Q: Are your images available for purchase or license?
A: Yes.
Q: Are your images of wild animals or animals in zoos/game farms?
A: The vast majority of images on this website are of wild animals living in their native habitat. The handful of images from zoos or aquariums are noted with “captive” in the caption. None of the images are from game farms. In a few instances I have photographed wild animals living in zoos (mostly birds). In these cases, I do not denote the animal as captive, since it’s not.
Q: Do you Photoshop®/manipulate/digitally process your images?
A: Yes.
Longer Answer: I am not a documentary photographer. The purpose of my photography is to share with the viewer what I find striking, evocative, or interesting about the world. If I need to work with an image to do that, I do. In addition, I reject the notion that there is an “objective” way to photograph a subject. Photography is manipulation — the art of photography is making choices about how to do that. Cameras DO NOT see the world the way our eyes do. They have limited dynamic range (can’t capture the same contrast or brightness levels that we can see). They have usually have a different angle of view. They often have a narrower depth of field. They respond to color differently. Different films (or camera settings) produce more or less saturation, contrast, and the like. The successful photographer uses all of these qualities to pick something out of the world. To say: “Hey, look at this!” That said, I recognize that that authenticity is important, particularly in outdoor photography. I would never manipulate an image in such a way as to impinge on the natural history of the scene — to make it inauthentic.
Q: You must have some really nice lenses!
A: Indeed I do. But as John Shaw once said, no matter how much I plead with my lenses, they have never gone out and taken photos for me. Having nice equipment certainly helps in capturing nice images. But good equipment is neither necessary or sufficient to do that. In fact, I made some of my favorite images using a “consumer” level DSLR and an inexpensive lens. That said, I will concede that wildlife photography is one of the few areas of photography where it is very difficult to consistently make good images without an (expensive) super-telephoto lens and fast-focusing camera body.
Q: What kind of equipment should I buy?
A: We are fortunate these days that just about any digital SLR on the market will make very fine images, and it would be hard to go wrong with any of them. If you’re interested in wildlife photography, I’d suggest Canon or Nikon, primarily because they have the largest line of super-telephoto lenses. Indeed, if you want an image-stabilized super-telephoto (think of the big white lenses at sporting events) Canon and Nikon are your only choices. Between these two, Canon gear tends to be slightly less expensive, but Nikon has a slightly better reputation for quality and fit-and-finish. I shoot Canon, but I’m not a zealot about it.
One piece of equipment that is absolutely essential: a good tripod and tripod head. The good tripods and heads are shockingly expensive. But don’t by a cheap one, because if you continue in photography, you’ll buy a good tripod and head eventually. Per Thom’s Maxim #2: “You can spend US$1700 to buy a good tripod and head, or you can spend US$1000 and do the same thing. (Corollary: eventually you’ll do one or the other.)” The only difference is whether you buy a bunch of cheap crap first or not. As an added benefit, if you give up photography you can easily sell your good tripod and recover much of your investment. Not so for the crap.
Q: What about lenses?
A: It depends on what you want to photograph. If you’re just getting into photography, you may find this page from Bob Atkins to be useful. I did when I got started.
Q: Can you recommend some good nature photography books?
A: Anything by John Shaw. Most of his books were written before the digital era. But the discussion of exposure, composition, equipment, and technique are otherwise invaluable. Shaw’s discussion of exposure is the simplest, most helpful discussion I’ve seen anywhere. I particularly recommend John Shaw’s Nature Photography Field Guide and John Shaw’s Landscape Photography.
Have another question that’s not answered here? Please send me a message.