found his love of nature when exploring the local coastlines.

"I cut my teeth back in the 50s snorkelling and, dare I say, spearfishing, back in Moana/Port Noarlunga days, pre-white pointers eating people," he told 891 ABC Adelaide's Drive program.

"We used to holiday at Port Noarlunga and I fell in love with sharks, the first animal group I became infatuated with."

His love of photography soon grew as he attempted to capture and share his experiences.

"The first [underwater] photo I ever took was on Kangaroo Island at the age of 16," he recalled.

Steve Parish, 16, on the day he took his first underwater photograph with mentor and Australia's first underwater photographer Igor Oak. ( Supplied: Steve Parish )

At 18 Mr Parish enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy as a search and rescue diver, joined the New South Wales Underwater Research Group and a short time later helped to photograph animals and specimens for the Australian Museum.

After leaving the Navy at 29, Mr Parish joined the Queensland National Parks and Wildlife Services as a wildlife photographer for five years before working freelance across the country.

"My favourite landscape is northern-central South Australia, [Kati Thanda] Lake Eyre up to Innamincka, that beautiful channel country, the Gibber Desert," Mr Parish said.

"The most glorious light and aerial photography I have done in my whole life was around [Kati Thanda] Lake Eyre in 2010, the second time the lake filled."

Mr Parish said South Australians were spoilt by the beautiful, natural light experienced across the state during winter as weather systems rolled across the state.

"Instead of bland, empty skies that we tend to get more in the north in the different times of the year, you get that wonderful shafting, golden light," he said.

"You have the wonderful granite coasts, Kangaroo Island, the Flinders Ranges – you get that wonderful light, and photography is very much connected to your emotions, feelings and the light that paints the scene."

Now 70, Mr Parish is looking forward to returning to the area that inspired him to become a nature photographer.

He is hosting photography classes at Cleland, Victor Harbor and Kangaroo Island throughout August and September.