In Praise of Our NANPA Wildlife Photographers

© Savanah Stewart

As a charter member of NANPA and long time Foundation Executive board member, I’m sorry to say I’ll be missing the 2011 Summit in McAllen, Texas next month, due to an upcoming trip to South Africa. The extraordinary nature and wildlife photographers that I have met during the course of my time at NANPA have made all the difference to my professional career.  Many come out of the bush, literally, in order to network with colleagues and find out what’s going on within the industry.  I have enjoyed working with many award winning photographers such as Frans Lanting, Art Wolfe, Christian Ziegler and others.  They have been documenting different species  and habitats for years, returning again and again to catch the right behavior, weather or lighting conditions at a certain time and place.  Nature and wildlife photography is always a surprise and one never knows what one will return with.  My years of editing these images have taught me the value of time, patience and the skill that these extraordinary photographers have.  They wait for the animals to appear, displaying whatever their special behavior is, and once in awhile, they catch it just right, with the light working its magic all around.  It’s these special moments that I have witnessed after the fact, but by editing so many images, I often see the complete situation, from beginning to end and I see how hard it is to get the shot!

I am fortunate to know these experienced photographers, as well as the younger, up and coming photographers whose portfolios I review at NANPA.  They attend the conference,  eager for information and knowledge that many of these seasoned pros share during the course of the NANPA programs and field workshops.  Much of the photography that I represent exemplifies these glimpses of nature in all its glory and it’s a pleasure to have them available to clients on a worldwide scale.  Lastly, Outdoor Photographer magazine recently published its list of the 40 most influential nature photographers.  Congratulations to the 14 NANPA members who made that list. It’s a pleasure to know them all!

Here’s a small sample of some of the outstanding NANPA photographers we represent:

Frans Lanting

Left: AF21 FLA0062 © Frans Lanting / DanitaDelimont.com

Lobelia flower, Lobelia deckenii, Mt Kenya National Park, Kenya

Right: AF24 FLA0028 © Frans Lanting / DanitaDelimont.com

Red-fronted brown lemur drinking, Eulemur rufus, Madagascar

Stuart Westmorland

Left: SA12 SWE0047 © Stuart Westmorland / DanitaDelimont.com

Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) Caribbean Sea near Roatan, Honduras

Right: US12 SWE0033 © Stuart Westmorland / DanitaDelimont.com

USA, Hawaii, Big Island, near Kona, Day Octopus (Octopus cyanea)

Art Wolfe

Left: AF31 AWO0002 © Art Wolfe / DanitaDelimont.com

Africa, Namibia, Namib National Park. Web-footed Gecko (Palmatogecko rangei)

Right: SA22 AWO0002 © Art Wolfe / DanitaDelimont.com

Central America, Costa Rica, Back-lit frog on leaf

Kristen Mosher

Left: AF45 KRM0145 © Kristin Mosher / DanitaDelimont.com

Africa, Tanzania, Gombe NP, Young chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), Tanga curious about Gaia’s log

Right: AF45 KRM0000 © Kristin Mosher / DanitaDelimont.com

Africa, Tanzania, Gombe NP, Chimpanzees at play (Pan troglodytes)

Christian Zeigler

Left: SA15 CZI0001 © Christian Ziegler / DanitaDelimont.com

Central America, Panama, Borro Colorado Island. Enormous colonies of millions of leaf cutter ants (Atta columbica) cultivate and protect a fungus, which they eat.

Right: SA15 CZI0180 © Christian Ziegler / DanitaDelimont.com

Central America, Panama, Barro Colorado Island. Defense pose of praying mantis, family Mantidae.

Kevin Schafer

Left: EU36 KSC0009 © Kevin Schafer / DanitaDelimont.com

Shetland Pony, mainland Shetland Islands, stongest horse for size, Scotland, UK.

Right: US45 KSC0004 © Kevin Schafer / DanitaDelimont.com

Racoon, (Procyon lotor), fishing, Uinta National Forest, Utah, USA.

Michele Westmorland

Left: OC01 MWE0003 © Michele Westmorland / DanitaDelimont.com

South Pacific, Fiji, Viti Levu, Bligh Water, Coral Reef, Multicolor Soft Corals (Dendronepthya sp.) and schooling Fairy Basslets (Pseudanthias squaminipinnis)

Right: OC13 MWT0240 © Michele Benoy Westmorland / DanitaDelimont.com

Lagoon safari trip featuring Stingrays (Himantura fai), small Blacktip sharks (Carcharhinus limbatus) and variety of fish including Pacific Double-saddle Butterflyfish (Chaetodon ulietensis)