This Job Is a Lot Harder Than It Looks
While it may seem that traveling the world shooting photos of baby animals and their families is a piece of cake, that’s not the case. Being a wildlife photographer requires unrelenting patience and developing a relationship of trust with the animal. It’s also a lot of hard work and has lots of downtime, Eszterhas said.
She described a recent experience she had with leopard cubs, a story she worked on for 18 months that involved photographing them since they were five weeks old until they were independent from their mother at around 18 months old.
“There were days where 14 hours would go by and I’d stare at a termite mound hoping that I would see a little face pop out, and nothing happened in 14 hours,” she said.
Putting yourself in the shoes of moms is also very important, Eszterhas explained, and requires approaching them in a way that isn’t stressful or frightening. Gaining a mom’s trust, which can take time, means always giving her plenty of space, thinking about how she might be feeling in the presence of a photographer, and considering what she’s doing with the cubs, among others.
