Predators, Prey and When Nature Turns the Tables

One of my great joys in being in nature, with wild animals, is having the tables turned - everything I thought I knew, tossed on its ear, and I was forced to rethink who I am and what I'm doing on this planet. The following by underwater photographer Paul Nicklen describes his most amazing experience as a National Geographic photographer - coming face-to-face with one of Antarctica's most vicious predators and things not going at all the way he imagined.


PS - just a note, film crew for David Attenborough's Life in the Freezer series on Antarctica had a very similar experience - perhaps we've unjustly named this selective, and sometimes sensitive predator?

"I didn't want a cruel image."

October was the month of extraordinary images if your passion is wildlife and nature photography. This year's winner of the prestigious Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2009 award was by Jose Luis Rodriguez (photo captured the imaginations of the judges with a picture that he had planned for years, and even sketched out on a piece of paper. "I wanted to capture a photo in which you would see a wolf in an act of hunting - or predation - but without blood," he told BBC News. "I didn't want a cruel image."

A photo I wish I had created

"Storytelling reveals meaning without committing the error of defining it"

- Hannah Arendt

Last Wednesday evening I a bit of good fortune fell down on me, along with the rain, while strolling about Georgetown (DC). I stumble upon this image by photographer, Monica Szczupider - which has become cyber-viral in the last couple weeks after appearing in the current, November, issue of National Geographic. Fortune measured about 24x36 inches. The print was part of the photo festival DC Foto Week going on across Washington DC this week. To see this image first large was unbelievable serendipity. While the pages of NG would have been fine, seeing it large on a wall in a gallery was perfect - the mind and eyes were in full exercise mode, ready for exposure to new, delighted to be surprised and forced to reconsider. Large - the image gives you space to contemplate it - those faces behind the fence become personal, they etch their expressions deep into your planetary perspective of what it means to be a species. You find yourself stepping slowly face to face, expression to expression.

In my career I have come across few images, maybe two or three, that I wish I had created - this is one. Beautifully done Monica.

More creation of the photo

Clash of the titans filmed at last - and we owe one man

Long before I took my first flight overseas, created that first truly memorable image, saw my first extraordinarily rare creature, or live with some forgotten culture, I watched an amazing exuberant British chap with child-like zeal and curiosity climb breathlessly over mountain tops to reveal fossils, dangle from treetops in the Amazon, and lie nose-to-nose with army ants on the march. That Brit was David Attenborough (not yet a Knighted) and he gave me hope - hope that I too could remain connected to my child-like curiosity and love for the things that go bump in the night, wriggle through a swamp, and soar beyond the clouds. He continues to do so - and I am deeply indebted to him for that gift.

The BBC wildlife film crews have long been know for pushing the envelope to discover, record and share the most amazing events in nature. Much of that must be credited to Sir David Attenborough. While to many he is now just the voice of these great visual works, the fact of the matter is they would quite possibly never found there way to the little screen - or web - had he not years ago doggedly persevered to bring this work to the masses in such groundbreaking works the 1979 TV series Life on Earth: A Natural History by David Attenborough and followed five years later by The Living Planet.

In each of the series then and now teams have fanned out around the planet, often craft methods, tools and techniques never before tried. The results have been breath-taking at the least, and simply jaw-dropping at other times. This sequence of clashing titans from the newest series Life is one such example - as described in the BBC web article (linked via the title below):

"During the first complete sequence of this behaviour ever captured, the male humpbacks swim at high speed behind the female, violently jostling for access.

The collisions between the males can be violent enough to kill.

The footage was recorded for the BBC natural history series Life."

Epic humpback whale battle filmed and scroll down the article for another clip on how they filmed it.