What motivated you to be a nature photographer? Was it because you admired the work of other nature photographers and wanted to try that too? Did you have a creative urge to photograph the natural world and nature provided endless subjects for you to photograph? Was it to enhance the experience of being out in nature? There are many motivating reasons.
You can say it was sheerly for the enjoyment. But there has to be something to motivate you to take that first step and discover that enjoyment for yourself.
Thank you for your replies. I am very interested to find out your response.
Having been a mountain bum since the early sixties as a hiker/backpacker/climber, I started carrying a camera around with me. Mostly, its purpose was to document the really wonderful places I experienced and things I did, but as time went on it grew into much more.
As my techniques improved, and my visual senses become more tuned to light, form, and color, I began to see the mountains (and the Sierra, in particular) in a new way. That has not ceased, nor will it: The more I know, the more I want to know.
Work and play outdoors. I had things I wanted to say about nature, but pics have always worked better than words.
Posted by Nathan Buck on March 8, 2006 at 10:35 PM
Interesting that you would ask Will, I was thinking about this the other day. I actually started when I was in high school because I enjoyed painting and I heard that you were not supposed to paint from other people's photos. So I began taking pictures so that I would have something to paint and draw from.
Soon I found that I enjoyed shooting pictures just for the sake of shooting pictures. I also found that I would get too busy to finish my paintings. Now with kids, there is no time or room for an unfinished painting sitting around (unless I wanted help on it ). I find that photography that I do now (close to the car) works for my family too.
Nathan
Posted by Carl Donohue on March 8, 2006 at 10:35 PM
Hey folks,
Can someone tell me what they mean when they say 'nature'?
Thanks.
Cheers
Carl
Posted by Scott Elliot on March 8, 2006 at 10:38 PM
I used to hunt, but found it is a lot easier to carry a CF card home than a dead animal. Also, a picture can be enjoyed long after a good meal has been digested and forgotten.
I think either hunting or photography is just an excuse to spend my time puttering around in the woods and mountains.
Posted by Kent Staubus on March 8, 2006 at 11:03 PM
Well, in my case it's because I don't live anywhere near a big city. And, I already have all the clothes and gear.
Can someone tell me what they mean when they say 'nature'?
Oddly enough I can't. It's like trying to describe what you mean by "home" or "life". It's a concept that spans multiple dimensions, senses, beliefs, experiences, and emotions, literal, abstract, real and imaginary.
"It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures." -- Vincent van Gogh
Guy
Posted by Richard Wong on March 9, 2006 at 12:49 AM
Because all time I'm not out there, I'm thinking of being out there.
And because I think every second that goes by the place won't ever look as healthy.
After years of shooting I came to the realization that nearly 95% of my shots are either areas set-aside by the government (National Parks, State Parks, BLM, National Forest, etc)... so for me it has become a subliminal exercise in demonstrating the benefits of conservation of open space and areas set-aside for "natural" activities.
For Donna and me, living on Long Island (the icon of suburbia and the "keeping up with the Jonses" mentality), it is the chance to enjoy "nature" (as Guy described it) and gain temporary reprieve from the rediculous non-stop high-pressure lifestyle we must endure to live here.
We look forward to our move to NH in 2007, and to the more relaxed lifestyle that will be part of it.
You pro's are certainly doing it for the money aren't you ? but do you not want to show others the wonders and beauty of nature, I'm sure you do. Even an amateur like me can get happy when someone is looking at one of my ,not even very good, images and says he never saw such a beautiful colored little beetle ( there are thousands of colored beetles in his garden but he never saw them )
It makes me happy looking at some of those fantastic images here on NPN, probably I will never see those landscapes or birds ... for real so when it is an image well made it's almost as good. That is why you do it guys ... no ?
As most of the other people have said, I was out in the boonies more often than not and wanted to share what I saw. I was also always interested in photography so the two just seemed a 'natural' fit ( pun intended).
But to be really honest, I'd like to be a better photographer across many genera. I'm begining to try portraiture at home with family, and I'd like to do some of the candid human life work along the lines of Cartier-Bresson. There was a time when I wanted to be a photojournalist, specifically covering social conflict, uprisings, wars, etc.
I think in the long run, the desire to share how beautiful, magical, scary, and ugly the world can be, all at the same time, made me get into photography.
Thanks for all the responses. Nature can motivate one to take up nature photography. I can relate to many of the anwers. Nature photography provides a way to express oneself creatively. It gives one a chance to share what was seen in nature and to bring enjoyment to others. It certainly is a release from the stress. That is something I can especially agree with. It is apparent that if you have a "creative gene" and a love for nature, plus a desire to share, becoming a nature photographer is a "natural transition".
Wait!! What's all the commotion? There's a stretch limousine! It's being mobbed by hundreds of screaming fans. The chauffer is opening the door. Someone is getting out. The fans are in a frenzy! It's Darwin!
It's the endless groupies and mountains of cash! What else is there?
I hope you meant that seriously, Darwin. If not - then I should probably give up waiting for my share.
to the subject:
I was raised in the middle of fields, forests and bogs where there were very few kids to play in my sandbox. My mother has a degree in biology and she had a good deal of influence on me. I developed a habit of wandering alone in the woods by the age of 10 or so. When I got a P&S camera, I started to drag that with me. Then I got a SLR (age 15) and got really hooked.
Now I`m 20, I`m a hobbyist photographer who is no good for people and street shooting, I study biology in the uni and work part-time for a non-profit organisation involved with raising environmental awareness. Go figure.
So what exactly should we blame for my lousy nature photographs? I dunno.
When I was a kid growing up in Ottawa, my parents used to shop at a large second-hand store that had a huge pile of NG magazines dating back decades... they'd buy me one every time they were there. Even at a young age, I was enchanted by the quality of the pictures, and as an adult, well, there were other magazines of good quality as well...
Seriously though, the image quality is what grabbed me, and it became a quest to learn how to do the same thing after I was gifted a 35mm SLR. Landscape photography is very fullfilling to me because of the challenge of 1) getting it right technically, and 2) coming up with something no-one else has done.
Emerson said "Of all the vaunted works of art, The Master-Stroke is Nature's part."
He taught that everything in the world not man and not made by man is nature and that all of nature is a symbol of the spiritual world and a lesson for us. When I photograph nature I look for the spiritual lesson or symbol in a scene and in how the light works for a moment to teach us.
But when I'm in a city I try to capture the soul of the city as well. It may be man made but the city has a spirit that you can capture on film, er a sensor.
Posted by Mark Hobson on March 10, 2006 at 10:21 AM
i do not consider myself a "nature" photographer - i am just a photographer
i photograph "nature" - which is only one of several genres in which i am proficient - because i am a seeker. i use the medium of photography as a both a tool of exploration and a method of gathering referential evidence about the physical/tanglible "reality" around me (of which i am a part) in the hope that this seeking will lead to hints and understandings about the intangible world (of which i am a part) that swirls and ebbs beneath the surface of things.
i seek because i believe that one can only live a holistic life by integrating both spheres - tangible and intangible - in one's being
one needs not only to understand (in as much as it is possible) "nature" but also the nature of "nature"
yo carl - that quest (the seeker in me) has led me to understand that "nature" is everything and everything is "nature" - everything is irrevocably and undeniably "connected". so, for me, at its core, that is nature and the nature of nature
which is why i was pleased and excited to have this photograph accepted as a mandala* at the Madala Project
*The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.
Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community.
The integrated view of the world represented by the mandala, while long embraced by some Eastern religions, has now begun to emerge in Western religious and secular cultures. Awareness of the mandala may have the potential of changing how we see ourselves, our planet, and perhaps even our own life purpose.
Posted by Bill Chambers on March 10, 2006 at 3:01 PM
Natural evolution I think. I started photgraphy just as a way to preserve memories of my trips and hobbies - diving, canoeing, backpacking, sea kayaking, hunting, etc. Gradually, the photography has overcome and replaced them as my main hobby, and the secondary hobbies now just provide the vehicle by which I enjoy my photography.
Jim H. the photography in National Geographic was a great influence on me too. Not just for the excellence of the photography but the places they showed. It awakened the explorer-adventurer in me. And, perhaps, the naturephotographer. I could not (still can't) visit the exotic destinations but I went on to explore our Country from one end to the other. We can live a thousand lifetimes and still not see it all. That is true of nature too. There is no end to the things we can discover and learn. Nature photography has helped me to see the world in greater detail.
RL, thanks for that anwer. Nature is a gift from our Creator. Photography is one of the many ways we can enjoy it.
Frank, the staggering diversity in nature, that alone points for me a spiritual connection. God.
I appreciate your reply.
Keep on seeking, Mark. Very interesting about the mandala. I searched further on that subject. Our wedding rings (mine and my wife's) I think qualify, although I consider it only in a symbolic sense.
Bill, I too wanted to preserve the memories of the places I visited. At the same time I wanted to be creative at it too. Photography is the one hobby that has not become a "passing fancy".
My mother introduced me to both nature and photography at an early age. We lived in town, but it was possible (then) to walk to the edge of town. Among her friends was a botanist, a very early advocate of planting native flowers along the roadsides, and another friend was an underwater photographer whose movies became part of Disney's first underwater movie. So I knew people who photographed nature (on land and underwater)--and this being in the pre-TV era where I lived, I spent a lot of time looking at National Geographic magazines my grandmother collected. I loved being out in the country, as far out as we could go; I don't remember a time when I didn't prefer the outdoors and the open spaces to indoors or town/city spaces.
By age 11, I was trying to take nature shots with an old Brownie box camera; then I moved up to a 620 format box camera, and then, when I was in college, my mother gave me her old 35mm Kodak rangefinder. I got an SLR while in the military (and a macro lens, and a 200mm long lens) and was stationed in a part of the country very different from where I grew up--completely new flora and fauna. So that was a spur to shooting every leaf, flower, fern, moss, mushroom, bird, and animal I could find in my spare (off-duty) time. I had, by then, seen Eliot Porter's work for the Sierra Club books. Out of the military, I took a second degree, in biology, and did graduate work in applied ecology. And we now own 80 acres which we're managing for wildlife and native plants.
There was a fairly long hiatus when I couldn't afford film and developing, but I never lost interest in either photography or nature (however you define it.) I am happiest out in the field; my income however depends on being in the house at the computer. This leads to almost-missing deadlines for the writing sometimes...I should be doing structural revisions on a book right now, but instead I had to come look at some pictures...<G> So at some point I'd like the photography to contribute to the income...<GG> I see my photography as an aid to wildlife management (I can document plants, animals, behavior), as fun, and as another way to share beauty.
Elizabeth, nature and nature photography has been something that has been part of your life. You say you'd like the photography to contribute to the income. Have you thought of writing an article accompanied with photographs? Thank you for your wonderful response.
Will, I was involved in nature before I got into photography. As a kid I spent a lot of time in the woods with my father who was a lumberjack. Because of this I got keenly interested in nature and ended up going to college and studying botany. I started photography as a way to document my graduate research. Early in my experience I hadn't figured out that you can create documentary photos which are also aesthetically pleasing. I look back at some of my early work and it shows. Thanks for a great question.
Preston hit the nail on the head for me. I grew up with 200 sq miles of mountains out my back and a Marine Conservation Area and Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI, known as a triple S I) out my front.
I got tired trying to explain the beauty of it all to everybody, I found words lacking, so I bought a camera.
Thanks Bill. It is pleasing to read how your father has affected your life in such a way.
Tom, thanks for relating how you were influenced by your surroundings. And, like Preston, your outdoors lifestyle. You say "I got tired to explain the beauty of it all to everybody, I found words lacking, so I bought a camera". I think you speak for us all. I believe we as nature photographers have a desire to share what we see as beautiful in the world around us. Perhaps that is the greatest motivation we have in becoming nature photographers.
Discussion
30 repliesYou can say it was sheerly for the enjoyment. But there has to be something to motivate you to take that first step and discover that enjoyment for yourself.
Thank you for your replies. I am very interested to find out your response.
Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
Guy
Having been a mountain bum since the early sixties as a hiker/backpacker/climber, I started carrying a camera around with me. Mostly, its purpose was to document the really wonderful places I experienced and things I did, but as time went on it grew into much more.
As my techniques improved, and my visual senses become more tuned to light, form, and color, I began to see the mountains (and the Sierra, in particular) in a new way. That has not ceased, nor will it: The more I know, the more I want to know.
-PB
Soon I found that I enjoyed shooting pictures just for the sake of shooting pictures. I also found that I would get too busy to finish my paintings. Now with kids, there is no time or room for an unfinished painting sitting around (unless I wanted help on it
Nathan
Can someone tell me what they mean when they say 'nature'?
Thanks.
Cheers
Carl
I think either hunting or photography is just an excuse to spend my time puttering around in the woods and mountains.
Kent in SD
Oddly enough I can't. It's like trying to describe what you mean by "home" or "life". It's a concept that spans multiple dimensions, senses, beliefs, experiences, and emotions, literal, abstract, real and imaginary.
"It is not the language of painters but the language of nature which one should listen to, the feeling for the things themselves, for reality is more important than the feeling for pictures." -- Vincent van Gogh
Guy
And because I think every second that goes by the place won't ever look as healthy.
We look forward to our move to NH in 2007, and to the more relaxed lifestyle that will be part of it.
It makes me happy looking at some of those fantastic images here on NPN, probably I will never see those landscapes or birds ... for real so when it is an image well made it's almost as good. That is why you do it guys ... no ?
Sure.
but it ain't me babe (no, no, no ,no)
As most of the other people have said, I was out in the boonies more often than not and wanted to share what I saw. I was also always interested in photography so the two just seemed a 'natural' fit (
But to be really honest, I'd like to be a better photographer across many genera. I'm begining to try portraiture at home with family, and I'd like to do some of the candid human life work along the lines of Cartier-Bresson. There was a time when I wanted to be a photojournalist, specifically covering social conflict, uprisings, wars, etc.
I think in the long run, the desire to share how beautiful, magical, scary, and ugly the world can be, all at the same time, made me get into photography.
Cheers,
Alex
Wait!! What's all the commotion? There's a stretch limousine! It's being mobbed by hundreds of screaming fans. The chauffer is opening the door. Someone is getting out. The fans are in a frenzy! It's Darwin!
Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
I hope you meant that seriously, Darwin. If not - then I should probably give up waiting for my share.
to the subject:
I was raised in the middle of fields, forests and bogs where there were very few kids to play in my sandbox. My mother has a degree in biology and she had a good deal of influence on me. I developed a habit of wandering alone in the woods by the age of 10 or so. When I got a P&S camera, I started to drag that with me. Then I got a SLR (age 15) and got really hooked.
Now I`m 20, I`m a hobbyist photographer who is no good for people and street shooting, I study biology in the uni and work part-time for a non-profit organisation involved with raising environmental awareness. Go figure.
So what exactly should we blame for my lousy nature photographs? I dunno.
Pete D.
When I was a kid growing up in Ottawa, my parents used to shop at a large second-hand store that had a huge pile of NG magazines dating back decades... they'd buy me one every time they were there. Even at a young age, I was enchanted by the quality of the pictures, and as an adult, well, there were other magazines of good quality as well...
Seriously though, the image quality is what grabbed me, and it became a quest to learn how to do the same thing after I was gifted a 35mm SLR. Landscape photography is very fullfilling to me because of the challenge of 1) getting it right technically, and 2) coming up with something no-one else has done.
Allow me to attempt to elaborate:
Emerson said "Of all the vaunted works of art, The Master-Stroke is Nature's part."
He taught that everything in the world not man and not made by man is nature and that all of nature is a symbol of the spiritual world and a lesson for us. When I photograph nature I look for the spiritual lesson or symbol in a scene and in how the light works for a moment to teach us.
But when I'm in a city I try to capture the soul of the city as well. It may be man made but the city has a spirit that you can capture on film, er a sensor.
i photograph "nature" - which is only one of several genres in which i am proficient - because i am a seeker. i use the medium of photography as a both a tool of exploration and a method of gathering referential evidence about the physical/tanglible "reality" around me (of which i am a part) in the hope that this seeking will lead to hints and understandings about the intangible world (of which i am a part) that swirls and ebbs beneath the surface of things.
i seek because i believe that one can only live a holistic life by integrating both spheres - tangible and intangible - in one's being
one needs not only to understand (in as much as it is possible) "nature" but also the nature of "nature"
yo carl - that quest (the seeker in me) has led me to understand that "nature" is everything and everything is "nature" - everything is irrevocably and undeniably "connected". so, for me, at its core, that is nature and the nature of nature
which is why i was pleased and excited to have this photograph accepted as a mandala* at the Madala Project
*The word "mandala" is from the classical Indian language of Sanskrit. Loosely translated to mean "circle," a mandala is far more than a simple shape. It represents wholeness, and can be seen as a model for the organizational structure of life itself--a cosmic diagram that reminds us of our relation to the infinite, the world that extends both beyond and within our bodies and minds.
Describing both material and non-material realities, the mandala appears in all aspects of life: the celestial circles we call earth, sun, and moon, as well as conceptual circles of friends, family, and community.
The integrated view of the world represented by the mandala, while long embraced by some Eastern religions, has now begun to emerge in Western religious and secular cultures. Awareness of the mandala may have the potential of changing how we see ourselves, our planet, and perhaps even our own life purpose.
RL, thanks for that anwer. Nature is a gift from our Creator. Photography is one of the many ways we can enjoy it.
Frank, the staggering diversity in nature, that alone points for me a spiritual connection. God.
I appreciate your reply.
Keep on seeking, Mark.
Bill, I too wanted to preserve the memories of the places I visited. At the same time I wanted to be creative at it too. Photography is the one hobby that has not become a "passing fancy".
Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
By age 11, I was trying to take nature shots with an old Brownie box camera; then I moved up to a 620 format box camera, and then, when I was in college, my mother gave me her old 35mm Kodak rangefinder. I got an SLR while in the military (and a macro lens, and a 200mm long lens) and was stationed in a part of the country very different from where I grew up--completely new flora and fauna. So that was a spur to shooting every leaf, flower, fern, moss, mushroom, bird, and animal I could find in my spare (off-duty) time. I had, by then, seen Eliot Porter's work for the Sierra Club books. Out of the military, I took a second degree, in biology, and did graduate work in applied ecology. And we now own 80 acres which we're managing for wildlife and native plants.
There was a fairly long hiatus when I couldn't afford film and developing, but I never lost interest in either photography or nature (however you define it.) I am happiest out in the field; my income however depends on being in the house at the computer. This leads to almost-missing deadlines for the writing sometimes...I should be doing structural revisions on a book right now, but instead I had to come look at some pictures...<G> So at some point I'd like the photography to contribute to the income...<GG> I see my photography as an aid to wildlife management (I can document plants, animals, behavior), as fun, and as another way to share beauty.
Elizabeth Moon
Texas
And thank you all.
Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada
I got tired trying to explain the beauty of it all to everybody, I found words lacking, so I bought a camera.
T
Tom, thanks for relating how you were influenced by your surroundings. And, like Preston, your outdoors lifestyle. You say "I got tired to explain the beauty of it all to everybody, I found words lacking, so I bought a camera". I think you speak for us all. I believe we as nature photographers have a desire to share what we see as beautiful in the world around us. Perhaps that is the greatest motivation we have in becoming nature photographers.
Thank you to all for sharing in this subject.
Will
Edmonton, Alberta
Canada