Before heading off to Cuba a few weeks ago, I shot some aerials over southern Florida. Freshwater issues abound in this state. How do you accommodate an increasing and thirsty population and a thriving and powerful agricultural industry while protecting water quality and the fragile ecosystem of the Everglades, as well as other increasingly endangered wild areas of the state?
I took to the skies to capture some shots of the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, Australia. The Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s great natural wonders & now it is part of the largest marine park encompassing 1.2 million square miles of ocean surrounding the continent. It’s always good news to hear of a preservation of our planet of this proportion.
Save 20% on any Heart of the Sea print purchased this month. They are printed on EPSON Premium Photo Luster paper using archival EPSON Ultrachrome inks, and I hand sign them with a silver acid-free pen. Get more information about my Fine Art prints here.
Some years are publishing years, some are traveling, 2015 was for reshaping the business—a necessity in the ever-changing photography industry. I closed my downtown Seattle gallery and launched this website, focusing my core business online and allowing me the ability to concentrate on other projects, of which there are many.
All the filming that I did in 2014 with Abraham Joffe and the Untitled Film Works crew—in East Africa, Papua New Guinea, Alaska, and here in Seattle—finally came to fruition. Tales by Light is a joint Canon Australia and National Geographic Channel production & I hope it comes to the US soon!
As for Art Wolfe’s Travels to the Edge, it continues to air in broadcast markets worldwide.
While travel slowed somewhat in 2015, I still managed trips to Tanzania (twice), Kenya, Yellowstone National Park (twice), Antarctica, India, Bali, Japan, Iceland, Washington State, Alaska, Svalbard, California, and Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park. The final expedition of the year was to the Danakil Basin of Ethiopia.
I lectured at, among other places, Florida’s Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Fine Art, Seattle’s Benaroya Hall, Portland’s OMSI, and at #OPTIC2015 in New York. Human Canvas took over the Rotella Gallery in Soho for the month of November. DPreview.com published several well-received articles on my experiences photographing emperor penguins, humpback whales, and Iceland.
The Art of the Photograph in Spanish
Earth Is My Witness in French and German by National Geographic
Vanishing Act in USA, German & French
Earth Is My Witness garnered several publishing awards, including an IBPA Benjamin Franklin and an Independent Publisher. As for moi, I was named honorary chair of Washington Wild.
Why I Do What I Do
Pretty in Pink: Springtime in Japan
Yes on 1401: Save Animals Facing Extinction (YES- it passed in November!)
Technique: Creating Graphic Images
Revealing Africa’s Major Elephant Ivory Poaching Hotspots
Travels To The Edge Music in the Japan Episode
Fall in Wyoming
Technique: Creating Abstract Images
International Cheetah Day
Colors of the Year 2016
As a juxtaposition to my September trip to Wyoming, I just returned from a great trip to East Africa, which included Amboseli, Lake Natron, Mahale. So, I begin with these photos from Amboseli National Park, Kenya. Enjoy!
July 1st to September 30th of this year was manic, photographically speaking: the Palouse in Eastern Washington, brown bears in Alaska, aerials in Iceland, polar bears in Svalbard, fall color in California’s southern Sierra, and then back home in Washington state to the solitude of Mount Rainier.
In the book The Living Wild, Art wrote, “After all, an animal without habitat is simply a curiosity biding time to its extinction. But an animal with its habitat is a vibrant representation of natural selection.” It is within this book that Art highlights the environment and the wildlife in a symbiotic relationship and travels beyond the more common seen portrait of wildlife. There are many places throughout the world that highlight this type of diversity, but Americans need to travel no farther than the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. With the reintroduction of wolves in the 90s’, this 11 million acre reserve of land has become one of the most intact temperate ecosystems on the planet. If you count the bird, mammal, fish, insect, amphibian, plant and reptile species, you walk away with thousands of potential photography subjects. Due to the stunningly beautiful land surrounding the creatures, this place offers the opportunity to capture imagery very similar to the visions Art has created in The Living Wild. Moose, bear, antelope, elk and countless others can be composed with the backdrop of the Tetons at sunrise and sunset. If you are wondering how, now is your chance to learn.
Visit Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming the first weekend in October with Art Wolfe and Gavriel Jecan for a four-day workshop being held in the heart of one of America’s most scenic locations.
Can’t see the slideshow? Click Here.
I can agree with my fellow traveler Mark McInnis about our trip to the Katmai National Park area in Alaska “…this trip has been amazing. Just amazing.”
He continues on: “Jerry, Art, Becky and I were shooting aerials yesterday when I spotted a White Wolf. We landed on the beach and Art thought that he [the wolf] had probably left because of the noise. But we snuck around the corner and he was still there just napping on the beach! We started clicking photos, but he heard our cameras and promptly got up to leave. Haha, This next part still just cracks me up. Art started howling. Like a wolf. And the wolf stopped, turned sideways, and looked DIRECTLY at us. And of course his shot is twice what mine is, but it doesn’t matter. That memory will stick with me forever. My jaw might have hit the floor. It was amazing and one of the most memorable and comedic moments of my life. Art is such a legend. I love him to death and have only known him for 4 days. Talk about a gifted, talented and honest human. Really love the guy.”
Get on the notification list for the July 24-29, 2016 Katmai trip!
Can’t see the slideshow? Click Here.
Recently I spent the most remarkable two weeks with several fellow photographers in Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Ranging everywhere on land and in river were the huge coastal brown bears and all the waterways were chock full of spawning sockeye salmon. As a result of last year’s mild winter, there were many sows and cubs feasting on the protein-rich and oily fish.
I am scheduling another trip July 24-29, 2016. Get on the notification list now!
Now in its second year, this INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION puts the spotlight on talented photographers from all over the world, celebrating the rural and urban landscape of the U.S.A. and is the brainchild of renowned landscape photographer, Charlie Waite.
The Judging panel includes US photography greats as Art Wolfe, Christopher Burkett, David and Marc Muench, Tim Fitzharris, Jim Patterson, Marc Adamus and Brenda Tharp
Prize fund of US$12,000 of cash and other prizes, including US$5,000 to the overall winner, US$500 to the Youth (under 21) winner and awards in cash and kind to category and special prize winners.
Entries are open to photographers from anywhere in the world with images made in the USA within the last 5 years. Competition closes midnight on the 15th of August, 2015.
Sponsored by USA Today, Popular Photography, Lee Filters, Hasselblad, Panasonic, lightandland.com, and Digital Camera World.
Click play to hear the story behind this Vanishing Act photo!
VANISHING ACTPhotographs by Art Wolfe, text by Barbara Sleeper
In this revised edition, legendary wildlife photographer Art Wolfe turns to one of nature’s most fundamental survival techniques: the vanishing act. His portraits show animals and insects disappearing into their surroundings, using deceptions, disguises, lures, and decoys to confuse the eye of both predator and prey. Spotting each cryptic animal amid Wolfe’s clever compositions is both a fun and an informative challenge. At a time when many species are performing permanent vanishing acts due to habitat loss and human encroachment, this book showcases the beauty and evolutionary extremes of animal behavior and artfully illustrates the tenacious will to stay alive in an eat-or-be-eaten world.
Softcover: 224 pages
Publisher: Cameron + Company; Revised edition
Language: English
Product Dimensions: 12 x 8.5 inches
