Murderers in the Marshlands

Young and enchanted, I spent my childhood glued to the television whenever I could find nature documentaries. Options were limited: most of the shows aired on PBS (known in the New York City area as “channel thirteen”), and new content arrived in a slow trickle. My favorite episodes featured predators like sharks, African cats, reptiles, and wolves. One memorable program was dedicated to carnivorous plants, with close-up footage of hapless insects becoming prey items to these beautiful deadly species. I knew plants could be harmful in a defensive posture —  poisonous berries, rash-inducing leaves, or painful thorns — but never before had I seen plants as predators. 

The world-famous Venus Flytrap is endemic to the wetlands of the Carolinas.

Since those formative days I’ve had the opportunity to photograph many of the spectacular animal species that I first saw on TV, and more recently, I fulfilled a long-planned photoshoot of those famous carnivorous plants that I first witnessed on the small screen. In my imagination the Venus Flytrap was an exotic specimen living in a faraway jungle but it turns out this world-famous bug eater makes its home in the wetlands of the Carolinas. As I researched other species, I was astonished by the number of carnivorous plants native to the United States, including quite a few along the east coast. Some pitcher plants live in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, Cobra Lillies grow in the Northern California meadows, and sundews are found in almost every state. 

Biologically it makes sense: all of these plants live in nutrient-poor environments: bogs, wet savannah, marshy thickets; and therefore developed an adaptation to extract nutrients from prey items, primarily insects and arachnids. Many carnivorous plants have developed brilliant colorations and interesting fragrances to lure prey to their fatal traps.

Cobra lillies, pitcher plants named for their resemblance to a rearing cobra

The Southern Thread-leaved Sundew, possibly my favorite carnivorous plant

As I planned my photoshoot, I quickly learned the biggest logistical obstacle is how widespread the different species are geographically, often in inaccessible environments (think about the challenges of hiking into marshy wetlands). A better alternative, I decided, would be to visit an independent garden or nursery that specializes in carnivorous plants. It’s not my preferred approach to take photographs in controlled environments, and while I won’t pursue portfolio shots of animals in a zoo, I don’t believe the same ethical concerns exist with photographing plants in a nursery or a botanical garden. So in June I arranged a visit to the Carnivorous Plant Nursery in Maryland. 

Carnivorous plants are relatively small. The Venus Flytrap — imposing on the television screen, and larger than life in Little Shop of Horrors — presents like a tiny succulent with traps usually not more than an inch long. After all, they are (as the name suggests) trapping flies and other insects of similar size. No surprise then, that this photoshoot would more closely resemble a visit to a butterfly house than a botanical garden, and my primary camera setup would attach a macro lens and flash. When shooting with artificial light, its very important to control the intensity of the flash with a diffuser. There are many varieties available for different budgets as well as home-made options. If you are a serious macro photographer, I’d recommend the AK diffuser. 

Although it looks like this fly is about to become dinner, it has already been consumed… the digestive enzymes dissolve the soft parts of the prey and leave behind the exoskeleton 

Generally carnivorous plants fall into four different categories:

Most pitcher plants of the Nepenthes genus are old-world tropical varieties

1) Venus Flytraps are a single species with multiple variants and hybrids. Flytraps ensnare prey items in their collapsible leaf ends using sophisticated triggers to trip the jaw-like traps. 

2) Pitcher plants of both tropical and temperate varieties drown their prey in deep vertical reservoirs. Downward-facing slippery hairs along the sides of the traps make it almost impossible for victims to climb out and escape. Cobra Lillies also trap their victims inside long vertical tubes. Their translucent bulbs fool trapped insects with the illusion of false exits, while the real escape route remains hidden. 

3) Sundews are living glue traps. Tiny sticky droplets not only reflect light with dazzling effects, they grip the unsuspecting insects that land on them. 

4) Bladderworts hold their traps underwater on the surface of ponds and marshes, using a high pressure mechanism to suck in tiny organisms that brush against the trigger hairs. 

Sundews are living glue traps. The come in a variety of spectacular colors.

Most of these images were created by shooting multiple exposures in rapid succession and compiling the result using software. Close-up photography is necessarily limited by very shallow depth of field (in other words, only a narrow portion of the image is in focus.)

Venus Flytrap — Akai Ryu variant, aka "Red Dragon". See the behind the scenes image below.

You can witness this effect by holding a spoon very close to your face and focusing your eyes on it — notice how everything other than the spoon becomes very blurry. To expand the area that is in focus, the camera moves the focal point gradually with each exposure and the raw images are then “stacked” in post-production. The result achieves a far greater in-focus area than any single exposure. In some instances a few dozen exposures might be required to produce a satisfactory outcome, but in this set the final images are stacks of about 10 to 20 raw exposures. 

North American pitcher plants belong to the genus Sarracenia

Photographing the Venus Flytrap — Akai Ryu variant, aka "Red Dragon". The large black cone on my camera rig is a flash diffuser to soften each burst of artificial light.

If you’re interested in nature macro photography, I highly recommend starting out with small plants rather than live insects or small animals. Absent a breeze, plants keep still and are much more cooperative subjects. Houseplants allow you to shoot without leaving home. Christmas trees and their ornaments make great practice subjects, especially when there is less opportunity to shoot outside. And of course, botanical gardens, arboretums, and nurseries are wonderful places to create beautiful images of plants — carnivorous or otherwise :)

Return to Little Cayman

I recently returned to Little Cayman on a trip with my home-base dive shop, Atlantis Aquatics. Little Cayman is one of my favorite dive destinations and truly is a showcase of the Caribbean’s greatest hits: sea turtles, groupers, stingrays, nurse sharks, and reef sharks are common sightings, as are smaller critters like spotted drums, sea slugs, “disco” fish, and cleaner shrimp. 

Most people who visit the Cayman Islands stay in Grand Cayman, the largest and most commercialized of the three islands. Just eighty miles east of Grand are the sleepier sister islands of Little Cayman, and 15 miles further, Cayman Brac. They are remote and undeveloped: no corporate hotel chains, Starbucks, or movie theaters here. These destinations are for people who want to scuba dive, fish, or just disconnect. 

Flying to Little Cayman reminds me of travel in the Alaskan bush or the Costa Rican rainforest - small props landing on remote airstrips

Visitors arrive in Little Cayman on a deHavilland Twin Otter— a dual-engine, 18-seat, propeller plane — that departs Grand Cayman and lands thirty minutes later on a tiny airstrip nestled between mangroves and natural coastline. One narrow ring road traces the circumference of the island — you could drive it potentially without seeing any other vehicle traffic. 

For this trip I opted to keep the photography kit relatively simple with a one lens wide-angle setup only: my Canon EF 16-35mm F/4L IS lens on a Canon R5 body. I took it underwater in a Nauticam housing with two Sea & Sea strobes. (All of my gear, incidentally, is purchased at Backscatter — and they have presence teaching underwater photography courses at the dive resort where I stayed on Little Cayman.) Although there is plenty of macro life to see in Little Cayman, I find that diving with a group of divers following a dive guide means we don’t spend much time in any given spot, which makes macro photography difficult. Going with a group of other photographers (or diving with only your buddy) is a much better arrangement for macro photography. (Want to learn more about wide-angle vs. macro photography? Check out this video)

One of my goals on this trip was to seek strong subject separation. I have many photos of turtles and barracuda blending into the reef, so on this trip I was hoping to make them “pop” more distinctly in my images. Too often turtles photographed against a reef are overtaken by the busy background, almost camouflaged into the complex array of corals.

A hawksbill turtle flies over the reef. I like this image because there is subject separation so the turtle really stands out. It also clearly shows action and movement. 

A great barracuda displays its menacing teeth. Once again, there is good subject separation so it does not blend into the reef. This was shot on the edge of one the of many coral fingers 

To achieve subject separation on the reef, the photographer must be lower than the subject and must approach at an upward angle — not easy to do without trampling on the fragile corals, which is of course absolutely forbidden. The trick to this type of shot is to look for subjects near the edge of a slope, coral head, or wall where you can easily dive lower than your subject without touching the reef. 

Another goal was to visit a well-known shipwreck in Cayman Brac. On my last visit to Little Cayman this wasn’t an option, so I was excited when the captain proposed a trip (weather permitting) out to the Brac to dive this wreck. Transit time was about 50 minutes in moderately choppy seas, but the bouncy ride was well worth it. The M/V Keith Tibbets, formerly a Soviet destroyer built for Cuba, rests in clear water on beautiful reflective sand. The shipwreck is extremely photogenic, with its forward turrets clearly visible. It is about 90 feet down to the sand, but divers who don’t want to go deep can explore the shallower starboard side at about 60 feet.  

The M/V Keith Tibbets, formerly a Soviet destroyer built for Cuba, was a highlight of this dive trip

One topic of debate in diving is whether it is permissible to kneel in the sand. Some dive operators allow it as long as it is done with care; others do not permit it and ask divers to remain buoyant above the bottom. On this trip we were asked not to kneel on the bottom so stingray shots were a bit more challenging, but not prohibitively so.

This was my favorite stingray encounter. It’s fairly common to see rays gliding across the sand, or buried on the bottom, I caught this ray in the process of swirling up the sand and digging itself in. 

We had several stingray encounters, and it is remarkable that each ray had its own personality. One was feisty and irritated, more so by the bar jack that was tracing its every movement than any encounters with us. Another was skittish and seemed to take off whenever we got too close. And then there were two others who were very tolerant of our presence, posing in the sand unencumbered even as a group of three of us approached with our cameras. It truly is a pleasure when a subject is cooperative, and it’s no surprise that the best images are achieved when the animal is calm and unbothered by our interactions. 

“Schoolmasters’ Tower” is my favorite image from this trip. Here schoolmaster snapper (Lutjanus apodus) rest in the lee of a coral head. If you look closely you can spot a Bermuda Chub and a squirrelfish tucked in among the snapper.

This is really a snapshot split, meant to document the experience of getting back on the boat. Divers are privileged to see a completely different world underneath the surface

With the exception of south Florida, I rarely revisit dive locations within 5 years — there’s always somewhere new or different to explore before recycling old favorites. Little Cayman is an exception, and will continue to be owing to its reliability as an outstanding Caribbean dive destination. See you again soon!

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If you are interested in learning about underwater photography, or experiencing some close-up behind-the-scenes encounters with sharks, dolphins, crocodiles, check out my YouTube channel.

Galápagos Recap

Six years in the making (and postponed by a global pandemic), my trip to the world famous Galápagos Islands finally arrived in 2023. Galápagos is a rare opportunity for a variety of underwater and topside wildlife photography, including endemic species and uniquely famous animals. For underwater photography I shot entirely with a Canon R5 mirrorless body with the EF 16-35mm F/4L IS wide angle lens. The EF F/4L IS is an outstanding lens, even nearly 10 years after its introduction: tack sharpness, minimal distortion, and beautiful detail. A Nauticam housing and two Sea & Sea strobes complete the underwater rig. Topside photography included birds, reptiles, and pinnipeds, so I needed a versatile telephoto lens: the EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6L IS II, which remains my favorite telephoto zoom lens. Though not the fastest performing glass, it is exquisitely sharp throughout its focal range and is a great hand-held lens for general daytime wildlife photography.

Wolf and Darwin Islands (blue circle) are the primary dive locations and even more remote than the rest of the Galápagos Islands. The main airport is centrally located but still a 16-hour boat ride from the dive sites.

The journey begins with a redeye from New York to Ecuador’s high-elevation capital, Quito, with a connection to Avianca’s flight to Baltra Island, 600 miles off the coast of the mainland. In Baltra I jump on a small inflatable tender (aka “panga” in Latin America) that brings me to the Humboldt Explorer, the live-aboard dive yacht that will become home for the next week. 

One of the unique features of Galápagos is its remoteness and difficulty to visit. Wolf and Darwin Islands, where we will do most of our diving, are uninhabited (by people), undeveloped and significantly distant from our arrival port in Baltra: a sixteen-hour overnight crossing reveals the first glimpse of Wolf on the morning horizon. A towering bluff overlooking the mighty Pacific, Wolf Island truly is a wild place where nature is free and the ocean is powerful. 

The Galápagos Shark is a large requiem shark that looks similar to other members of this family: it skews larger than reef sharks and has a leaner build than bull sharks. Despite its name the shark is found in many parts of the world, typically off tropical oceanic islands.

Pelagic diving is not for beginners. Unlike tropical reef diving, open ocean diving is more intense and demands a higher task load, especially when diving with a large camera. Conditions are dynamic and things can escalate quickly. All of our dives require transferring from the mother ship to the panga, which whisks us away in choppy seas toward the drop-off point. At the dive guide’s instruction (“on the count of three”), all divers back-roll into the water (i.e. fall backward off the side of the inflatable). It’s critically important to time this correctly so that all divers splash into the water at the same time, otherwise we could land on top of each other with heavy aluminum air tanks. Once in the water, the currents begin to pull, so we descend quickly and land together as a group at the dive site, usually a rocky outcrop about 70-80 feet deep. Again, time is of the essence, and we don’t have the luxury to drop slowly or to explore as we would on a calm tropical reef. We must get to the meeting point with the group, otherwise the current could pull us away.*

The blue-footed booby, one of Galápagos’s famous sea birds

With brisk currents and strong surge, the cloudy, nutrient-rich water is thick and heavy. Distant hammerheads patrol the deep open blue. Like many sharks they know how to remain just on the edge of visibility, at times making you question whether what you saw was an illusion. I can hear the squeaky chatter of dolphins communicating. They will make several appearances but move too quickly for a good photo. Schools of fish dance in the current. Behind me a large Galápagos shark has made a close pass near the ledge. 

My favorite encounter, and ultimately my one portfolio shot from this trip, is quite unexpected. As we conclude a dive near Wolf Island we encounter playful sea lions in the shallows. We quickly shed our dive gear and grab our snorkels for a closer look at these majestic pinnipeds. And how lucky we are! In what seems like a ballet performed exclusively for us, the sea lions put on an amazing display of agility and grace: bobbing, gliding, and spinning. I notice a sea lion swimming toward me so I remain motionless and prepare to fire off a few shots — in a split second the sea lion flips over and exhales a burst of bubbles, then cuts left and down into the deep. 

Although the philosophy in Galápagos is that you “never know what you will see”, on these dives we engage our peripheral vision, looking for that unmistakeable giant shadow to emerge from the darkness. We are planted on the rocky outcrop, observing the sea life in the current almost to the point of boredom. Then, with a shaking rattle, the dive guide musters the group and directs us into the open blue. The group does not see it yet, but we know from the guide’s excitement that this is something big. And then it appears, first as a lumbering blot of distant ink, moving darkness, eventually coming into spectacular view.

Perhaps the most unforgettable part of encountering a whale shark is feeling the volume of water that is displaced as the school-bus-sized fish swims past you

The author meeting a very large whale shark

I am very fortunate to have seen whale sharks several times in three different oceans, and it is not lost on me that many divers will spend a lifetime seeking these elusive giants. This whale shark is enormous (possibly pregnant), and with effortless sweeping of her caudal fin, it is almost impossible to keep up with her.

In addition to multiple dives in Wolf and Darwin Islands, we spent two afternoons observing wildlife on land: on North Seymour and Santa Cruz Islands. North Seymour was extremely productive, including encounters with the famous blue-footed boobies, frigates, as well as the Galápagos land iguana. Later as we hiked toward a field of boulders on the shoreline, we observed sea lions (mother and pup) and the Galapagos marine iguana. On Santa Cruz, we capped off the trip with an expedition up to the lush highlands to meet perhaps the islands’ most famous ambassador: the giant tortoise. On all the land tours my 100-400mm telephoto was perfect for close-up detail shots and the variable microclimates meant I didn’t have to wait long for favorable light conditions. 

For wildlife enthusiasts and avid divers, Galápagos is among the ultimate destinations. I hesitate to say once-in-a-lifetime because I hope to return… 

The real inspiration for Godzilla. Despite its fearsome appearance, the Galápagos marine iguana is a shy herbivore. 

No trip to Galápagos is complete without seeing its most famous ambassador: the giant tortoise

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*Some ask: what would happen if someone missed the dive meeting point and drifted in the current? Hopefully there would be more than one person, as you should always stick with your dive buddy. Whether in a group or alone, if someone was adrift, the proper thing to do would be to ascend slowly and send up a surface marker buoy (essentially a long inflatable brightly colored tube about 6 feet tall — I have one as part of my standard gear for every ocean dive). The panga driver would be in the area would likely see the marker to come pick up the lost diver. We also had other protocols in case of emergency including a GPS beacon locator. Thankfully no one separated from the group. 

Crocodile Photo Expedition

The latest video and second in the Extreme Snorkel Series is live on YouTube. Our first extreme snorkel adventure was a spirited swim with Atlantic spotted dolphins, but this time we turn up the heat and get into the water with the American Crocodile! We’ll travel to a remote atoll off the Yucatan peninsula and spend three days living in a stilt house with no electricity or running water. Dozens of hungry crocs live in the surrounding mangroves and we’ll get within inches of those famous teeth. Join me in this thrilling adventure, and don’t tell your insurance broker! Click the image below or go directly from here.

At least one of us was smiling

Photo Wonders

Here’s a recent write-up I contributed to Photo Wonders with some original photos of the world’s largest fish — the whale shark. Photo Wonders is an inspiring and informative website with a focus on travel photography including landscapes, cityscapes, culture, and wildlife. Professional photographers share valuable details about places to visit, when to go, gear and settings, and how to get the best images. Lots of great content there — check it out! [Update: as of Jan 2024, Photo Wonders is no longer an active web site]

This and many other articles are featured on Photo Wonders

Sneak Preview: Extreme Snorkel Series Vol II

The next video in the Extreme Snorkel Series is in production and I’m excited to share a sneak preview of the subject: we’ll get up close to photograph crocodiles in the wild. That’s right, we’ll travel to a remote lagoon off the Costa Maya in eastern Mexico to encounter the American crocodile (not to be confused with the American Alligator of the southern United States). This is no luxury safari with five star accommodations and comforts — we’ll be roughing it in a stilt house with no electricity, running water, or internet service; just raw nature and tropical beauty. Make sure you are subscribed to the BDPhotographs YouTube Channel so you don’t miss it!

COMING SOON!

Dolphin Photography

One of the common myths that I like to dispel in my role as a diving evangelist (yes, I preach to anyone who will listen, and many who won’t) is that there aren’t many opportunities for snorkelers to have amazing underwater encounters and photo opportunities. People typically limit their perception of snorkeling to a lazy glide over a tropical reef, but there’s so much more… In the first of the Extreme Snorkel Series, we travel to the Bahamas to share the ocean with the fast and playful Atlantic Spotted Dolphin. This is no gentle swim — the dolphins give us quite a workout as they interact with us and easily out-swim even the fittest of freedivers. Check out my tips and recommendations for dolphin photography in this episode.

And one more thing: although these awesome dolphin encounters are condensed into a fun 6-minute video, this was not an easy expedition. Photographing animals in the wild is nothing like going to an aquarium with guaranteed close-up sightings on demand. It took two visits to the Bahamas to obtain these images — the first time we got completely skunked due to high winds and choppy seas. I vowed to return a few months later and while we did get out to sea, one of the two days was nearly called off again due to winds. In any case, many photographers only showcase their successes, but behind every portfolio shot are numerous failures due to logistics, weather, bad lighting, or human error. No one likes going home empty handed with greater wisdom. We shouldn’t dwell on the negative, but we should acknowledge the difficulty, learn from mistakes, and savor the triumphs. So grab your sunscreen and let’s meet some wild dolphins!

Back In The Water ...

It’s been a year since I launched the BDPHOTOGRAPHS YouTube channel, with the goal of sharing the experience of photography, providing photo tips, and including filmmaking in my book of work. A year ago we kicked off with an adrenaline-packed shark photography adventure, and in this episode we return to the water to look at the fundamentals of underwater photography. We’ll meet giant mantas, big sharks, friendly turtles, and a variety of photogenic sea life. We’ll check out shallow sandbars, deep shipwrecks, and learn about the different gear needed to make it all happen — see below for some recommended items. Almost all of the footage is original and behind the scenes of real dive trips I have taken so I hope you’ll enjoy spending some time in the water with me. Once again, thanks for watching, and please subscribe! 

We go back into the water to photograph giant mantas, big sharks, friendly turtles, and haunting shipwrecks. In this video we'll learn the basics of underwat...

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Some links to underwater photo gear are below. It’s best to talk to a professional who has experience in the water with camera gear, not just a sales rep who knows the equipment.

Waterproof case for iPhone

ProShot Case for iPhone XR & iPhone 11 https://amzn.to/2KqEulz

ProShot Case for iPhone X & XS https://amzn.to/2VqRr57

ProShot Case for iPhone 8 Plus, 7 Plus, and 6 Plus https://amzn.to/2RWFLVM

Action Camera

Paralenz https://adorama.rfvk.net/odWjO

GoPro Hero 8 Black Edition https://adorama.rfvk.net/xdPA1

Compact Consumer Camera

SeaLife https://adorama.rfvk.net/OAJ6W

Pro Gear

Professional level gear is almost exclusively camera specific — housings are designed with controls aligned to the buttons and switches of individual camera models. Nauticam, Aquatica, Ikelite, and SeaCam are well-known manufacturers that offer custom underwater housings for popular DSLR and mirrorless cameras. They also offer strobes and related accessories. Once you invest in pro quality camera gear, I highly recommend insuring your gear — and make sure your policy includes an underwater rider; standard policies usually don’t cover taking your camera into the ocean!

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If you’re interested in photography and supporting small business, check out Adorama

Polar Bears!

They appear in Coca Cola ads every year as the holiday season approaches. They are a symbol of the arctic and a poster child for climate change campaigns. They are magnificent animals, formidable predators, and incredibly well-equipped to survive in the most unforgiving latitudes of the planet. Join me in this video blog to photograph the undisputed king of the north: the polar bear.

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Interested in starting a website or blog? How about a place to display your photos online? I use Squarespace as my platform. Get started for free — click the image below.

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If you’re interested in photography gear and supporting small business, check out Adorama

10 Reasons Why You Should Book an Ecotour

For many people an African safari is the ultimate ecotour. Not all safaris are the same so it’s important to do some research about the types of animal encounters you can expect in different places.

Ecotourism is a broad category of tourism that focuses on natural environments and typically supports conservation efforts. If you think that sounds fairly dull or too academic, think again. Often ecotours seek sightings of specific wildlife, and sometimes they require travel to the most remote places on the planet. Some may mean roughing it in the bush, while others pamper you with Michelin-starred cuisine and luxurious accommodations. Some ecotours are open to large groups — cruises to Antarctica, for example — while others are exclusive to just a few people. Ecotours can be inexpensive day trips or very pricey and lengthy excursions — or anything in between. Whether it’s an African safari or a visit to the polar regions, one thing is for sure: ecotours are some of the most thrilling and memorable trips you’ll ever take. Here are 10 reasons to book one:

1) Animals roam free. It’s the opposite of visiting a zoo: you get to go in a secure place while observing animals in their natural habitat. On most African safaris, a few guests will be driven in open vehicles to different locations where animals could be. A tracker and ranger work together to locate the animals — they could be in many different places at any time — and part of the fun is finding them. Other ecotours may have you enter a “blind” which is a shed or similar structure that has been built into the natural environment to allow observation with minimal disturbance to the animals. Underwater dive trips typically put divers or snorkelers in open water with wildlife, or in some instances in a cage to safely observe sharks. On many trips, proximity to the animals is astonishingly close and photo opportunities are plentiful.

2) Avoid the crowds and selfie sticks. If you’ve been to Paris or New York in the last ten years you know there’s almost no such thing as low season. Tourists are everywhere, museum queues are endless, attractions are over-crowded, and Instagram is saturated with the same selfie a million times over. Ecotourism usually limits the human impact on a place by restricting the number of people who can visit. Sometimes this is achieved by a lottery, by limited spots, or by prohibitive cost.  

For scuba divers ecotours are the most common type of trip. There are many options: day trips, week-long dive packages at resorts, and live-aboard boats (which are essentially dive cruises). Live-aboards have the advantage of being able to reach remote dive destinations.

3) It helps to keep animals alive. There’s a controversial cliche in the economics of ecotourism: “if it pays it stays” — the concept that wildlife is worth more alive than dead, and used to promote tourism over hunting or exploitation of animals. This has worked wonders in parts of the developing world where communities have shifted from an unsustainable extraction economy to a renewable one based on ecotourism (e.g. manta ray tourism in parts of southeast Asia). The problem with this of course, is that while many people will pay high sums to see “popular” animals such as lions and polar bears, almost no one will take a tour to see the endangered Greater Sage Grouse which is severely threatened by habitat loss. Will anyone really infuse cash into saving an ugly but important insect on a different continent? Unlikely. Nonetheless, every dollar supporting ecotourism helps the industry to grow while boosting the economic value of the animals and their environment. The hope is that as an environment becomes more valuable, all species within that environment will be protected and preserved. 

4) You can meet interesting people. Ecotours are a great way to meet other people who share your passions for nature, travel, photography, or other interests. I speak from experience having met some incredible people from all over the world on various trips. Sometimes you can meet people in faraway places and discover you actually live near one another. 

Seeing big animals often requires travel to remote areas. The brown bears of the Alaskan peninsula are some of the largest the world.

5) Disconnect and go off the grid. Ecotours sometimes require travel to very remote places. Some of these locations are beyond reach of cellular service or wifi — think remote mountainous regions, or excursions at sea. This is a great excuse to unplug and go offline. You’ll find the break from daily news, email, and social media refreshing. 

6) You’ll have rare visibility into natural animal behavior very different from the myths and drama on television. While on safari I was surprised to learn that African lions, whom we think of as majestic predators, scavenge as often as they hunt; and that hyenas, whom we think of as scoundrels, actually hunt more often than they scavenge. Seeing animals in the wild often shatters the myths that popular culture has created around their personas. One word of warning: nature is not always pretty, especially when an animal is hunting its prey. Natural predations are sanitized on television to appear much quicker and cleaner than they actually are. In real life, a kill can be a lengthy and bloody affair. 

Nature can sometimes be difficult to watch. In South Africa’s False Bay, early morning ecotours observe natural predations by great white sharks on seals.

Birdwatching takes on a whole new meaning in the rainforest, with many beautiful and charismatic species

7) Immersion in nature. Ecotours may take you to some of the last unspoiled areas on earth. Whether you are visiting the backcountry of Alaska or a local nature reserve, you will see places that are a little bit closer to prehistoric times without the encroachment of human civilization. There was a time when animals roamed the earth in abundance. Ecotours show you glimpses of that world. 

8) Unique photo opportunities. Imagine yourself in places with the opportunity to capture photographs most people dream about. For nature photographers, ecotours provide access to capture images most people will only see on television or in magazines. 

9) Memories for a lifetime. I cannot overstate how special it is to witness nature. You will never forget the first time you see your favorite animal in the wild. You’ll remember the sights, sounds, and smells, and possibly be surprised just how big — or small — that animal really is. 

Ecotours need not be formally organized or expensive. A visit to a local wildlife refuge or nature preserve can provide excellent wildlife viewing opportunities. Talk to a ranger or local biologist for tips on when and where to visit. In New Mexico’s Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, winter is prime season to observe sandhill cranes and many other birds.

10) You become part of the conservation movement. I’m not suggesting that every visitor to an ecotour is automatically an activist, however, by participating in ecotourism you are voting with your dollars in support of conservation. By sharing your photographs and stories with others, you become an advocate — without necessarily being political — for animals and nature.

The short summer in “downeast” Maine is an opportunity for Atlantic Puffins to raise their chicks. Ecotours to Machias Seal Island — which is disputed land between the US and Canada — run daily from June into August.

A few more considerations, now that you’re convinced … 

• Remember that most ecotours are seasonal, though some run year-round. Many major ecotours require advance planning, sometimes a year or more ahead of the trip date. A week in the Serengeti or Galapagos almost certainly will be booked a year or more in advance. Most ecotours take a deposit to hold your spot and require payment in full before the trip date. Look closely at the cancellation policies and determine whether you can commit. Trip insurance is a must — consider it a protection of your investment. 

• Be wary of and avoid unnatural entertainment disguised as ecotourism. The most common example is the “conservation petting zoo” that allows you to pet or hold potentially dangerous animals such as tigers, lions, or wolves that have been habituated and sometimes drugged to permit interaction with people. Often these attractions will have baby animals as their big sellers (who wouldn’t love to cuddle a tiger cub or a wolf pup?) I won’t go into all the dark places these operations dwell but I can assure you the hidden side to these businesses is not pretty. 

• Before your trip, consider visiting a local zoo to practice your wildlife photography skills. Better to find out your shutter speed is too slow before your big trip. I recommend sticking to zoos that are AZA Accredited. It’s not a perfect guarantee, but it does help to steer you toward operations that value animal welfare and ethical practices.

• Know that while some ecotours can be very expensive, there are opportunities for most budgets. If a two week safari is not feasible right now, a half-day whale-watching trip could be an option. Camping is an affordable way to visit many national parks and has the added advantage of being much closer to the attractions than many lodges and hotels.