As a conservation photographer and storyteller, Sony Artisan Paul Nicklen travels the world. But when he comes home, it always blows his mind at how special it is in his own backyard. In this video, Nicklen takes us behind his creative process and the lenses he relies on to tell the stories he’s most passionate about. To learn more, visit: https://alphauniverse.com/
For the first and only time in his illustrious career. conservationist, wildlife and art photographer Paul Nicklen shares all he has learned in a career spanning over 20 years. An assignment photographer for National Geographic magazine and Sony Artisan of Imagery, Paul will teach you how to create sensitive, evocative and impactful images that can help change the world for the better. Get access to this unique Masterclass and learn the photography techniques, ethos and psychology that has garnered Paul over 30 of the highest awards given to any photographer in his field: https://mastersof.photography/paul-ni...
I got into photography because I was a biologist.
My role as a scientist I felt ineffective and I thought if I could just translate the work
to a global audience using storytelling and photography then I knew I had a purpose.
As a conservation photographer and storyteller I travel the world
but it always blows my mind when I come home to realize how truly special my backyard is.
Tofino is special to me because it is the perfect cross-section of the British Columbia
coastal ecosystem where the mountains are thousands of feet tall and the ocean is 7,000 feet deep
and everything in between that is connected. I see so much beauty in nature that at some point
I lose my perspective of what's amazing and what isn't and to come back it really allows me to
slow down, press pause and to not take nature for granted. The day nature becomes predictable
is the day I'm going to sell all my gear. My creative process is first of all I need to
find a story that I'm passionate about. The next step is what glass I'm going to make those images
with. I have my ultra wide 12 to 24 millimeter. I love that lens underwater. I love it for
landscapes and then from there I have a couple of really beautiful sharp primes.
The 24 millimeter, the 35, 1.4 and at the top I have the 600 millimeter G Master which is
incredibly sharp. You would never in the past ever even consider holding a 600 millimeter lens but
they've become so light and the body's light. It's the perfect lens for this. Just landed on the beach
we don't see any sign of wolves yet. We're just going to go back on the edge of the bush line
here and we're just going to set up and sit and wait. That's all we can do. I have two things that
get me out of bed in the morning. The fact knowing that our planet is ailing and then knowing that I
can be value-added to the conservation movement with my camera. And now every time I come home
rather than just sit at home on my deck drinking beer I'm coming back to the places where I
photograph my assignments for National Geographic and you just start to see it through these more
mature, more relaxed, more wise, more at peace eyes. I look at my life now as a photographer
and I couldn't be any more privileged. I wake up and I put on the sharpest glass in the world
on the most advanced bodies but it always hasn't been that way. And I tell photographers just get
whatever glass you can. Imagine if you bought one or two wide angle lenses like a 12 to 24 or a 24
to 70 and the work you could do in your community or in your backyard you can go change the world.
When I'm on my deathbed and I'm closing my eyes for the last time
I'm not going to be looking at covers of magazines on walls or checking my bank account.
I'm going to have my head filled with the most incredible memories of the things
I've experienced in nature.
I'll be a photographer until the day I die because it's how I express myself,
it's how I communicate, it's how I share the things I love with the rest of the world.
