yego.me
💡 Stop wasting time. Read Youtube instead of watch. Download Chrome Extension

A Man Among Wolves: Photographing Yellowstone’s Iconic Predators | National Geographic


2m read
·Nov 11, 2024

This is so cool! I was in Yellowstone for a year and a half. My job was to shed light on wolf behavior in a natural landscape. A lot of times, wolves get persecuted, and this was an opportunity for me to just show wolves for what they were; for being large, beautiful, mega-carnivores.

Being there for as long as I was, because inherently, you're going to see so many different unique wildlife events. I'm assigned to do wolves, but you know, if I see an incredible thing happening over here, it's like, of course, I'm going to photograph that. You know, you can't look away. That's not what we do.

It was a huge aspect of life and death in Yellowstone. It's always a bit hard when you're an empathetic human to see an animal suffering. You know, this little elk calf that's like fresh to the world, and look at all these animals around me. And then it's like, welcome to reality; now you're food for wolf pups.

You know, photographing wildlife is always this balance between what you can control and what you can't.

Yeah, you can't talk to animals. What do you think she's doing? Even if you could, it's like, that probably wouldn't be ethical to be like, "Oh yeah, could you just like take your whole family of wolves and go up on that ridge line? And like, oh, the moon's right there. Could you just start howling in front of the moon? That'd be great."

Setting up camera traps becomes a little monotonous, and so sometimes you like pretend to be whatever your subject is—whether it's like a wolf or a bear—and you kind of like goof around and lighten it up.

But a lot of the work that I did ended up being skiing around, shooting around in the backcountry, trying to get close to the wolves. Being out there and being by myself, you kind of worry about being a bear snack as well. But thankfully, I had a lot of training informally growing up. My brother and I had to walk a mile and a half to the bus stop.

The way back was always like this big explore adventure session where we'd walk on the frozen brook and hopefully, you wouldn't fall through. That wasn't so bad. Being self-sufficient was a big part of our childhood, and I didn't realize how much I'd use it now as an adult.

Because yeah, there's definitely some risks involved, but the whole goal is to make pictures that people haven't seen before. And inherently, that means pushing boundaries. You know, if it was easy, somebody else would have probably done it.

More Articles

View All
Cannon Shock Waves in Ultra Slow Motion - Smarter Every Day 200
Hey, it’s me Destin. Welcome back to Smarter Everyday. Today, we’re in rural Tennessee for an actual artillery competition. And if you learn anything from this truck that’s coming up behind me, this is pretty legit. There’s dudes from all over the country…
Hyperinflation Explained: The 100 TRILLION Dollar Banknote
I’ve got something cool to show you guys today. Something that came in the mail just the other day. Most people wouldn’t get excited about this, but I’m actually pretty excited about it. I’ll show you a close-up. This is it! That right there is a 100 tril…
Article IV of the Constitution | National Constitution Center | Khan Academy
Hey, this is Kim from Khan Academy and today I’m learning about Article 4 of the US Constitution. Article 4 lays out the nuts and bolts of how federalism—the system of shared governance between states and the federal government—works in practice. Article …
We Tagged a Great White Shark!
This spike we place right in next to the dorsal fin. That is the pinger. And you put it on that bone behind your ear. You can hear it pinging. Oh, man. Oh. It is quite high pitched. It sounds like a really high pitched bird chirping in your ear. The so…
How to learn Japanese by watching ANIME🇯🇵
Hi guys, it’s me! Today, we’re going to talk about how to learn Japanese effectively with anime. So let’s cut to the chase. Can you learn Japanese with anime? Definitely, yes! Hi guys, it’s me. Today, if you’re new here, I’m a native speaker when it come…
Armie Hammer Ascends From an Underground Cave | Running Wild With Bear Grylls
[music playing] ARMIE HAMMER: Whew! Yeah. Good to go. BEAR GRYLLS: OK. Our gear weighs nearly 75 pounds, and it’s too heavy to carry up this ladder. So we’re going to cache it on the sea floor like Navy SEALs do when they hide their gear until it can be…