Author: Ami Vitale

Nikon Ambassador and National Geographic magazine photographer Ami Vitale has traveled to more than 90 countries, bearing witness not only to violence and conflict, but also to surreal beauty and the enduring power of the human spirit. Throughout the years, Ami has lived in mud huts and war zones, contracted malaria, and donned a panda suit— keeping true to her belief in the importance of “living the story.” In 2009, after shooting a powerful story on the transport and release of one the world’s last white rhinos, Ami shifted her focus to today’s most compelling wildlife and environmental stories. Her photographs have been commissioned by nearly every international publication and exhibited around the world in museums and galleries. Recently, she joined Ripple Effect Images, an organization of renowned female scientists, writers, photographers and filmmakers working together to create powerful and persuasive stories that shed light on the hardships women in developing countries face and the programs that can help them. She is also on the Photojournalism Advisory Council for the Alexia Foundation. Currently based in Montana, Ami Vitale is a contract photographer with National Geographic magazine and frequently gives workshops throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. She can be reached at ami@amivitale.com.

Flash Print Sale to Benefit Wildlife Rangers in Kenya

Posted on by Ami Vitale

Kilifi is an 18-month-old rhino that Kamara is currently hand-raising along with three other baby rhinos at Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya. Kamara spends 12 hours every day, sometimes in pouring rain, watching over the vulnerable baby rhinos. He calls them his children. He is part of the reason Kenya’s black rhinos, whose population had plummeted to near extinction, are doing so well here. Much needed attention has been focused on the plight of wildlife and the conflict between heavily armed poachers and increasingly militarized wildlife rangers. But very little has been said about the indigenous communities on the front lines of the poaching wars and the incredible work they do to protect these animals. These communities hold the key to saving Africa’s great animals. —Ami Vitale

Beginning July 6th, we launched a limited print sale of the touching photo of “Kamara and Kilifi” featured on National Geographic. All proceeds will go to Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya to support their powerful work protecting both the endangered wildlife and the people of Northern Kenya. This is a tremendously hopeful story and your support will help rangers, including Kamara, continue this important work.

The $225 prints are 11×14 inches (29×36 cm) printed on matte archival paper and will ship from my studio (free domestic, $35 international). If you are interested, please email me at ami@amivitale.com and include “Flash sale”  in your subject line.

Thank you for your support!

Instagram takeover for The Nature Conservancy

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This week, I will be taking over The Nature Conservancy’s Instagram account (@nature_africa) with photos of Loisaba Conservancy (@loisaba_conservancy) in Laikipia, Northern Kenya. Loisaba is an important elephant corridor, with more than 800 elephants spending significant time there, and it plays a critical role in maintaining ecological connectivity between Laikipia and Samburu. I am excited to be able to share this special place with you. You can follow along on my Instagram, @amivitale, and with @loisaba_conservancy and @nature_africa.

A dream trip to China for National Geographic

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In April, I was in China for National Geographic Magazine working on my dream project about the rewilding of giant pandas. As conservation icons go, nothing quite beats the giant panda. Instantly recognizable worldwide, adored by billions, a virtual brand whose resemblance to anything wild is as tenuous as it is rare.

Ever since President Theodore Roosevelt’s sons, Theodore and Kermit shot one, in 1928, in the wilds of Sichuan, China, the western world has coveted the clownish, adorable animal and zoos today pay millions of dollars to mount exhibits where panda “ambassadors” on loan from China never fails to attract a crowd.

There are approximately 1,864 giant pandas in the world

Many conservationists privately consider them a relict species: taxonomically unique, shy, and inexorably drifting towards extinction. Their breeding secrets have for decades resisted the prying efforts of zoos and their mountainous bamboo forests have been besieged and fragmented by agriculture.

Chinese scientists and their international counterparts have cracked the puzzle of successfully breeding pandas in captivity and now they are sending these captive born pandas back into the wild. In a region where bad environmental news is common, the giant panda might prove to be the exception and a testament to Chinese conservationists’ perseverance and efforts. By breeding and releasing pandas, augmenting existing populations, and protecting habitats, China may be on its way to successfully saving its most famous ambassador, and in the process put the wild back into an icon.

Alexia Foundation Announces 2015 Photojournalism Grants

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Photo by 2014 Alexia Foundation Professional Grantee Sebastian Liste

The Alexia Foundation has announced that it is now accepting applications for its 2015 Professional and Student Grants. The grants and scholarships were created to enable photojournalists to create work that gives voice to those who go unheard, fosters cultural understanding and exposes social injustice.

The Professional Grant Winner will receive $20,000 to help produce his or her proposed project. The Student Winner will receive funding for a semester at the Syracuse University London Program, a $1,000 cash grant to help produce the proposed body of work, and $500 will be awarded to that student’s academic department. A student award will also be given to the Second Place Winner. The judges will determine the number of Award of Excellence Winners there will be.

The Gilka Grant, honoring Robert E. Gilka, will recognize the best student project proposal that also includes a multimedia component. The winner of the Gilka Grant will receive a scholarship to attend the Kalish Workshop.

In the judging of applications, the strength of the proposal will be judged equally to photographic skills. The grants go to those who clearly and concisely propose significant projects that share in the Foundation’s mission and who also submit photographic or motion materials that reflect the ability to execute the proposed project.

The deadline for submissions for the Professional Grant is 2 p.m. Jan. 29, 2015. The deadline for the Student Grant is 2 p.m. on Feb. 2, 2015. Applying for the Student Grant is free, but there is a $50 application fee for the Professional Grant. Please review the rules and application requirements at Alexiafoundation.org.

Making Waves with the New Nikon D750

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The Nikon D750 has won the coveted award of Popular Photographers Camera of the Year 2014 and I’m not a bit surprised. I was impressed by the power they packed into this well designed body. I bet there is more technology in the full frame D750 then they sent up in the space ship Apollo.

I recently made a trip to Puerto Rico and challenged this camera out in every imaginable way. We put it through some serious tests and literally almost got washed away a few times. The weather-sealed magnesium-alloy body saved the camera and me.  I love working in very low light situations and took it inside pitch black caves. There was no pixelating. The high-speed action was tack sharp as cliff divers plunged beneath me. I fell in love with the well designed, tiltable 3.2-inch monitor that allowed me to get extreme angles and create unusual images shot from the ground.  Combine that with Nikon’s 3D AF tracking. It is simply the best focus tracking you can find.

This camera is great for serious amateurs and professionals. I have it in my lineup now. Its built for high-speed action, high resolution photography and is the best value for money you can find for about $2500.

You can see some of the images here: http://amivitale.photoshelter.com/gallery/Nikon-D750/G00007ud9lhVU850

You can see the official announcement on the PopPhoto web Pages: http://www.popphoto.com/gear/2014/11/camera-year-nikon-d750

Recovering with Love in Haiti for Kenneth Cole Productions

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I recently had the opportunity to travel to Haiti and witness the inspiring work of St. Luke Foundation for Haiti, NPH Haiti and the Kenneth Cole Foundation.

The St. Luke Foundation team, a Haitian run organization, is one of the only organizations able to work in the “forbidden” areas, like Cité Soleil, an impoverished and densely populated area described as one of the “worst slums of the western hemisphere” because of the notorious violence. Until 2007, the area was ruled by a number of gangs who roamed the streets and often terrorized the neighborhood. It originally developed as a shanty town and grew to an estimated 400,000 residents, the majority of whom live in extreme poverty.

Learn more about their important work in the story, “Recovering with Love” for Kenneth Cole’s “For Good” magazine.

Read more: Kenneth Cole Foundation: For Good 

Covering the Bakken Oil Boom for National Geographic

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I had the extraordinary opportunity to explore Eastern Montana for National Geographic where the Oil boom from the Bakken region is impacting tightly-knit farming communities. While the discovery of oil has created newly minted millionaires and enormous opportunities, it has also brought complex problems and forced locals to ask important questions about the destiny of their landscape.

For now, the explosive growth looks like it will continue and for many, the oil and gas are a blessing. I met families who are able to create a better life for their children and are grateful for the opportunities. Despite the sudden influx of wealth, the oil has also strained these communities. A two bedroom trailer can cost more than an apartment in New York City. Crime has risen dramatically. Roads have been destroyed by heavy loads of equipment and the water needed for extraction. And with the exorbitant wages paid by oil companies, the county cannot find workers to help maintain the infrastructure. There are dire environmental consequences too. The implications are already reverberating far beyond North Dakota and Montana.

This boom has far reaching global economic and political consequences. Read more HERE.

2014 Alexia Women’s Initiative Grant Winner is Mary F. Calvert

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The Alexia Foundation has announced that the recipient of the 2014 Women’s Initiative Grant is Mary F. Calvert, an independent photojournalist based in the United States. Calvert will utilize the $25,000 grant for her project “Missing in Action: Homeless Female Veterans.”

“Female veterans are the fastest growing segment of the homeless population in the United States and are four times more likely to become homeless than civilian women,” Calvert tells the foundation in her proposal. Yet, the Department of Veteran’s Affairs is ill equipped to address the issues faced by female veterans, many of whom are mothers and single parents.

Calvert’s work will focus on the Los Angeles region, where the largest concentration of homeless veterans live. She will examine the painfully slow response to this crisis by the beleaguered U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs as well as the organizations that attempt to help these women. Calvert will put a human face on this neglected crisis by making compelling photographs of the women affected and allowing them to tell their stories in their own voices.

“Mary Calvert’s project on homeless female veterans in Los Angeles qualifies as the poster story for our mission statement,” said Alexia Foundation co-founder Aphrodite Tsairis. “The stark emotion evoked in her images promises to deliver the raw naked truth about a neglected segment in the military – the debilitating aftermath for abused women in the armed forces.”

Congratulations, Mary!

The Price of Poaching for The Nature Conservancy

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Five years ago, I heard about a plan to airlift four of the last Northern White Rhinos from a zoo in the Czech Republic back to Africa. It sounded like a storyline for a Disney film but in reality, it was a desperate, last ditch effort to save an entire species. There are only seven of these rhinos left in existence. When I saw these huge, hulking gentle creatures surrounded by smokestacks and factories in the zoo outside of Prague, it seemed so unfair that we have reduced an entire species to this.

In December 2009, the Lewa Conservancy in Kenya airlifted the last four breeding age Northern White Rhinos from Dvur Kralove Zoo in the Czech Republic to the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in Kenya. As of 2014, there are only seven of these rhinos living in the world.

Lewa Wildlife Conservancy in Kenya worked hard to make the move possible and the rhinos were flown on a cold, snowy night in December, 2009. They landed and were brought to roam “free” on the savannas of Kenya at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy. The hope was then, and now, to breed them. The air, water, and food, not to mention room to roam, might stimulate them to breed—and the offspring would then be used to repopulate Africa. Failing successful breeding, they will be cross-bred with Southern White Rhinos to preserve the genes.

Recently, I had the opportunity to go back to Kenya on behalf of the Nature Conservancy to visit the four rhinos who had been airlifted to Kenya: Sudan, Suni, Najin and Fatu. It warmed my heart to see them nuzzling on the open plains, but I was reminded of a tragic truth by the team of armed guards who are there to protect them from poachers. Poaching is not slowing down, and it’s entirely possible, even likely, that if the current trajectory of killing continues, rhinos, along with elephants and a host of lesser known plains animals, will be functionally extinct in our lifetime. Organized by sophisticated heavily armed criminal networks and fueled by heavy demand from newly minted millionaires in emerging markets, poaching is devastating the amazing mega-fauna of the African plains.

Much needed attention has been focused on the plight of wildlife and the conflict between heavily armed poachers and increasingly militarized wildlife rangers, but very little has been said about the indigenous communities on the frontlines of the poaching wars and the incredible work that is being done to strengthen them. These communities may hold the key to saving Africa’s great animals.

We can often forget that the best protectors of these landscapes are the local communities themselves. Their efforts to preserve community cohesion is ultimately the best immunization against forces that threaten both their wildlife and way of life. See more HERE.

Shooting Around a Campfire for National Geographic

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I wrote up some advice for National Geographic Readers on how to shoot around a campfire. Let me know if it’s helpful.

Sitting around a campfire and telling stories with my friends is one of my favorite things to do on summer nights in Montana. I believe that storytelling is at the heart of what makes us human and is at the heart of what every photographer strives to do.

Campfires also make for interesting images, and it’s a fun way to experiment with slow shutter speeds. The biggest challenge is getting the images sharp and the exposure right, since the light source is always changing.

Photo tip: Focusing at night can be difficult. I shine a flashlight on a person’s face to help my camera focus and once its sharp, I turn the camera to manual focus, taking care not to bump the camera or move the focus ring. Then I measure the exposure of the peoples’ faces around the fire while the flames are still going strong.

In this case, a tripod was essential because the ambient light in the sky was already gone and I wanted a long exposure. I wanted to emphasize the movement of the burning embers so I shot this frame for one second. I would suggest shooting between one and ten seconds, depending on the mood you want to create.

Here I used the Nikon D4S, which has the best sensor for shooting in low light. I shot this image at 1600 ISO and it’s still tack sharp, as if it were shot using 100 ISO. I wanted the long exposure while my friend Amy blew embers to create movement and mood.

Make sure to monitor the strength of the fire. As it dies down, you will need to lengthen your exposure or open your aperture. Shoot as many frames as you can, because each one will look different.