LOS ANGELES 鈥 When photographers relied entirely on 35mm film, they had to wait to capture that decisive moment.
Cristina Mittermeiter and Paul Nicklen on the SeaLegacy vessel.聽
Now, they can shoot hundreds of frames and feel fairly certain they got the photo they were seeking.
Artistry, however, remains a key factor.
鈥淒igital cameras are just a way of sketching what you鈥檙e doing until the moment happens,鈥 says National Geographic photographer Cristina Mittermeier.
Adds photographer Campbell Addy: 鈥淭he decisive moment changed more to the 'intuitive moment' because you have so much at your disposal that sometimes you forget just to look. Despite having thousands of gigabytes a day to capture, you just need that one frame. That decisive moment is still there.鈥
Mittermeier and Addy are among the shooters included in 鈥淧hotographer,鈥 a look at some of the world鈥檚 leading visual storytellers.
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A polar bear dives below a pan of sea ice in Nunavut, Canada, its image mirrored against the water鈥檚 surface.聽
Produced by Oscar winners Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin, the six-part series was designed to show how photographers make the decisions they do. The two had produced 鈥淔ree Solo,鈥 a heart-pounding profile of climber Alex Honnold, and heard many comments that they were crazy to climb with him just to get the perfect shot.
鈥淭hey were fascinated with how I do it and the decisions I make,鈥 Chin says. 鈥淚 always looked around at my peers and thought what they do is so crazy 鈥 how do they approach a leopard seal or a supermodel or a celebrity?鈥
In his line of work, Chin has to be a climber first. 鈥淲hen things are too dangerous or when I need to contribute to the climbing team in order to get us up or get us down, I have to do that before I can take out the camera and shoot.鈥
Mittermeier agrees: 鈥淵ou have to be an accomplished water person first before you can take any photographs because your life is in danger every second that you鈥檙e in the ocean or the middle of nowhere. There鈥檚 no point in trying to chase a whale or shark. It will outrace you every time. You have to exercise tremendous patience and wait for animals to come close to you.鈥
Cristina Mittermeier talks about her life experience as a photographer and conservationist. (National Geographic/Ronan Killeen)
Paul Nicklen, a veteran National Geographic photographer, has dealt with leopard seals in Antarctica, polar bears and grizzly bears. 鈥淚鈥檝e never had a scary moment with a bear,鈥 he says. 鈥淏ut the scariest moment I鈥檝e ever had where I got attacked was in the subway station in New York.鈥
A woman with her pet goose on her head in Yunnan Province of China.聽
Addy 鈥 who traffics in that world as a portrait photographer 鈥 says he has to know the subject鈥檚 environment to get the right picture. 鈥淭he biggest fear is working with people who have huge profiles. I have to capture their essence; I have to capture a moment and an emotive space where I鈥檝e captured someone honest and true.鈥
Like the others, he says, 鈥渢here are certain shoots I can think of now, if I hadn鈥檛 pushed myself that one little extra inch I would be a very different artist than who I am now. I guess it鈥檚 scary shooting superstars in 10 minutes sometimes.鈥
The variety of photographers is key to the series, Vasarhelyi says. 鈥淲hat they share is their singularity and that drive to be able to execute their vision.鈥
Social media, they say, isn鈥檛 a threat to photography but a way to be seen. 鈥淚t allowed my stories and my community鈥檚 stories to get center stage where we wouldn鈥檛 necessarily have had access to it,鈥 Addy says. 鈥淲e鈥檙e ever-changing people and we have to go and push ourselves.鈥
Cristina Mittermeier photographs a Sea Turtle casually swimming by.聽
Social media gave Mittermeier the kind of feedback she hadn鈥檛 gotten from readers. 鈥淣ow we鈥檙e having a conversation, a dialogue with millions of people around the world who are asking questions through social media.鈥
Conversely, Nicklen went 鈥渒icking and screaming鈥 into social media. 鈥淚 wanted to just be out there in nature with the animals,鈥 he says. When he first suggested followers could get more information if they went to his feed, he had more than 45,000 new followers in two hours. A polar bear shoot on the National Geographic site, got two billion views. Another video netted 180 million. 鈥淎ll of a sudden, here鈥檚 another way to communicate with the world. Instead of putting out a story once a year, you can beat the drum daily on issues that you care about.鈥
鈥淧hotographer鈥 begins March 18 on National Geographic and is available to stream March 19 on Disney+ and Hulu.
Paul Nicklen discusses his love of the Arctic and vulnerability of filming in such a climate.聽
