few years ago,i was called into a meeting a lunch meeting and you know,the geographic told me we're gonna do thiswhole issue special on the greateryellowstone ecosystem.
the tetons and the snake river ansel adams, and i was asked tobecome one of the team. and it's, you know, it's 50,000 square miles western wyoming,southern montana, eastern idaho. some amazing areas, grand teton,
it's the wind river range, it's yellowstone. it's got incredible wildlife. incredible opportunity to be asked to do this. so, i ended up,as part of the project i ended up getting the tetons. you know, if you go to the tetons at six o'clock in the morningin october, it looks like this. you know, it doesn't look likethe first frame of the tetons actually, it's full of people.
so, we had teams all over. but, you know, there wereteams in yellowstone for the yellowstone issue. but i got the south end of theecosystem, i got the tetons. which is great,and you know fantastic if you're a landscapephotographer, which i'm not. um, because, you know you're basically chargedwith photographing a, the most beautifulplace in the world
b, the most photographed,most iconic i mean hell,you've got the tetons. and ansel adams,the most famous brilliant landscapephotographer there ever was photographed one of hismost famous pictures here. how the hell am igonna top that? ( audience laughter ) that's easy, you know.that's what i did. get someone else do it for me.
-( audience laughter )-( charlie laughs ) the thing is right,as a photographer, right. you'll laugh at that. we all know what he's doing,don't we? we're all just a bit cynical,it's kind of funny. as a photographer,i think "why are you doingit with a tripod?" you know what i mean. "it's the middle of the day.what on earth are you thinking?"
and i actually want toform the tripod police. because i live in jackson. i just wanted to go and batterpeople to death with tripods. because there, it's likelunchtime on a sunny day and there's a man,it's always a bloke women are not that stupid. there's always aman photographing the tetons with a tripod. "what are you doing!"
anyway... i could go on about itall night if you want-- okay. so why did they,so we've answered, yeah-- so, why did they send abrit to yellowstone? well, amongst other things i am, i guess an aquatic species specialist. i shoot technically complicated photosof mainly, fresh water animals. and that is such anincredibly minute niche
that no one else hasbothered to do it. so i got it. as you know, i like ( exaggerated pronunciation )otters. ( laughter ) if i say otters in wyoming,everyone just looks at me and just thinks i'm someonefrom downton abbey. so i have to say otters all the time.
and then they look at me, "whyare you taking piss out of us?" so, i'm stuck betweena rock and a hard-- first world problems.anyway, um... i'm an aquaticspecies specialist. i love otters. so we do a lot of them,they're part of the story. but, i use, sort of taking the techniques i'velearned shooting otters and have moved it onto other animals.
we all had a meeting in dc when we were sort of hatchingthis yellowstone article. and we, well, one of thevisual mantras, i guess, was "we want iconic landscapeswith animals in." which is great if you are... well, if you're anunderwater photographer what are you supposed to do? ( charlie laughs ) anyway, basically i turnedthe first few weeks
into location scout. how can i get these animalsin landscapes underwater. and this is whati ended up with. but, one of the reasons i likethis style of photography and, you know, this image, is because, up here up top right there, youcan see all the sticks. that's, that's a beaver dam.right. and this beaverand its relatives and its ancestors have created,
they built that dam. they've created thisentire water world
this entire ecosystem. they've engineeredthe landscape. and they've doneit at the foot of the tetons. so, for me, a picture like thattells a much bigger story.
