While photography has become my primary language, animal whispering has evolved as a tool to communicate the unique sincerity emerging from a wild animal’s eye. Beyond the Art, wildlife photography allows me to seek the uniqueness in things while engaging with nature in a unique way. When meeting wild animals, I always feel gifted to be able to capture such sincere moments as it makes me feel instantly at peace.
Besides this bond with nature, I enjoy the challenge that is wildlife photography. As there are numerous things you have to deal with when you’re shooting a moving animal, finally getting the perfect shot makes for an unspeakable feeling of satisfaction.
A question I often get is how do you get the birds to land on your hand without food? Although I always wanted to reply saying that I am the real Snow White, every photo session simply starts with bird seeds and a whole lot of patience. However, my goal here isn’t to photograph birds eating out of my hand. The challenge is to create something unique. With persistence, I slowly gain the animal’s trust and it eventually comes to me without food. That’s when the real deal starts. There’s my chance to capture the unique connection to nature! As wildlife photography is all about opportunity, patience is key.
I often say that our lives are made of a collection of high-speed photographs and the photographer’s task is to hunt within this collection and make the perfect moment standout. As wildlife photography is about firing off thousands of shots just to get one keeper, the goal for me is to seek for emotions. When I scroll through hundreds of photos I am looking for the one shot that will communicate a specific feeling.
As we are all aware, light is a crucial component of photography. It has the capacity to turn a photo into a story. Photography is all about planning and pre-visualization. I am constantly looking to create images rather than take photos. Creating images requires both knowledge on technical aspects and on the subject itself. Therefore, while photography is an ultimate creative tool to create stories I use light to create connections between man and nature.
Besides my passion for photography and for animals, the other factor that keeps me doing what I do is the bond with nature. I could not live without this feeling you get when you immerse yourself in the outdoors and become part of it.
