As far as dream jobs go, a career that includes parasites, living in a tent and the occasional brush with death doesn’t generally sit high on the average person’s wish list. Yet what can only be described as an OSH disaster for some is the ideal profession for others.
commissioned, life on the road is riddled with unanticipated hurdles and complications. Still, those photographers who nab the golden ticket swear that this is the best job on earth.
When D-Photo spoke with National Geographic wildlife photographer Steve Winter, he had just returned from an assignment in Thailand. For a man who has the best job on earth he sounded awfully low. “It’s pretty exciting, that’s for sure, though not so exciting right now because I have two parasites from my last trip. It was a pretty tough day but … I love what I do.” It is this attitude that drives the industry’s top guns; an absolutist can-do approach and a desire to take on any hurdle, no matter how big and impossible it seems.
In 2008, Winter became the Wildlife Photographer of the Year, receiving the industry’s highest accolade for an image of a snow leopard, which was previously considered unachievable. Winter spent many months living in a tent in impossibly cold circumstances to get the shot. “I would go to bed and call my wife until my hands would freeze and then I would jump into two sleeping bags. It was very difficult because it was just such extreme cold. It was too cold to even snow,” says Winter.
But in this extremely competitive industry, failure is not an option. “Every time you walk out the door your career is hanging in the balance.”
Taking a photo of a snow leopard is no easy feat. These cats are notoriously camera shy. They have great eyesight and hearing, so getting close is virtually impossible. Winter managed to take a picture of the cat with a 500mm lens on one of the first days — but that wasn’t his goal. “We don’t need a record shot of this animal, people already know what they look like. My goal is to get something that can be a double-page spread in National Geographic. I need something that is absolutely beautiful.”
Winter used remote camera traps, carefully positioned according to months of research, to finally secure the image. He had to predict the time of day, light and exact movement of the snow leopard through the Himalayas and then set the camera accordingly. The assignment took 13 months of endurance, patience and guessing before he finally captured a moment of pure photographic genius.Despite the adversity, Winter is humble about his achievement. “[Local people] had put Buddhist prayer flags around the camp and I just felt that this story was blessed. Every image I got was a gift, a collaboration between myself, the local people that were helping
Research factors heavily into the success or failure of an assignment. Amos Nachoum, a wildlife photographer who takes pictures of the world’s biggest animals, depends on collaboration and planning to secure the images he needs. “I work with researchers, I work with fishermen and I ask them questions. I put all the elements together, from universities, from conferences…” When he spoke to D-Photo from his San Diego hotel, Nachoum was just about to lead an expedition along the coast of California to photograph the blue whale. He knew exactly how the shoot would unfold.
Based on the time of year, Nachoum predicted the blue whale would be feeding on red algae between the Californian and Mexican coast. He would be in radio contact with a plane that would spot the whale and direct his boat. Kayaks would then be used to get Nachoum close to his subject. His camera, a Canon EF 15mm, would already be set to f5.6 using ISO400. He would then let the camera pick up the right speed, keeping it bracketed on one-third of a stop, plus or minus two stops above and below zero, for safety. “Then all that’s left is for me to bring myself down to the water with the camera already set with a very wide-angle lens and fill up the frame with one of the largest animals that has ever lived.” Easy.
Listening to these pros, wildlife photography sounds as simple as a trip to the supermarket. The reality is that they are working with unpredictable subjects, in changing weather, mostly in foreign countries and competing to be published in a very select number of magazines.
To succeed in the industry a photographer must either choose a subject that has never been shot before or photograph it in a way that has never been seen before, like Winter did with the snow leopard. This is no easy feat.
Frankham argues that a great photo is one that communicates something new and unique. “It needs to capture the imagination of the viewer and draw them in to a world that they have not been able to enter themselves.” His advice is to get as close to the subject as possible. “It really puts the critter in its environment and gives you a sense of proximity and intimacy.”
While this may result in a great picture, it also puts some photographers uncomfortably close to the world’s scariest animals.
Winter, for one, has been a bit too intimate with some pretty angry animals in his time. On a shoot in India’s Kaziranga National Park, home to the world’s most aggressive rhino, the one-horned beast attacked while the photographer was riding an elephant. “Luckily by an old one whose teeth were almost non-existent. Had it been a young rhino with big teeth, someone may have died because the elephant would have freaked out,” says Winter.
Despite the close calls, none of the photographers D-Photo spoke with had ever been injured in the wild. A few scares early on in the piece helped them learn to judge an animal’s behaviour and predict its actions. “You couldn’t do it if you had that anxiety constantly, it would be an impossibility,” says Winter.
Unterthiner’s passion for photography is primarily influenced by his love of animals. He grew up photographing the wildlife of northern Italy before completing a doctorate in zoology. A drab office job pushed him back into the field and before long he was employed by National Geographic.
Despite the pressure of working for a well-known publication, Unterthiner maintains that the animals’ welfare must always come first. “You have to respect your subject more than your photography. Sometimes with all the competitions, we feel like we have to do more and more and more. There is too much focus on the result of the photography and we forget that this is a wild animal.”
Winter is also passionate the welfare of the animals he photographs. By becoming director of media for a wild cat conservation organisation, Panthera, he has taken an active role in ensuring that endangered wild cats don’t become extinct. “I’ve given my pictures for them to use for fundraising for years,” says Winter. When they approached him to take the media role he accepted on one condition: “as long as I can still work for National Geographic, because being a photographer is my heart and soul.”
Winter grew up reading National Geographic, dreaming of becoming an in-house photographer. He started a university degree but then decided to take some time off to travel. “When I got back, I decided that the only thing I was good at, the only thing I really wanted to do, was photography.”
The lucky break came when he was asked to redo the National Geographic kids’ magazine. He then completed a freelance assignment for a pharmaceuticals company and ended up with pictures that National Geographic loved. The magazine asked him to do a story and Winter hasn’t looked back since.
Wildlife photographers rarely do look back, but they are aware of the many unavoidable sacrifices that come with the career. For Nachoum, his work has meant that he hasn’t had the opportunity to find a life partner. “I did not want to compromise my photography, my career, my inspiration and the satisfaction I derived from that, but I paid with a lack of relationship or having a family,” says Amos. For some this sacrifice would be too big, but Nachoum cannot imagine it any other way
He is currently working on a special book that will showcase photos and illustrations of the world’s biggest animals. He wants to educate and inspire people, to motivate them to really focus on conserving and protecting the species that remain. “We need to be responsible for protecting the environment that we have, the animals that we still have. What we still have, it is fantastic, it is magnificent and we should cherish it.”
Nachoum had been a photographer for many years before he discovered wildlife. First working as a war photographer, then in fashion and motor racing, he settled when he discovered the natural world. He has now been photographing wildlife for more than 30 years and feels he won’t tire of it because nature is constantly surprising and exceeding his expectations.
“I have just returned from the high Arctic in Canada and in the last day, in the last few hours before we left, a female polar bear and two cubs showed up very close to the camp and stayed around for almost 50 minutes. And it was something that none of us could have anticipated,” says Nachoum. “The lighting and the water were so extraordinary. It is not something I could dare to anticipate but Mother Nature is amazing.”
Despite the parasites, the cold nights and the lonely lifestyle, these photographers unanimously claim that they have the best job on earth. It is moments like the one just described by Nachoum — and the images that result — that prove it.
Do you have what it takes to be a wildlife photographer? Here are some tips from the masters.
