Why Wildlife?

A couple of months ago I was asked what got me into wildlife photography.  At the time I answered like I always did, with the story of how I finally bought my first DSLR camera and was lucky enough to find a barn owl in flight and was able to capture a decent image.  Since being asked, “Why wildlife photography?”  I have been thinking about it and why did I choose wildlife photography.

In the fall of 2009, I found myself in the southern deserts of Afghanistan on deployment with the U.S. Marine Corps.  Our mission for the most part was to run drug interdiction missions to keep the the drugs from leaving the country and help fund terrorism.  Time and time again we would find ourselves in the vast expanses of the southern desert chasing drug runners before they slipped into Pakistan.  This was a rush.  We would cruise through the sand and rocks with semi-sort of ease with our eight wheeled light armored vehicles and would stop and search any vehicles that could not outrun us.  We had some pretty good success.  As time went on we would run other missions besides the drug interdiction missions, and with those came the same rush as chasing down drug runners.

In the spring of 2012, I found myself at the end of my time in the U.S. Marine Corps and was just finishing my undergraduate degree and starting my family, and for the next 7-8ish years I was missing, and lacking, that rush that I once had.  If you talk to any veteran, most of them will tell you that, that rush is something they miss.  It was not until I had taken that first picture of a barn owl, that I found that rush again.  The feel of the heart pounding due to excitement, and the adrenaline rushing as the experience unfolds in front of you.

I can tell you the first time I first photographed a grizzly bear, a bull moose, a bull elk, and so on, and I can tell you that it was a rush every time I had the opportunity to do so. Recently I made a trip and decided to push the envelope and I actually chased the sounds of the elk bugling in the distance. As I inched closer and closer to where the sound was coming from, my heart rate increased and the adrenaline started flowing, but at the same time it was pure joy, pure excitement and pure fun. That mixture of pure joy, pure excitement, and pure fun, along with the fear and the nervousness, is what I love about wildlife photography. No matter how often I get to photograph wildlife, I get that rush, I get that excitement, that joy, and that fun. That is why I chose wildlife photography!