The captivating images from nationally recognized wildlife photographers Wendy Shattil and Bob Rozinski of dancingpelican.com have graced Pro Shots since 2004. With a library of dramatic photos that include soaring eagles, thundering horses and a tender image of a sleeping fawn, there’s no denying that Wendy and Bob have a gift for capturing extraordinary moments in the wild. We sat down with them and asked about their exciting work, and they revealed wonderful insights into wildlife photography and more.
Tell our members a little bit about yourselves and the history of your work.
Webshots visitors may know us better as dancingpelican.com. That’s the credit shown with our photos in Pro Shots. Although assignments have taken us beyond North America, the bulk of our work is in the Rocky Mountain West. 
Bob and I were photographers before we met, and we’ve been shooting nature, wildlife and western images together as a team for 27 years. We primarily photograph for publication. In addition to our own 12 books, thousands of our images have appeared in magazines, other books and media all over the world. Some of our recent credits include National Wildlife, Smithsonian, Ranger Rick, The Nature Conservancy and our newest children’s book, Born Wild in Colorado. Of the 350,000-plus photos we’ve taken in our careers, Bob and I have also chosen a handful of our favorites to print and offer for sale. We exhibit these signed prints in juried art shows, select galleries and on our website. Our western and horse prints are limited editions that are signed and numbered in our “Gathering of Horses” collection.
I was the first woman awarded the Grand Prize in the prestigious worldwide “BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year” competition. Bob and I received the Philip Hyde Grant for environmental photography, the Denver Audubon’s Environmental Stewardship Award and the Conservationist of the Year and Business of the Year Award from the Colorado Wildlife Federation. We were research associates for the Denver Museum of Nature and Science as well as artists in residence at Rocky Mountain National Park. Bob and I are Grand Prize winners in the Texas Valley Land Fund contest, and Bob won First Prize in the Nature’s Best international photography competition. We were both recently inducted into the International League of Conservation Photographers, a group of photographers and affiliates whose goal is to illustrate and bring to light environmental concerns worldwide.
What makes your photographs stand out?
It’s extremely difficult to succeed as full-time professional nature photographers without another source of income, but somehow Bob and I have managed to do so for decades. One reason is that we live and breathe photography 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Almost everything else takes a back seat. We’re always looking for photos that show an unusual behavior, an intimate moment people can connect with or an important aspect in the life or environment of an animal. In addition to luck, persistence and opportunity, the most important tool for our photography is light. We’ve been told the quality of light in our images creates a distinctive style. That might be because the majority of our photographs are taken very early in the morning. Often, we’re finished shooting by 9 or 10 a.m., when the sun is high in the sky; we’ll start again a few hours before sunset. We don’t presume to be able to improve upon nature, so we rarely try to embellish what is in front of our cameras. Occasionally, we’ll utilize a polarizing filter, but nothing else.
Tell us about your books.
Three of our 12 books can be ordered directly from our website with autographs and personalized dedications. We just released Born Wild in Colorado, a children’s book with 95 candid photos of animal youngsters found in the state, last month. Valley of the Dunes, named Best Photography Book of 2005 by USA Books, and City Foxes, winner of the National Science Foundation’s Outstanding Science Books for Children, round out the books available at dancingpelican.com. Among others are Colorado Book Award Finalist On the Trail of Colorado Critters; Rocky Mountain Safari and When Nature Heals: The Greening of Rocky Mountain Arsenal, which feature thriving wildlife in an environmentally sensitive setting; Close to Home: Colorado’s Urban Wildlife spotlights Denver’s animal neighbors; Valley of the Cranes highlights nature in Colorado’s San Luis Valley; and Rocky Mountain National Park: Beyond Trail Ridge, which is a colorful pictorial essay of one of America’s finest national parks.
What do you feel are some important tips to remember when photographing animals?
Respect the animals, study them as much as possible and learn from others. Whether biologists, birdwatchers or farmers, people who are around animals a lot are great resources of information. Regardless of how fine a photographer you are, if you don’t know your subject, your photos will be limited. If your interest is birds, it’s a good idea to network with local bird groups, such as the National Audubon Society. Most larger cities also have a field ornithologist group. These people are incredibly knowledgeable about when and where the birds are and they’re quite often very willing to share information.
Don’t be just a “lister,” taking one picture of an animal and going on to the next one. If you have one great shot of a bald eagle, don’t stop there because you only have a picture of one aspect of behavior. Spend time observing the animals you’re photographing. Get to know them as individuals. Just like us, they each have their own personalities, likes and dislikes. The key to truly great wildlife photos is anticipation. If you wait until an animal does something and then try to take the picture, you’re too late.
It is essential to learn the technical details about how to use your photographic equipment before encountering a fast-moving situation in the field. Practice in the backyard, at zoos or in national parks, where animals are frequently acclimated to human activity.
Even your pets can offer great opportunities for developing wildlife photography skills and gaining insights into animal behavior. When we’re at home, our two cats, Pixel and Adobe, are often practice subjects. The other day, they started playing, so we grabbed our Canon point-and-shoot camera and set it to video mode. It wasn’t meant to be great photography, but simply a way to capture a memory, which may be all you want to do with a camera.
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Do you shoot film or use a digital camera?
We both came into photography with diverse backgrounds, experience and techniques. Bob and I were well versed in black-and-white photography and grounded in getting the most out of film. We were initially hesitant to switch to digital as one of the early problems was the response time of digital cameras. A great deal of our work reflects the peak of action or catching the best moment of behavior. Even a response lag of 100 milliseconds was too slow, plus the first digital cameras didn’t capture enough megapixels for our kind of shooting. Bob and I have used Canon cameras for 30 years, and while they are certainly one of the most progressive camera manufacturers, it wasn’t until the advent of the Mark II series that we felt we could generate the quality of images we’ve established in our careers. To make the most of digital photography, we recommend adapting a shooting style and technique to take advantage of digital’s potential for capturing images that surpass film. We shoot digital images in RAW format, which necessitates some of the latest technology with computers and processing programs. Our intent, as it was with film, is to capture the best possible image with the camera to most honestly represent the subject. Whether the image capture is with film or digital, our shooting style is the same.
What projects are you working on?
For the past 20 years, our interests have leaned toward conservation photography. We want to use our skills and experience to document with a purpose. Some of our past projects involved urban wildlife, Rocky Mountain Arsenal near Denver, endangered species and subjects needed by conservation organizations.
In recent years, we’ve been developing a body of work from the greater Red Desert, an inaccessible, inhospitable, under-documented section of Southern Wyoming. We’re drawn to it by a multitude of qualities and issues occurring in a relatively unknown portion of the American West. We’ve encountered some of the most wild, most remote and harshest working conditions in our entire career. Obviously, we love a challenge. Hopefully the Wyoming project will evolve into a book. A number of our photos have already been published in magazines spotlighting this amazing example of the old west, wildlife and the environment.
What is your favorite creature to photograph?
Of course, the true answer is “everything,” but if we each had to pick one, these would be our choices:
Bob: I admire coyotes because they are the epitome of resourcefulness and adaptability. The probability is that there will still be coyotes roaming the planet after humans are gone from Earth. One of my favorite pictures is a coyote that was running across a meadow in Rocky Mountain National Park at daybreak. I anticipated the direction he might be moving and I saw a rock about four feet high in its path. Although the coyote was about 100 yards away, I respectfully asked him to jump on a rock and look at me. I said this mostly to myself as wishful thinking, but darned if he didn’t do it! The truth of the matter was that he was going to do it anyway, but it never hurts to ask. Some of the best pictures occur when you develop a degree of rapport with your subject. If we have respect for wildlife and relate to it on their level, it’s easy to see the unbelievable qualities that wild animals have.
Wendy: The fox has chosen me as much as I’ve chosen it as a favorite animal. Several of the most meaningful photographic experiences I’ve had involved foxes. My Grand Prize Wildlife Photographer of the Year image was “Young Red Fox,” a very simple but perfect portrait resulting from several months of photographing a nearby den. A few years later, I came across a different fox den in a local cemetery when I visited my grandmother’s grave. For three months I photographed the fox family, resulting in City Foxes, my book about a mom, dad and six baby foxes growing up in an urban setting.
Do you have any final advice for our members?
Anyone with a camera has the power to make a difference. Whether you take pictures with a point-and-shoot or the most expensive digital SLR, you can make a statement that can influence people. Learn a subject or area well enough to make it your own. We firmly believe in the adage, “Think globally, act locally.” You’re more likely to have an impact with your photos on subjects you observe over months and years than on a two-week trek to Africa or Alaska. Vacation photos are memories for you and your family, but local or regional subjects are opportunities to use the luxury of time and personal experience to become a spokesperson for nature and the environment. Have fun with your photography, but also consider using it to contributing to your community.
For more information about Wendy Shattil and Bob Rozinski, please visit their website dancingpelican.com.
If you have any questions or comments for Wendy and Bob, please leave them in the comments section of this blog post.
