Bob Mumford began nature photography at an early age, but did not become a professional until mid-life. His first bird photograph was a flying Long-eared Owl, taken with a cheap Kodak 127 camera when he was 9. It resulted in a blurry black and white image. Since that time his equipment has been upgraded a number of times and he now works exclusively with the Nikon 35mm system.

He is a graduate of the University of Rochester, with a degree in History and from the University of Colorado with a Masters degree in Political Science. Interestingly, he has had no formal education in biology, ecology, fine arts or photography. All that he has learned in these fields has been from self-study, field work and experience.

Bob has photographed in most of the states and Canadian provinces, as well as in a number of other foreign countries. Much of his work, and the area of his greatest interest, is the arctic and sub-arctic. He is fascinated by animals, birds and wildflowers that can survive the extreme cold, and seeks to capture their beauty in his work. However, in early 2002, he made his first working trip to East Africa and has now returned twice to this area of such alluring and diverse wildlife.

Bob has always been drawn to the natural world, spending countless hours in the outdoors. Since he was quite young he has been attuned to, and deeply concerned about, threats to the environment and the rapid loss of critical habitat from expanding populations. As a young man he was a hunter, but outgrew that activity, and now is happy to shoot with just a camera. From those early experiences, however, he learned much about wildlife habits, how to spot birds and animals in heavy cover, and how to successfully stalk. Those skills have been invaluable for nature photography.

His work has been published in such magazines as National Wildlife, Ranger Rick, Birding, Birders World, and ZooGoer (the National Zoo's magazine), as well as in the New York Times. One of his photographs was a winner in the prestigious National Wildlife Magazine's international photo contest in 2003. He has exhibited at Blackwater, Chincoteague, Bombay Hook and Patuxent National Wildlife Refuges, as well as the Audubon Naturalist Society.

Bob lives in the deciduous woods outside Washington, D.C. and proudly reveals that he does not have a single blade of grass to maintain!

PHILOSOPHY

In Bob's view, the familiar axiom "First do no harm" is as applicable to the field of nature photography as it is in the medical field where it is usually seen. Wildlife and the environment come first and the photographer must be vigilant that he/she is not jeopardizing the safety or well being of the creatures he/she photographs. While there are laws, rules and regulations in place to protect wild places and their inhabitants, the very nature of nature photography is that enforcement comes from within, not externally. There must be a strong ethical value system underlying all field photography work.

Thankfully, careful observation of birds and animals usually reveals when one is impinging on their territory. When a critter is flushed, one knows that it has been frightened. When a photographer sees a large animal behaving in an aggressive way, sending out body language that it is unhappy, it is time to back off. Even in Yellowstone, where animals are so habituated to people that they usually ignore them, a photographer has to maintain a reasonable distance.

Bob believes the greatest aesthetic images are achieved in completely natural settings, so does not photograph captive or zoo animals. Some animals, however, are almost impossible to photograph in the field. Customers should be aware that virtually all photographs of Mountain Lions, for example, are made with captive animals. Few Grey Wolf photographs are made of truly wild animals also. It is completely permissible to offer such photographs for sale so long as they are properly identified.

In the current digital world, many, perhaps most, images are manipulated electronically. Sometimes there is a good reason for this: either aesthetic, artistic or to remove some minor flaw in an otherwise perfect shot. Bob believes that it is perfectly acceptable to "touch up" wildlife photographs electronically, but photographs that have been modified substantially, that is, beyond minor fine tuning, should be clearly labeled. Unfortunately, they often are not.