Pros for Lowepro
Garth Lenz
Garth
Lenz is an award winning photographer and one of only 60 photographers in the world to be named a Fellow of the prestigious
International League of Conservation Photographers.
He has photographed conservation, and indigenous peoples issues throughout the world. This work has led to assignments and publication in numerous books, newspapers, and magazines: Time Magazine, German GEO, GEO International, Canadian Geographic, The Guardian Weekly, The New York Times Sunday Edition, International Wildlife, B.B.C. Wildlife Magazine, and many others.
In 2008 Garth won major awards in both the International Photography Awards and the Prix de la Photographie Paris.
For more on Garth please visit www.garthlenz.com
Photo Gallery
All images © Garth Lenz. May not be reproduced without permission.
Q&A:
What would be your media of choice (digital or film)?
Use to be Velvia, now it's Sandisk. I was a very late adopter of digital, soldiering on with my film based nikons
and Pentax 6X7 until nikon came out with the D3. It's hard to imagine going back to shooting aerials and reloading
roll film every 10 or 20 frames in a plane or helicopter with the door off!
What would you consider your first big break in the business?
I think it's more a case of being prepared for when opportunity knocks and then doing something with it but… My
first pictures from the Carmanah Valley got picked up by Macleans and some papers. That lead to some other assignments
and it encouraged me to leave my day job teaching piano.
What was your most challenging assignment?
All of them! It really is about always
trying to take things to a different level, trying to find a new way to see and photograph something, you need to
constantly challenge yourself.
What is your funniest photo experience?
I can think of a number of experiences that seem funny now, although none of them seemed particularly humorous to me at
the time, which is not to say other people didn't. Back in 1995 I was shooting an assignment for Time in Chile, photographing
small scale logging in the mountains on the border with Argentina in Patagonia. Logs were being dragged by oxen and then
slid down a channel cut in the hillside. The logs slid onto a leaf covered flat spot. I thought that photographing the
logs from just beside where they would land, might make an interesting photo. I placed myself with a 28mm lens, just
in front of the area where the logs landed. As the first log hit the leaf covered landing area it became instantly apparent
that it covered a muddy pool. The log hit this and threw up a shower of mud, water, and rock that instantly covered me
from head to foot, including my cameras and lenses. My wife, fixer, and other onlookers were convulsed in laughter! Me,
not so much.
What is your 'assignment from hell'?
I was photographing some very impoverished campesino communites in Esmeraldas province in the cloud forests of northern Ecuador.
It was stifling hot and we were on foot travelling along an abandoned and frequently washed out logging road which was
a foot thick with mud. I was reacting to my Larium anti-malarial drug which I would soon be taken off of due to heart palpitations
and other side affects. Two days hike from the nearest road I developed a rash on my foot and the next day the whole top
of my foot was infected and festering. I managed to walk a day down to a little village and then was shipped out on a donkey.
The doctor in Quito who treated me said the infection was close to eating into my muscles and tendons and that if I had
gone to the hospital they probably would have amputated, just to be on the safe side. I had to have the top of my foot
re cleaned etc. everyday for two weeks.
What is the most exotic location you've shot in?
our days up the Mahakam River in East Kalimantan, staying in a traditional Dayak village and eating Water Buffalo
a few feet from its recently, and ceremoniously, severed head. OR, The upper reaches of the Yangtze and Mekong
in remote villages on the Yunnan and Tibetan border. I visited some villages where they had seen very few western
europeans and at times there would be 50 or so villagers following me while I photographed.
Your idea of the "dream assignment"?
To photograph each continents most impacted area as well as its most beautiful and significant remaining wilderness.
What photographers do you most admire:
Ernst Hass, Fay Godwin. It's hard to say if they are exactly my top two, there are so many photographers
that I love, but I have certainly spent a lot of time admiring their work. Seeing "The Creation" for
the first time was a revelation. Fay Godwin's "LAND" as well.
Your top three photo tips:
1. Solicit others opinions on your work. Photographers tend not to be the best editors. We are too close
to, and emotionally involved with, our work. Finding supportive, but highly discerning and blunt editors, other photrographers,
etc., to regularly review your work will really help you grow as a photographer.
2. Don't make the same pictures over and over. It is easy to go with what has worked in the past. After you have your "bread and butter" pictures, try something different, push the envelope a bit. Your success rate will definitely go down but you will grow as a photographer and it will lead to fresh approaches to your subjects.
3. Work harder than everyone else. Good pictures don't just happen, and talent is just one factor. The only
variable you can control is to be prepared and work hard. The harder you work, the longer you stay out, the earlier
you get up, the better you prepare, the better your chances for success in any assignement or photographic outing.
If you could change your profession what would it be?
Magician. It would really help if I could make great light from mud.
Your advise to aspiring photographers:
See number three above!
All images © Garth Lenz. May not be reproduced without permission.