WLM | my Wyoming craving
down hill after hill. Staring up in the
trees for hours while you walk. You
can feel the sunburn on your neck
before it’s even there. Then all of a
sudden, there it is. A majestic great
gray owl, sitting in an aspen forty
yards away. So silent, so cryptic that if
you weren’t specifically looking for it,
you’d never have a chance of seeing it.
Overwhelmingly worth it.
It’s moments like these, when you
find yourself face to face with some
of the most elusive wildlife, that
make the journey all worth it. For
an instant, you forget where you are
while you’re in the presence of such a
beautiful creature. For an instant, you
can almost feel a real connection to
that animal. And as fast as it appears,
before you’re ever ready for it to, that
moment quickly slips away. It leaves
you wanting more, craving that feeling
and experience again. And that’s why
we, wildlife photographers, go to the
ends of the earth to try to see these
animals. We crave it. And we crave
sharing it with others, in hopes that
they can feel even a fraction of the joy
we get in that very moment.
In that moment, some will do whatever
it takes to get the shot. But they
shouldn’t. Many people, professional
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photographers included, go too far to
try to get the perfect picture. They get
too close. They sneak up on an animal.
They are loud or obnoxious. These
things stress the wildlife, and can
make dangerous situations for both the
animal and photographer. It frustrates
and saddens me when I see people
do this. They keep getting closer to
the animal, and the animal keeps
moving away. They are not getting
photographs of an animal in its wild
element, they are getting photographs
of an animal trying to get away.
The goal should be to observe and
photograph the animal in its everyday
life. The presence of the photographer
should not change the behavior of
the wild animal. Yes, it might make
a cool photograph if you got on your
back under the moose’s chin and
took a picture looking straight up, his
silhouetted antlers sticking out to the
sides1. But you sure as heck better
not try it. It’s about being an ethical
photographer and respecting the
wildlife. Pure and simple.
A good example is when I was out
looking for great gray owls. I had
found a female owl about fifty yards
away and I watched her through
my binoculars for a moment. She
then starting flying straight towards
Wyoming Lifestyle Magazine | Winter & Holiday 2016
me, getting bigger and bigger until
I couldn’t look at her through the
binoculars anymore as she flew past
me. I nearly forgot to breathe as I
watched her land on a stump only
five feet from me. We stared at each
other at eye level for what seemed
like an eternity, which in reality was
probably only thirty seconds. I was so
close I could see her feathers gently
waving in the soft breeze. It was
then that I noticed the down feathers
along the top of the stump. It hit me
so fast I almost panicked – I had been
standing right next to her nest this
whole time and never knew it! From
my tiptoes I peered over the edge of
the stump and could see the very tops
of her white eggs in the hollowedout stump. I slowly backed away,
not making any sudden movements
so as not to scare her off the nest.
I finally got about fifty yards away
before I stopped. It was one of the
most incredible experiences of my
life, but you’ll never see a picture of it.
My camera never left my backpack. I
could have gotten amazing photos, but
it would have been at the cost of the
owl potentially abandoning her nest.
It would have been irresponsible and
unethical. Instead, I got to experience
the moment with my own eyes, not
through a camera lens. The image of