Every year WildPhotos draws an outstanding line-up of speakers from the world of wildlife and environmental photography – including winners from the prestigious Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
From presentations that transport delegates to far flung corners of the world through unforgettable, stunning images of nature and the stories behind them, to practical publication and photo techniques, and the ethics of photography and photojournalism – the breadth of subject matter is astounding.
Each speaker adds a different element to this kaleidoscope of sessions, providing a unique insight into the world of nature photography.
2011 compères
Friday 21 October Mark Carwardine (UK) Mark Carwardine is a zoologist, an active conservationist, an award-winning writer, a TV and radio presenter and a widely published wildlife photographer. He has been Chairman of the judging panel of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition since 2005. His own collection of wildlife and conservation photographs, taken in more than 100 countries, is sold through picture agencies around the world. Mark recently co-presented the six-part BBC2 television series Last Chance to See, with Stephen Fry, in search of endangered species (following in the footsteps of a similar journey Mark made with Douglas Adams 20 years before), and also The Museum of Life, a BBC2 television six-part series. He has written more than 50 books (including several bestsellers) and hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles, and writes regularly for
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Saturday 22 October Chris Packham (UK) Chris Packham is a TV presenter (currently presenting the BBC’s Springwatch and Autumnwatch series), photographer and author, with a passion for nature and a talent for making conservation of concern to the wider public. He holds a number of prestigious honorary posts with the major UK charities. After gaining a degree in zoology, he trained as a cameraman and then went on to present and produce numerous wildlife programmes, including The Really Wild Show and The X-Creatures on BBC1 and the C4 photography series Wild Shots, and Hands on Nature, Nature’s Calendar, Animals’ Guide to Britain and The Truth about Wildlife on BBC2. He has been both a prize-winner and a judge of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
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2011 keynote speaker
Jack Dykinga (USA)
Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Jack Dykinga is one of the world’s most respected landscape photographers. His skill in creating images that are both majestic and factual has made him a favourite of prestigious publications, including National Geographic and Arizona Highways.
Jack’s work reflects the merging of a photojournalistic, documentary approach with large-format landscape photography, focusing on environmental issues. He has nine wilderness-advocacy photographic books to his name, including Frog Mountain Blues, The Secret Forest, The Sierra Pinacate, The Sonoran Desert, Stone Canyons of the Colorado Plateau, and Desert: The Mojave and Death Valley. Other books include Large Format Nature Photography, a ‘how to’ guide to colour landscape photography.
Jack’s fine-art images were featured along with the work of Ansel Adams in an Arizona Highways magazine retrospective shown at the Phoenix Art Museum, The Center for Creative Photography and the Museum of Northern Arizona, exhibited with the work of Elliot Porter at the Etherton Gallery in Tucson, Arizona, and as a one-man show at the G2 Gallery in Venice, California.
His image ‘Stone Canyon’ was selected as one of the 40 best nature photographs of all time by the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP), and he received the 2011 Outstanding Photographer of the Year Award from the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA).
2011 speakers
Alex Badyaev (USA)
Alex Badyaev is a professional biologist who views his nature photography, and his science, as a way to understand and convey the fascinating complexity and diversity of the biological world. He strives for a productive synergy where his wildlife photography informs and is informed by scientific advances, natural history and conservation biology. His fieldwork takes him to some of the wildest and most beautiful places – from Himalayan mountains to Sonoran desert, and from Montana wilderness to Tasmanian coast.
His scientific work has been recognised by two of the highest awards in evolutionary biology – the John Maynard Smith Prize (European Society for Evolutionary Biology) and the Theodosius Dobzhansky Prize (International Society for the Study of Evolution).
He is a David and Lucile Packard Fellow in Science and Engineering, an Elected Fellow of American Ornithologists’ Union and a director of North American Cooper’s Ornithological Society. A professor at the University of Arizona, Alex is an editor of six top journals in ecology and evolution and a scientific consultant for three North American conservation organisations. Alex is a frequent writer and photographer for natural history and popular science magazines. His work has appeared on the covers of more than a hundred books and magazines, and has been published by many magazines, ranging from Nature and Scientific American to National Geographic and National Wildlife.
Alex is the winner of this year’s Urban Wildlife category in the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
Daniel Beltrá (Spain)
Daniel Beltrá is the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011. He is based in Seattle and specialises in environmental and conservation stories.
He started his career working for the Spanish national news agency EFE and then became a freelance photojournalist, working regularly for Greenpeace. Daniel is a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP). His photos have won the Prince’s Rainforests Project Award, the Global Vision Award of the Pictures of the Year International and two World Press Photo awards, and his images have appeared in many magazines and newspapers. In November 2009, he was nominated ABC television’s Person of the Week for his work in conservation, and in 2010, he was named as one of the 40 most influential nature photographers.
Peter Chadwick (South Africa)
A dedicated conservationist and wildlife photographer, Peter Chadwick has worked throughout southern Africa in some of its most special wild places. His photography is a natural extension to his conservation work, which gives him numerous opportunities to capture photographs that showcase the beauty, fragility and complexity of the outdoors. Peter believes that “through a photograph we have the ability to capture a moment of time that if correctly composed can influence the way that we respond, think and act”. He hopes that his images will positively influence others to help conserve the environment.
Peter’s photography is internationally recognised, and his written and photographic work appears regularly in a wide range of print media. He is a previous winner of the Eric Hosking Award and is the winner of the Gerald Durrell Award in the 2011 Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition.
Bruno D’Amicis (Italy)
Bruno D’Amicis trained as a wildlife biologist but wanted to find a way to inspire people about nature conservation rather than just practise it.
Photography was his choice, and he specialises in mountain wilderness areas and photographs of animals that give a true feel of the wild. Bruno also documents wildlife research and conservation work. He is an associate member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP), a member of GDT (the German photographic organisation) and columnist for the nature photography magazines Asferico and Forum Naturfotografie.
He was a Wild Wonders of Europe photographer and a keynote speaker at the Europe’s Wilderness Days conference organised by the PAN Parks Foundation in Georgia in 2010, and his work has been published in magazines including National Geographic, GEO, BBC Wildlife and Terre Sauvage.
Bruno’s book featuring his work on wild brown bears in the Tatra Mountains – The Last Stronghold: Fifteen years in the company of bears – was published this year.
www.brunodamicis.com | 
Follow Bruno: @brunodphoto
Ruth Eichhorn (Germany)
Ruth Eichhorn is Director of Photography for the GEO magazine group. She oversees a photo department that shapes the photographic direction of the different magazines and most of the foreign editions. Ruth works directly with contributing photographers from around the globe.
Jürgen Freund (Germany/Australia)
Jürgen Freund’s aim as a wildlife photographer is to shoot pictures that tell stories which matter. A mechanical engineer by training, he started his career as an industrial photographer in Germany, acquired an underwater camera, went scuba-diving in the alpine lakes and then discovered the marine environment. Since 1982, he has worked as an underwater and nature photographer, making much of his own equipment to suit his needs.
Jürgen’s work, on land and underwater, has been widely published all over the world. He has had solo exhibitions and has been a prize-winner in international competitions, including Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
In partnership with his wife Stella, a producer, he works closely with WWF, which uses his photographs in many of its conservation campaigns. For 18 straight months, he and Stella travelled the Asia / Pacific region of the Coral Triangle, photographing the richness of this hotspot of marine biodiversity on behalf of WWF. The resulting collection of images will be used to publicise the importance of the region, through means including an exhibition and a major book, The Coral Triangle.
www.juergenfreund.com | Follow Jürgen: @freundfactory
Erlend Haarberg (Norway)
Erlend Haarberg lives in central Norway and has been a professional nature photographer since the early 1990s. Besides winning numerous prizes in major international nature-photography contests, including Wildlife Photographer of the Year, European Wildlife Photographer of the Year and Nature’s Best photographic awards, he was nominated Nature Photographer of the Year in Norway six times between 1986 and 2000.
Erlend focuses mainly on birds and mammals, and his images can be found in dozens of books in Norway. He regularly writes articles for magazines in Scandinavia, and his images have been published in National Geographic, BBC Wildlife and Terre Sauvage.
Together with his wife Orsolya Haarberg, he has undertaken two major projects in the past five years, in Lapland and Iceland. The first resulted in the book Lapland, the Alaska of Europe, published in English and Hungarian, and in German by National Geographic Germany. Their book about Iceland will be published in October 2011 in English and Hungarian.
Erlend is a Wild Wonders of Europe photographer (www.wild-wonders.com) and a member of the Society of Norwegian Nature Photographers.
He was the runner-up in the 2011 Animals in Their Environment category of the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, as well as being a prize-winner in past years.
Paul Hassell (USA)
Paul Hassell describes himself as being in the light business rather than strictly a photographer. Passionate about mountains, he is based in Tennessee near the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.
He graduated with a degree in ‘freelance photography and writing for the natural environment’, and is a member of several professional photography groups, including the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA). But while one month might see him ice-climbing on Grand Teton, another could see him shooting a humanitarian project in Ethiopia or leading a photo trek to Patagonia.
If you follow his Blog or follow him on Facebook, he’ll take you around the world, from South Africa to Laos to California to Alaska to Chile. Paul is co-author of Pilgrim Walk in the Woods.
www.sharingtheexperience.blogspot.com | Follow Paul: @HassellPhoto
Bence Máté (Hungary)
Bence Máté was the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2010. He was brought up in Pusztaszer, Hungary – one of the most significant migratory and nesting areas in Europe – and has been passionate about nature since a young age.
For much of the past year, Bence has been living in Costa Rica and Brazil, making use of his own brand of bird-photography hides. He built his first hide when 14, taking pictures with a borrowed camera and then saving enough money from rabbit-breeding to buy his own equipment.
At 17, Bence won the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year Award. At 19, he won the Eric Hosking Award in the competition, and since then he has won the same award four more times, the last time in 2011. He has twice been made the Hungarian Nature Photographer of the Year.
Kathy Moran (USA)
Kathy Moran is National Geographic magazine’s Senior Editor for Natural History Projects. A 30-year veteran of the National Geographic Society, Kathy has been producing projects about terrestrial and underwater ecosystems for the magazine since 1990. At the last count, she has produced more than 160 stories for the magazine.
She is a founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) and serves on its board and membership committee. Kathy is always on the lookout for new contributors for National Geographic’s natural history inventory.
Andrew Parkinson (UK)
Andrew Parkinson is a former press photographer with a passion for wildlife. He gave up his job to become a full-time nature photographer, specialising in British subjects. He sells mainly to magazines, including BBC Wildlife and National Geographic Traveller, but also to newspapers, including The New York Times, The Guardian and The Daily Telegraph.
Andy’s pictures have won a clutch of prizes in the past few years, in competitions including Wildlife Photographer of the Year, the European Nature Photographer of the Year, Travel Photographer of the Year and the International Wildbird Photographer Awards.
Thomas P Peschak (Germany/South Africa)
Photojournalist, Thomas P Peschak, is a Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) and a contributing photographer for National Geographic Magazine.
He trained as a marine biologist but retired from science to focus on environmental photojournalism after realising that he could have a bigger impact with photographs than statistics. He believes that photographs are one of the most effective weapons in conservation, and he spends 300 days a year in the field on assignments around the world.
Current projects include stories on Arabian seas, the shark-fin trade, Canada’s Great Bear Rainforest and Africa’s marine reserves. To date, he has photographed and written four books, and his fifth, Sharks and People, is due for publication in 2012. He is a multiple winner in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, including this year, when he also received a World Press Photo Award
Mateusz Piesiak (Poland)
Mateusz Piesiak is the Veolia Environnement Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011.
He took his first pictures, of lapwings, when he was six years old and on holiday with his great-grandmother. Since then, bird photography has been his passion. ‘It allows me get away from the city,’ he says, ‘away from everyday life, and provides me with many unforgettable memories.’ When taking photographs, he rises before sunrise, either goes to a hide or puts on camouflage gear so he can stalk the birds. He credits Polish ornithologist Tadeusz Drazny for inspiring him and teaching him how to identify birds and their songs. Mateusz took his award-winning picture when aged 14. ‘Wildlife photography is difficult,’ he says, ‘but it gives me a lot of satisfaction.’
Benjam Pöntinen (Finland)
Benjam Pöntinen is a professional nature photographer and publisher. He specialises in photographing nature in his home region – southern Ostrobotnia, in western Finland – and his work is featured in 20 books, including two on flying squirrels, one of his favourite species. He is an award-winning photographer in Finland and is the winner of this year’s Animals in Their Environment category of the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, as well as being a prize-winner in past years.
Michel Roggo (Switzerland)
Michel Roggo specialises in photography of freshwater landscapes, animals and plants, and takes most of his pictures under the water, using specialist equipment developed by himself.
Thirty years ago, he gave up his job as a science teacher to try to earn a living as a nature photographer. Since then, he has travelled the world photographing freshwater habitats, but his favourite locations remain European. He has had many exhibitions of his work, and some of his photographs are now in permanent installations in Switzerland.
A prize-winner in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year and European Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitions, Michel’s work has been published by magazines worldwide, including GEO, BBC Wildlife, Naturfoto, Natura and Science. He was a Wild Wonders of Europe photographer.
Andy Rouse (UK)
Andy Rouse is one of the most well-known British wildlife photographers, with 15 books to his name and regular contributions of photographs and photographic advice to newspapers and magazines, including a monthly column for Amateur Photographer.
For seven years in a row, he has been commended and won prizes in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition – including the 2010 Gerald Durrell Award for Endangered Species.
He has also won awards in international competitions and has had his work exhibited internationally. Andy was presenter of a 13-part series on wildlife photography for Channel 5 and Animal Planet, and regularly presents, lectures and leads tours and courses.
Andy has used his last two books, on tigers and mountain gorillas, to raise money for conservation.
www.andyrouse.co.uk | Follow Andy: @wildmanrouse
Cyril Ruoso (France)
Cyril Ruoso is a nature photographer who has for many years specialised in the photography of the world’s primates, travelling to most regions where wild populations still exist.
He has also worked with the Forest Trust to document the lives of the Baka people of Cameroon. In partnership with the writer Emmanuelle Grundmann, he has published a number of books on primates and their behaviour, and conservation. He has also worked with the Forest Trust to document the lives of the Baka people of Cameroon.
A regular prize-winner in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, Cyril’s work has been widely published, in magazines including Terre Sauvage, Paris Match, Figaro Magazine, National Geographic, BBC Wildlife and Life. Though he mainly works in tropical environments, Cyril also photographs wildlife close to home, specialising in pictures that place the subjects within their environment
Paul Souders (USA)
In the course of more than 20 years working as a travel and wildlife photographer, Paul has been slapped by penguins, head-butted by a walruses, terrorised by lions and menaced by vertebrates large and small. He once spent 27 memorable hours in Kenya digging his safari truck out of the mud using only a saucepan. He still thinks he has the best job in the world. His photographs are represented by Corbis and Getty Images. He has been published around the world in everything from a Mexican condom ad to the pages of National Geographic. He is both the winner and the runner-up of the Underwater World category of the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2011 competition.
Sophie Stafford (UK)
Sophie Stafford has been the Editor of BBC Wildlife magazine for seven years. She has also been a judge on the magazine’s prestigious Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition, which is co-owned with the Natural History Museum, London. She is an affiliate of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) and, this year, was on the nature jury of the World Press Photo awards in Amsterdam. Every month, she works closely with photographers from around the world to develop stories for the magazine.
Zoe Whishaw (UK)
Zoe Whishaw is a commercial-photography consultant providing creative direction, strategic advice and mentoring services for photographers, photo agencies and businesses. As a seasoned editor and art director, she has had many years of experience analysing and critiquing ideas and photography intended for commercial use across a broad spectrum of subjects.
Zoe’s previous role was European Director of Photography at Getty Images, where she worked for 17 years. She currently holds the position of Creative Director at Image Source. As a passionate believer in photography’s power to communicate at all levels, Zoe transmits her enthusiasm and excitement by speaking widely at workshops and conferences (including guest speaker at CEPIC 2010, Magnum Professional Practice 2010-11 and World Photography Organisation Photography Festival 2011) and through one-to-one mentoring.
She has judged international photography competitions, including Wildlife Photographer of the Year, STA Travel Photo Competition, the Association of Photographers Open Awards and the 2011 annual Association of Photographers Awards.
Sven Začek (Estonia)
Sven Začek is Estonia’s leading nature photographer.
Editor-in-chief and founder of the nature-photography magazine LoFo, he was also the founder of the national nature-photography website.
He is passionate about wetlands and wetland conservation and has produced three books featuring the landscapes and wildlife of Estonia. Sven was a Wild Wonders of Europe photographer and has been widely published in Europe.
