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About a week ago, our friend Joris van Alphen flew from Holland to visit us in Formentera. Together, we spent the last week intensively creating media. To say that Joris is a talented photographer is an understatement. This year, he received the National Geographic Emerging Nature Photographer Award, a new prize for “seriously talented photographers.” Last year, he also earned a , a prestigious grant award from the North American Nature Photography Association (this is where we met, in fact, as both Neil and I were given the same award). Last year, Joris visited me in Formentera and together we created the award-winning film “.”
Neil and I always joke with one another about the differences between our photographic styles – Neil is technical, precise and patient, and I’m, well… less patient. The fun thing about having Joris photographing alongside us is that he has a style that’s unique to us and we all really learn a lot when were working together.
We all get a lot of questions about our photography, so while Joris was here in Formentera, we decided to create a short film to answer some of those questions. We hope you enjoy it! And of course, use the comments section if you want to ask us anything else about our photography, our book project, or life in general!
Hello, hello! I just stumbled on your blog while looking for information about conservation photography. I really enjoyed this video. One more question, possibly for another video. Do you have any advice for a recent college graduate (of human ecology) insanely interested in using photography/writing/video to communicate environmental and social issues to inspire action? I want to jump right in to it, but I’m scared I may be skipping important steps—I just don’t want to work as an assistant to a commercial/fashion photographer when that’s not what I want to be focusing on. Thank you so much for the work you are doing! – Julia
Thanks for the kind words, Julia. I don’t think there’s any one path to “conservation photography” — Nate and I both got PhD’s in biology before we really decided how we wanted to put our training to use, and other photographers I know took really different paths to similar careers. I think the important thing is being passionate and persistent, and to start DOING what you want to be doing (even if it’s just at a small, local scale) as early as you can. This article by my friend Morgan Heim has some great ideas about how to get started as a conservation photographer: http://www.outdoorphotographer.com/locations/international/how-to-be-a-conservation-photographer.html