Thank you for joining us in our 20th edition of PT Explorers Peter! Would you please introduce yourself to our readers?
Thank you for the invitation, I have long been an admirer and supporter of Paws Trails so it is a great honour for me to be included in this edition.
I have been a photographer for more than 50 years and a biologist for even longer. Biology including the behaviour, population dynamics, ecology and conservation of living creatures has been my passion since my parents gave me a bird book on my 4th birthday. I have always tried to use my photographs to show the wonder and fascination of biology and to educate and illustrate my own research – I believe images in context can help educate and make people aware of the natural world. In my career as a research biologist I have undertaken work on multiple species including puffins, grouse, tortoises, bighorn sheep, wolves and even bats. My current research is on new and emerging disease that come from bats and mice, but I am also involved in a long-term study of wolves in Yellowstone. As a University Professor at Penn State I think I have the best job and life I could ever have imagined, and I also run my own little nature reserve in central Pennsylvania.
From a background of biology, we’re curious to know how your photography journey began. Can you tell us a bit more?
My dad gave me his cast-off camera when I was 11 and I learnt black and white photography and darkroom skills at this early age. I was frustrated that my photos of animals were so weak and I saved up and bought my first Praktica 35mm SLR when I was 18 and made the mistake of buying the cheapest 135mm telephoto lens with a 1.4x converter. I used this on my first African trips to Ethiopia and the Congo in 1974 and got a few almost acceptable photographs of crocs and birds and also some of puffins during my doctoral studies. When I started working on grouse, I switched to the Olympus system, with the small and flexible OM1 and the OM2 but I never had the long reach lenses even though I started working on technique. Then I won a prize for my research and was given a Canon film camera and I bought a 300mm lens to go with it and I started taking better slide photos. In 1997, I experimented with digital and had the first Sony digital Mavica camera with 0.3MP (woohoo!) that used a 3.5inch floppy disk to store your images and a 10x built in zoom. That was an amazing camera and it was so nice to be free from film at last. I went on to the EOS D60 at 6MP in 2002 but still wasn’t satisfied. Then one day I was in Yellowstone having trouble with my camera when a friend lent me a copy of “Outdoor Photographer” as night reading and by the end of that night I had a Canon 5D mk2 and a 100-400 lens ordered. That was the revolutionary digital camera for me, and I haven’t looked back since. I still take film photographs and love street photography and flash.
Do you think you have a specific photography style?
I think I am still working on a consistent style and I think I have a collection of styles. I enjoy high-speed flash photography because that is so challenging but I also love black and white and take street photographs of dogs so that is another style. With my wildlife photography I am still using multiple techniques and approaches to capture informative images that I don’t really see one dominant style. Three years ago I thought it was black & white of animals in the environment but then others are doing this so now I am not sure that I should have just one consistent style but strive for excellence – what do you think?
It seems like you’ve done your fair share of traveling. Of the various trips you have done, is there any place that you hold close to your heart?
It has to be Africa – I have been going there now for 45 years and every time I step off the plane I breathe in the air and the smell of dried grass and say to myself – Ahhhh Africa! I have had wonderful and sometimes scary trips into the bush where I have been caught up in battles, met despots like Mobutu, been attacked by youths and saved by elephants, seen hunger and disease, met the most generous people and yet, the wildlife always leaves me speechless with admiration. I have undertaken research and education in multiple countries, including the Baka people in what is now the Congo, the Danakil in Ethiopia, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana and Tanzania. I feel a strong passion and connection for the African bush.
What are some of your upcoming trips planned for the next year?
Well I thought I was about to go to Spain to photograph Iberian lynx using a research hide until an hour ago when they told me the hide had been washed away in a landslide, so that’s cancelled I am afraid. In January I am back in Yellowstone for wolves and then onto my first trip to Bangladesh and I hope to photograph flying foxes and then visit Kaziranga. In February, a special trip to spend time with 2 female snow leopards in Ladakh during which I am also hoping to photograph the enigmatic Pallas’s cat. Later in the year I am back to Africa, Canada, France, Arizona and I hope to catch up with those Iberian Lynx again.
What are some photography tips that you can give to our readers who would like to venture into wildlife photography?
Become so familiar with your camera that you can focus on composition and catching a wildlife interaction at the very moment it happens without worrying about settings. Portraits can be fine, but the exciting and interesting photos are really ones that show interactions between a predator and prey, a parent and offspring, a courtship display or fighting so focus on these. Personally, I get the most pleasure from watching wildlife, taking photographs and then quietly moving away and knowing that I have not disturbed the animals, even though they knew I was there. I get concerned when I think a photographer has disturbed an animal unnecessarily.
Of the countless photographs you have taken, do you have an all-time favourite?
I do – I really like this infrared photograph I took of an elephant and offspring walking away from me. I see beautiful synchrony between the mother and the baby – both of them in step, their tails moving together and there is a strong connection I feel. I like the contrast in the skin texture and size between the mother and the baby. No one else likes this image since it breaks all the rules – you can see no eye in the photo, and it is at the end of the day a butt shot! But I like it – that is the anarchist inside me.
Can you explain the difference between wildlife photography and conservation photography to our readers?
Wildlife photography is a record of a species or a biological interaction while conservation photography should capture an emotion where you feel a connection with the animal and a desire and need to protect it. The obvious conservation photographs are harrowing photographs of animals suffering but I believe photographs that leave you in awe of beauty and happy are also conservation photography.
If you could change one thing about the mind set of society in terms of photography, what would it be?
I am concerned about the multitude of photographs being posted on social media with comments which are either trivial or meaningless. I would like to change the mind set of the new wave of and persuade them to tell us what the photograph represents so we can learn from the way they see the world.
Do you have any specific principles that you apply to your work?
Honesty is really important – if your photo is of an animal in captivity, then say so – if you have doctored it in anyway, then say so and say if it was a setup in any way. A portrait of a snow leopard in a cage is a very different photograph to one in the wild. I also want to spend more time with my images looking at new ways to be really creative.
How would you like to see the world in the next five years? What do you think we as a society can do to achieve that?
I would like to see widespread recognition by all that we are facing an environmental crisis and we must protect ourselves by protecting natural habitats, mitigate against climate change, stop all pointless persecution of animals like elephants and rhinos and while I am at it can we have a negative population growth of humans on this planet please? This can be achieved first through education and in particular a more concerted effort to ensure women are educated to a higher level, second by a deeper tolerance and respect, not only of each other but also the animals that share this planet with us and thirdly for everyone to take responsibility for their actions and the impact of those decisions.
In the era of technology and speaking of the future, what are your thoughts on social media and photography?
If I look back just a few years then I am astonished by the way the smart phone has dominated our lives – I really don’t think we thought it would be this big 15 years ago and so I feel it is very difficult to predict where social media is going to go. It will be less typing and more videos and I think it needs to provide more in brain experience with smells and a presence. The wonderful aspect of social media is that we could use it to change the behaviour of people for the better – much in the way Greta Thunberg has increased the visibility of climate change and I hope resulted in people changing their own behaviour. I hope we could also use social media to reach out to China and the Philippines to stop elephant poaching and the pointless destruction of pangolins – to stop habitat destruction and to improve our urban environment so wildlife can live alongside us.
Are you partial to any specific camera gear in your photography trips? If so, why?
I am very partial to a 15mm sigma diagonal wide angle to take photos of animals in their environment. It is small and cheap and special. I also love my Leica Monochrome – the only camera made for taking black and white photographs. I also have a soft spot for my sabre infrared trigger – so sturdy and useful.
What is the one thing you never leave the house without when heading out for a photography expedition?
I really like to think that I am going to see something today I have never seen before – and then I look for this thing so when I see something happen, I celebrate it so I guess I leave home with a hungry eye. If you meant a piece of kit, and I suspect this is what you did mean, then I always have my camera on a Sun Sniper strap – they are comfortable and fit the Really Right Stuff base Arca Swiss plate I have on every camera. Why don’t manufacturers design the base of their cameras with an Arca Swiss plate? – that would make life so much easier.
Finally, is there anyone in the wildlife photography field you look up to for their work or has been an inspiration to you?
Dano Grayson – he isn’t on the social media or big on the travel circuit, but he is a really an original photographer who understands how animals and cameras work and can capture images that are so different to what everyone else is getting. I have been out in the middle of the Arizona desert with him when a flash trigger breaks and he mends it with his teeth! He told me once he was so confident an ocelot was going to cross this river on a log that he lay there with a cover over him to capture images of it running towards him and it ran straight over his head and back. He is one of those guys who is so relaxed with animals he knows what they are going to do and does setups to capture beautiful images. He is now focussed on filming for the BBC and others.
