This early ambition, he believes, shaped him as a photographer. \u2018I had this kind of singular vision when I was younger, daydreaming as a young boy about walking down dusty roads and meeting people from exotic cultures, I just wanted to be there,\u2019 he explains.<\/p>\n
\u2018Seeing the same kind of powerful imagery on the nightly news really made an impact on me too \u2013 even though I was only eight or nine years old. Those photographs, they had the power to change. As I got older, and had to figure out something to be, the only thing I knew how to do was to take pictures, so eventually it became the driving force.\u2019<\/p>\n
To help realise his ambition, Steve attended art school in San Francisco and went on to assist the legendary Michael \u2018Nick\u2019 Nichols, who himself went on to become a National Geographic photographer. Steve later moved to Hoboken, New Jersey (where he still lives now) to be close to the Manhattan offices of publications such as GEO, Stern, and of course the hallowed National Geographic.<\/p>\n\t\t
![\"steve](\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/MM7666_110131_90965.jpg\")
<\/a>\t\t\tAlthough Steve photographs many species of big cats, tigers are a particular favourite<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n
His lucky break came when Nick Nichols wasn\u2019t available to shoot a story for the National Geographic Kids magazine \u2013 Steve\u2019s name was suggested instead and his career in earnest \u2013 and his association with the hugely respected title \u2013 started from there. Since then, he\u2019s taken home some of the biggest accolades in photography, including Wildlife Photographer of the Year<\/strong>, Wildlife Photojournalist of the Year<\/strong>, and category prizes from World Press Photo<\/strong>.<\/p>\n He\u2019s appeared on just about every major news outlet and his book, Tigers Forever: Saving the World\u2019s Most Endangered Cat<\/strong>, was published in 2013. It is the big cat that Steve\u2019s name has become most associated with. I was keen to find out more about why that was. He explained that it was a personal encounter with one specific cat that led him down this particular path.<\/p>\n \u2018After spending all day in a hide photographing the cats all nested in a tree, I was walking back to my shack and the hair on the back of my neck and my arms all stood up, like something was following me. I turned around, but nothing was there. Another night, I got back and I was in bed reading when I heard the stairs creaking, then the floorboards creaking. I felt sure somebody was coming to kill me. Two seconds later I hear a scratching under the door, then a sniffing.<\/p>\n\t\t Photographing tigers is challenging in a number of different ways \u2013 capturing them while moving is particularly difficult<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n I whistled, and I heard an animal go front paws, back paws down those stairs. Three weeks later, I think the same cat came to visit me, but I had marked my territory all around my hide. The cat hit the scent, climbed a tree and went across branches. I was standing there just staring at this black panther \u2013 from that I did the first ever jaguar story for National Geographic.\u2019<\/p>\n Having a specialism has been a good thing for Steve. \u2018When I\u2019ve had colleagues working on three, four or even five stories at once, I would only be doing one story \u2013 each would take about two years to do. Financially, it might not have been the best thing, but I feel like it was kind of my destiny \u2013 people always ask why I chose big cats, but I didn\u2019t \u2013 the cat chose me.\u2019<\/p>\n Steve\u2019s Zoom Photo Tours (in collaboration with AP)<\/a> shares the same name as his book, Tigers Forever<\/strong>. It\u2019s bound to be one of the most popular tours, with the ten-day trip to India taking place in April 2023. The expertise that Steve brings with him to the participants is priceless \u2013 but Steve is also looking forward to learning from the attendees too.<\/p>\n\t\t Looking into a tiger\u2019s eyes is like nothing else on Earth, argues Steve<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n \u2018Sometimes I\u2019ll be there for six months and not have thought of photographing the tigers in this particular way \u2013 so for me it\u2019s exciting. You\u2019re going to end up seeing one of the most majestic animals that have ever walked the face of our Earth, and it\u2019s one of the most unique experiences that we could all have.<\/p>\n \u2018When you first go there and see this, it will take your breath away. Every day we\u2019ll be out there from dawn to dusk looking for tigers in these incredible forests \u2013 it is The Jungle Book.\u2019 You may be thinking that there is commonality in approach when photographing different types of big cat. Steve says otherwise.<\/p>\n \u2018Tigers aren\u2019t as easy to see, and when you do see them, there may be a lot of other people seeing them also. Tigers are a singular animal \u2013 instead of seeing a whole group of lions, you generally see one, or you might see two or three sub-adults that are hanging out in groups. Looking into the eyes of a tiger kind of does something to you emotionally, inside.<\/p>\n Having just one tiger potentially gives you compositional issues, which goes back to this idea of me learning from others \u2013 everybody sees differently, we all have a unique vision. \u2018You also have to be hyper-aware when you\u2019re on one of these trips. You might see a tiger walk out of Getting images of tigers requires an extraordinary amount of patience and determination<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n Something might happen that you\u2019ve never seen before. Every time one of those things happens, if I don\u2019t get a good shot, I used to feel like \u201clet\u2019s see what happens next time\u201d \u2013 eventually, I realised \u2013 there is no next time!\u2019\u00a0It\u2019s important for Steve that his photography has a powerful message.<\/p>\n Commercially, of course it makes sense for his stories to have impact, but beyond that, the positive that can come from the power of photography is clearly of utmost importance to him. In Brazil, he worked with a scientist to get a GPS collar study of jaguars in motion, proving that the animals weren\u2019t responsible for extensive cattle deaths that were seeing jaguars hunted and poached.<\/p>\n \u2018Now, that area is where everyone goes to see jaguars, because of the three pictures I got from that area, for the first story. \u2018I think what we can do as photographers and storytellers is just do our job. It\u2019s things like giving the Thai government enough information to go in and confiscate all 167 tigers from the Thai Tiger Temple and close it down.<\/p>\n That was a great win for us. It wasn\u2019t advocacy journalism as such, it was just showing through her [his partner Sharon Guynup, with whom he works extensively] words and my pictures what\u2019s going on. The last story we did in National Geographic on US tigers, a member of Congress got a copy of the issue which had a 30-page story which highlighted the fact that there are more tigers in the US than there are left in the world.<\/p>\n\t\t Steve believes that an important part of his work is in helping to conserve endangered species such as tigers<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n Now there is a law that has been passed by the House and is now going to the Senate \u2013 the Big Cat Safety Act. We\u2019re not advocating for it, but we\u2019re giving enough information so they can make an educated decision. Tigers belong in the wild, so we do what we can do.\u2019<\/p>\n Over the years, technology has improved hugely for wildlife photographers. Camera traps in particular have come on a long way in recent years, with Steve suggesting that improvements in wireless capabilities are particularly useful. Some of the pictures that he\u2019s been able to get simply wouldn\u2019t have been possible in previous years. Most of the time, however, he\u2019s using conventional cameras \u2013 and has recently been drawn towards mirrorless models.<\/p>\n A life-long Canon shooter, he jokes that he\u2019d probably need the help of Canon \u2018after sitting at home for over a year not being able to bring in an income\u2019, thanks to Covid, in order to make the switch from his DSLRs. It\u2019s the idea of silent shooting that primarily appeals: \u2018You don\u2019t think that the click, click, click of a camera is going to be a problem until you use it and you see a reaction coming from the species you\u2019re photographing.<\/p>\n They can already smell us, they already know we\u2019re there, but if we could at least take away the noise that disturbs them, that would be a real benefit.\u2019 Over the various lockdowns, unable to carry out his usual travel and commissions, Steve has taken the opportunity to offer mentorship to up-and-coming photographers, using the same techniques he followed at the beginning of his career.<\/p>\n\t\t Moments with tigers come and go \u2013 you need to be ready to shoot<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n As he explains, \u2018I\u2019ve taken natural history photographers and done something with them that at first they found horrific. I started schooling them in the masters of photojournalism. But before even that I had them look at the masters of painting \u2013 because it\u2019s always about composition. If you look at a painting, look at how the painter composed that image \u2013 they didn\u2019t take the canvas and cut it down like you might crop an image, the canvas is the canvas.<\/p>\n \u2018Then we\u2019d move on to the photojournalists. Wildlife photographers will ask me, why are we looking at this kind of work. But for me, it\u2019s about capturing that moment, that emotion that comes from the image, to the viewer. That\u2019s been one of the best things about the pandemic \u2013 I\u2019ve taken young natural history photographers and completely changed how they photographed and looked at the world. Now when they go back into the natural world, they\u2019re going to be looking at it in a completely different way.<\/p>\n \u2018Another thing that people don\u2019t like is when I ask them to show me their bad pictures, or the ones they don\u2019t really like. There\u2019s no such thing as a bad picture, it\u2019s just how you got to the point that you got something which you did like \u2013 I want to see that process so we can help you in your quest to find your own unique vision.\u2019<\/p>\n\t\t Tigers are generally solitary animals, except when they are young \u2013 spotting more than one is a rare treat<\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n Winning awards and accolades is something that Steve is incredibly familiar with by now. But it\u2019s not the awards themselves that mean the most to him \u2013 rather the fact that the important messages in his images reach a wider audience. The first ever prize he won \u2013 Wildlife Photographer of the Year \u2013 he didn\u2019t even enter for himself.<\/p>\n \u2018I thought I had already won at life because I got to realise my dream of being a National Geographic photographer. I was out in the field so my partner entered for me. Winning the top prize of BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year (which is what it was back then), means that millions more people see your images and hear the story, they read about the plight of the species that you\u2019ve covered. Our important goal is to reach as many people as possible.<\/p>\n I also love being on radio and television, because you\u2019re getting your ideas across. I go to school every time I\u2019m on assignment because I get to learn so much about the natural world and the species I\u2019m working with and I can use that to help teach. Last year, I was Highly Commended at WPOTY, and even from that I was interviewed so many times that I felt like I had actually won something. I got to tell the story and that\u2019s what it\u2019s all about.\u2019<\/p>\n Steve is understandably keen to get back out there doing what he does best. Happily, there are still plenty of cat species for him to photograph, as well as other stories and issues to conquer. It\u2019s clear he feels indebted to the natural world and is heavily committed to helping in the only way he knows how.<\/p>\n \u2018We\u2019re inundated with people asking us for help \u2013 we have no end of work to do,\u2019 he concludes.<\/p>\n To learn more about Steve Winter and his work, visit stevewinterphoto.com<\/a>. Steve’s tour, Tigers Forever, also includes the Zoom 360 photo experience. When you book onto this tour you will also get two digital workshops and a physical course \u2013 three steps so that you get maximum photo time when you are out in the field. To book onto Tigers Forever, taking place in April 2023, visit zoomphototours.com\/tigers<\/a>.<\/p>\n Further reading<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"steve](\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/P191_MM7666_120402_252669.jpg\")
<\/a>\t\t\t![\"tiger](\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/MM7666_110105_0818_85180_Master.jpg\")
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\nthe forest and you have to be ready.<\/p>\n\t\t![\"steve](\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/p092-3_MG_5310_rev_B_SW.jpg\")
<\/a>\t\t\t![\"steve](\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/p012-13_MM7231_071025_1334_00118016.jpg\")
<\/a>\t\t\t![\"tiger](\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/p186-7_MM7666_101210_1116_75918_rev.jpg\")
<\/a>\t\t\t![\"tiger](\"https:\/\/other.kelsey.host\/amateurphotographer\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/SteveWinter_BengalTigerAndCub-2.jpg\")
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