Growing up in Austin, TX was difficult for me because everything I loved to do was outside, and I was basically at the center of a huge maze of subdivisions. Eventually I discovered the Austin Greenbelt (a large tract of undeveloped land that runs through the city) which became my retreat, and where I taught myself photography started at age 16. I would sleep out on the greenbelt and wake up and take photos during the “magic hour”, and then rush to school a few miles away. My improvement was hindered a bit by poor equipment and lack of instruction, but accelerated by a strong drive to show others what I thought was the under-appreciated beauty of the macro world. My motivations have changed greatly with regard to photography, in that I’m no longer out to “adjust” anyone else’s appreciation of anything, but I still find it difficult to focus on large animals like birds or monkeys that already get plenty of attention, preferring instead the little guys scurrying or slithering around beneath our feet. As a result, I never felt the need to buy a hefty and expensive telephoto lens and so my camera bag is a manageable size and weight, allowing me to carry it in addition to the equipment and food for multi-day expeditions. I found a limit though, at multi-month ones. Between 2004 and 2007 I did four hikes that were each over a thousand miles on the Pacific Crest Trail on the west coast of the U.S., and didn’t take camera gear on any of them. When you get to the point of sawing off your toothbrush handle or burning chapters from a book as you finish them, 20 pounds of camera gear doesn’t stand a chance.

me_and_briansmall crib-budssmall swallowtail

Since graduating high school i’ve lived in Arizona, New Mexico, Alaska, Virginia, and now Oregon, and travelled to many countries in Central and South America, Europe, and northern Africa. Throughout this time photography was always there, something I did on countless chilly mornings in countless amazing places, but never a real priority. After being undecided for years as to what photography should be to me, I decided that it would be my lifelong hobby and nothing more, because the reality of trying to make a living with it seemed too poverty-stricken and difficult from what i’d read and heard. Last year (2009) I won the One Earth Award in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, the biggest in the world of its kind, so now i’m undecided again. Currently, I spend summers on an Interagency Hotshot Crew fighting wildfires (and making money), and winters focusing on photography (and spending it). I think i’ll know in the next few years what role photography will play in my life, whether it will be a career, a hobby, or some mix of the two, but i’m pretty sure it will always be something.


Photos:
 :Me and my brother Brian (i’m the one with the bigger beard) in Denali National Park when he and our parents visited me during a summer i worked on a salmon gilnetting boat in Alaska’s Bering Sea.

:Me and Brian a “few” years before.

:A swallowtail butterfly landed on me while i was felling a tree on a wildfire in central California in 2008,
maybe it thought I was a big yellow flower.


About my equipment: I used a Minolta Maxxum 7 film camera from when I started photography until Feb 2010, when I switched to a digital Sony A900. I use 5 lenses: Minolta 85mm f1.4 G, Minolta 200mm f2.8 G, Minolta 17-35mm G, Carl Zeiss 135mm f1.8, and Minolta 35-70mm.

Some Links:
- http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/whats-on/temporary-exhibitions/wpy/category.do?category=52&group=3
- www.nickbrandt.com
- http://www.sergetollari.com/
- http://www.xaviercoulmier.com/
 - http://www.declicmacro.com/
- http://www.yvanbarbier.com/