CHAPTER ONE C A lioness is very protective of her cubs Getting a great photo of them is not easy A wildlife photographer is on assignment Her job is to photograph lion cubs in their natural surroundings But taking pictures of lion cubs can be dangerous Their mother a lioness is very protective She does not want 4 21st CENTURY SKILLS LIBRARY
her cubs to be threatened by outsiders The photographer must be very careful After finding the lioness and her cubs the photographer decides that the best way to get the picture is from behind a nearby tree She has her equipment ready in a backpack As quietly as possible she positions herself behind the tree She gets her camera ready as the lioness and her cubs come into view The lioness flops down on her side Her cubs tumble over her and begin to drink her milk The photographer aims the camera She adjusts the light and focus Click The photographer gets one perfect shot a lioness tenderly licking her cubs Wildlife photography is about more than just fancy cameras and equipment It is about developing a good photographic eye Many people over the years have come up with innovative techniques and equipment for taking wildlife pictures COOL CAREERS WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER 5
The first wildlife photographers did not have the equipment to take good action shots of animals In 1839 England’s Sir John Frederick Herschel first used the word photography The word comes from the Greek words for light fotizo and writing grafi When photography became popular photographers wanted to take pictures of wild animals in their natural environments This was not an easy process Cameras in 6 21st CENTURY SKILLS LIBRARY
the mid-1800s required that subjects sit perfectly still This was difficult especially for unpredictable wild animals Early cameras had limited lenses so photographers had to be close to their subject Lighting was not easy to control These conditions made early attempts at wildlife photography very hard In 1887 brothers Cherry and Richard Kearton of Great Britain headed into the wild They were armed with a cheap secondhand camera They wanted to photograph wildlife for a new book Over the years Richard wrote the text and Cherry took the photographs for many nature books ife Career Skills In the United States one of the earliest nature photographers was William Henry Jackson 1843 1942 When he first became a photographer Jackson took portraits in a small studio in Omaha Nebraska This was a short-lived career He found he preferred to take photos of nature and he worked hard to develop his skills In 1870 Jackson headed into the wilderness of Wyoming He took photographs of the Green River and Yellowstone Lake His self-direction and persistence helped him become a great photographer His photographs helped convince Congress to declare Yellowstone the first national park in March 1872 COOL CAREERS WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER 7
