Nathaniel Smalley as featured on PBS Arizona for their special, Bird Watching Across Arizona. My sincere thanks to Ben Avechuco of Arizona Game & Fish for inviting me to be featured on their Emmy winning program, truly a great honor. Aired March 3rd, 2020. Continue reading to see the the video.
Photographers spend endless hours in pursuit of the soft light of sunrise and sunset. Sleep is often sacrificed in order to capture these warm golden rays as they bathe the landscape with their light. The light from these times of day are so highly sought after that the term ‘The Golden Hour’ has been coined to describe it. Capturing the landscape during the golden hour will typically produce stunning results, but it can be equally effective in creating dramatic wildlife photography.
To the untrained eye this image simply appears to be a small Norwegian fishing village with a dramatic winter backdrop. However, for those that have photographed high above the Arctic Circle in the season of winter, this image represents endless hours of work. It is photographs like this one that you take home as a badge of honor, a testament to your dedication. In this region one often spends hours shooting through the harshest conditions, pursuing momentary glimpses of sunlight that break through the clouds and make absolute magic.
I’ve just completed back-to-back tours in Costa Rica and Norway to kick off what will be a very busy 2022. The sheer number of images I expect to take this season will be staggering. I could easily end the year with over 100,000 photos to sort through. Despite the crazy number of files, there are always some that stand out in your mind at the conclusion of a tour which get edited first. This is one of those images.
When you mention Costa Rica people often envision a tropical isle in the Caribbean, decorated with colorful birds, white sand beaches and rich rainforests. Though most all of that is true, one point is decidedly false. There are a few common misconceptions about this popular photographic destination and being an island is right at the top of the list. It doesn’t help that the name of Costa Rica’s capital city, San Jose, is easily (and often) confused with the capital city of Puerto Rico, which is San Juan. Costa Rica is not an island, though in some ways Costa Rica does have an island like feel to it. One can easily enjoy a quiet morning along the Caribbean coast, followed by a breathtaking drive through the cloud forests and mountains, and still arrive at the Pacific coast in time for a sundowner overlooking the ocean.
The formative years of my life were spent along Maine’s scenic coastline, just outside the state’s biggest city of Portland. Unlike most of the kids I knew, I didn’t watch TV. My days were spent outside. The greatness of summer wasn’t measured by how many times you visited the amusement park, but by how many hours outdoors you were able to cram into each day. By the time I reached second grade I was an aspiring naturalist. In the third grade my parents elected to begin educating me with a curriculum at home. This change allowed me to embrace my love of nature at a young age without the criticism I might have otherwise experienced from my peers. Such treatment could easily dissuaded me from my new found love. My parents decision was perhaps one of the greatest contributing factors influencing my young life, and helped form the person I am today. As a result of this change I had a lot more free time in my schedule. I capitalized on it by satiating my curiosity of the natural world. Some of my happiest memories involve the endless hours spent outside exploring during those years. I was keenly attuned to the native habitat and wildlife that made their home around me. I knew the identifiers that marked when the seasons would change and welcomed them with joy. This kind of knowledge is priceless. It cannot be read from a book or purchased, but must be acquired out of love for a particular region or subject. It’s the reward for a personal investment of time. I like to call this artistic intimacy.
“Leukemia,” my doctor answered when I asked him to clarify specifically what he meant by eliminating anything ‘really scary’ from the possible cause of my symptoms. His words were followed by stunned silence as my wife Elizabeth and I tried to process the weight of that word. Leukemia is perhaps the most dreaded of all cancers. For those who have been diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia the survival rate after five years is a mere 26%. Earlier in March of 2018 I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease, a non-contagious, auto immune disease that attacks the digestive system. I’d also lost over 35 pounds in the past year without really trying. During the following weeks my blood labs showed my hemoglobin was below normal and that my blood platelet counts were dangerously low, and dropping steadily. Healthy platelet levels range between 150,000 – 400,000 per microliter, mine were at 32,000. Platelets are responsible for clotting your blood, so low levels make even a small cut a serious situation as significant blood loss can occur. In mid-May my hematologist recommended I take a high dose of steroids over four days in hopes of boosting my platelets into a normal range. The following week we met to discuss the results. They were far from what we’d hoped, my platelet levels had only increased to 48,000. It was on this day that my hematologist indicated the urgent need to eliminate Leukemia as the cause of my symptoms. I was scheduled for an emergency bone marrow biopsy two days later on May 24th.
Lake Clark National Park and Preserve protects more than 4 million acres of diverse habitats ranging in elevation from sea level to over 10,000 feet. The first record of the native people building permanent settlements on the shores of Lake Clark are estimated to have arrived around 1000AD. Known as Dena’ina Athabascans, these people came to this land for the fishing opportunities. Lake Clark (known to the Dena’ina as Qizhjeh Vena – or ‘The lake where people gathered ‘) was named after John W. Clark of Nushagak, Alaska in 1891. Long before the Dena’ina came to this place or John W. Clark discovered it, this region belonged to the bears. The Dena’ina word for Bear is Ggagga… Welcome to the Land of the Ggagga!
The American Southwest, a land of raw elements and rugged terrain, a place where only the hardiest wildlife and plants survive. This corner of the world has captivated the imaginations of people for centuries. Once known as the great frontier, it drew settlers them from all corners of the world seeking to make it their home. Today we read in history books about ‘How the West was won’, but my recent travels throughout Arizona and Utah would indicate that the wild west is anything but tamed. While crowds of tourists surely pour down its main highways in the summer months, just over the distant hills remains a land of unexplored beauty and silence. There the sun rises and sets over a stunning landscape, painting shadows in the corners that act as a supporting cast to the elaborate sandstone formations.
