Wildlife Photographer

At one time, I wanted to be a professional wildlife photographer.  But not just any wildlife.  After all, I like snakes.  Several years ago, Joe & Mary Ann McDonald offered an ‘advanced’ workshop, inviting just five photographers to come to their farm for three days to shoot pictures of some very unusual reptile species.  Most of the subjects were either venomous or large and difficult to handle, or both.  It was educational, fun, a little wild and very exciting.

The animals were flown in from all over the world and brought out to the farm by a professional handler.  They were kept in pens, boxes or cages in the McDonalds’ basement for the week while they rested, before continuing their travels to zoos and other institutions worldwide.  Each day, seven of us, Joe, Mike (the handler), and five photographers would head out to Joe’s studio located in a separate 40’x40′ building out back.  The studio had racks of equipment in back, room for everyone to sit, whiteboards and a large area in front for a lecturer or for someone to demonstrate equipment and techniques.

A display area was created by placing an eight foot square table in the front of the room.  As each new animal was brought out, the table was swept clean and then filled with plants, soil, rocks and/or sand representative of the natural areas where you would find that animal in the wild.  Each animal was placed into the scene and given some time to get comfortable.  For each subject, the first round of shots lasted 5 minutes, and everyone was to shoot from across the room with long lenses.  For the second round, each photographer would have 2 minutes to shoot from as close up or as far away as he wanted from the scene. 

There were a few tortoises and some lizards, but the exciting part of the shoot was the rattlesnakes, vipers, and cobras.  One of our discussions was about what to do in case an animal got off the table.  We learned that tortoises and lizards would generally head for the nearest dark corner to hide from us.  But the snakes might have other ideas about defense and escape.  Rattlesnakes and most vipers strike horizontally, just a few inches off the ground, so climbing the equipment racks at the back of the room was a good escape route.  Adders and cobras strike upward, which was where the rooms windows came in handy.  As Joe said, “remember to tuck and roll when you hit the ground outside”.  Fortunately, there were no incidents during any of the more than twenty times Joe offered this workshop.

This workshop provided the opportunity to get my dream shot, a picture that I had always wanted as a wildlife photographer, but thought I would never have a ‘safe’ opportunity to get.  Outside of the studio, Joe had a small pond, about 30 x 40 feet, that was from several inches to about six feet deep.  There were logs and rocks at one corner and plenty of swimming room.  I lay on my belly in the pond with my camera on a tripod in front of my face so the lens was no more than an inch above the water surface.  There were a couple Dwarf Caiman, a Spectacled Caiman, and an American Alligator in the pond with me.  As they swam by me and toward me, I was able to get the shot with only the nose and eyes of the predator coming right at me.  They swam around me as well, and were just as curious about me as I was about them.  They bumped their noses along the length of my body as I lay underwater, starting at my ankle and continuing all the way to my shoulder.  Alligators, crocodiles and caiman have thousands of touch-sensitive organs, called integumentary sensory organs, in their faces and all along the rest of their body.  Their snout is much more sensitive than human fingertips allowing the animal to investigate objects as well as detecting different levels of water pressure.  These were well fed, Mike told me when he let them go in the pond…

There are dozens of photography workshops offered online, in schools, and by private photographers and studios.  Whether you are an aspiring professional or a weekend hobbyist, I highly encourage you to try one or more of these.  Start small with a single day or go big on a multi-week nature adventure.  Get online and learn a few new techniques that you can take out to your backyard and have fun with on your own.  There are many exciting opportunities waiting for all.