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

Capturing the Impact of Avalanche Rescue Dogs | National Geographic


3m read
·Nov 11, 2024

[Music] It's impossible to spend time with animals and not walk away feeling that something else is going on in there. I'm very passionate about trying to tell a story about animal intelligence, so this assignment with National Geographic on avalanche dogs was a wonderful opportunity to ignite this larger project that I have in my mind.

[Music] I'm a National Geographic photographer. [Music] I'm here in Bozeman, Montana, to try and tell the story about a man named Graham and his avalanche rescue dog, Erna. What really pulled me into this assignment and the angle that I was coming from is animal intelligence. So, what I'm really trying to do is to tell a story that shows that dogs are thinking sentient beings.

To convey that, Erna is out there thinking about her job. Every time I take a step, I fall down up to my knee. People think the lives of photographers are idyllic, romantic even, and that you just go out there and the photos flow like wine. But the reality is that there's a lot of stuff that you're dealing with.

There are a few instances where we're having to trek through snow to get to other places where you couldn't ski. So, it was like 15 degrees, so that makes everything harder. You know, even the best cameras aren't built for these conditions. I'm not a huge skier, your hands freezing, waist-deep in snow, but $40,000 camera gear on your back. I'm thinking to myself, every picture I'm trying to take, everything, everything is against me, and I have a couple of days to pull this off.

What do you got? A lot of times, the images we want to get end up coming to fruition in the field in the moment. I saw Emily, Graham's wife, getting buried, and that's when I knew that that was the picture. I thought, you know, why don't I get in there? Because I could show what it's like to be rescued by a dog.

All right, so I'm gonna have enough oxygen down there just fine. All right? I mean, the challenge of getting that shot—you're in a teeny little hole, and you kind of have to contort yourself, and I'm not the most flexible person. A look on her face, you know that she's thinking about one thing and that's about getting me out.

And then the challenge was that as she was digging, snow was falling on top of me like every five seconds. I was having to wipe the white snow off the front of the lens and then take a picture. My gut said I was soaked. Good, you know? I think if you were seriously buried in an avalanche, you can imagine the feeling that you must be having when you see her, a retriever, digging the hole open and saving your life. I mean, it's got to be a moment.

[Music] You always don't think that you've got the shot, and there's a saying that if you think you've got the shot, then you don't. So you always have this worry: Did I get the picture? Did I get the picture? And when you get a photo that you're happy with, it’s like Christmas.

What I'm thinking about all the time is what Graham and Erna are doing that is special and what do I think is important to tell. They're out there saving people's lives every single day. [Music]

More Articles

View All
China is Uninvestable.
Stocks based in the world’s second largest economy are uninvestable again. Bernstein sales trading desk’s Mark Schilsky said in a note on Monday, “This idea of Chinese stocks being uninvestable has been a recurring theme in the media over the past few wee…
Impress Her With Nanodiamonds
Want to spoil your girlfriend with diamonds while impressing her with your scientific knowledge. Here’s how: “Baby, we’ve been together a long time and I’ve picked up on your hints – I know that you want a diamond, but I was thinking you’re too special t…
Decimal multiplication place value
This is an exercise from Khan Academy. It tells us that the product 75 times 61 is equal to 4575. Use the previous fact to evaluate as a decimal this right over here: 7.5 times 0.061. Pause this video and see if you can have a go at it. All right, now le…
Why Are So Many Starfish Dying? | National Geographic
From Mexico all the way to Alaska, there has been a massive die-off of sea stars. The estimates are in the tens to hundreds of millions of sea stars that have died in the last couple of years. It’s one of the largest mortality events associated with a dis…
Philip of Macedon unifies Greece | World History | Khan Academy
The 5th century in Greece started off with the Persian invasion and ended with the Peloponnesian War. Now we’re entering into the 4th century in Greece. As we entered the 4th century, Thebes is the dominant city-state. However, as we get into the mid-4th …
HOW TO WATCH THE ECLIPSE (AND SHADOW SNAKES) - Smarter Every Day 171
Hey, it’s me Destin, welcome back to Smarter Every Day. We’ve all heard about solar eclipses, right? And you’re probably aware that there’s a huge one coming very soon. So, you think about how to prepare, and you’re thinking maybe I gotta get some special…