Why am I a Wildlife Photographer & Writer?

Three-Wattled Bellbird, Monteverde

Carol Creager: Wildlife Photographer

I started photographing nature and wildlife as a child traveling across the United States. With my “Brownie” camera I photographed all the natural sites and animals I could as we visited 47 states and 5 provinces of Canada. I read everything I could about wildlife and wild places, my passion. We lived in the country in northeastern Ohio, where I watched wildlife and tramped through the woods as well as through Cook Forest, Pennsylvania, with family and friends. The highlight at home was watching a fox relax by our pond. After becoming a Spanish teacher, I traveled extensively in Spanish-speaking countries, always photographing noteworthy sites such as cathedrals, synagogues, festivities, monuments, and natural sites.

In 1992, I took a course in Costa Rica: Rainforest Workshop for Teachers, led by the eminent biologist, expert birder, and foremost guide in the country, Carlos Gómez, better known as Charlie Gomez. He ignited my passion to learn all that I could about birds as well as animals, frogs, iguanas, other wildlife, and natural features such as waterfalls, wetlands, volcanoes, and ecosystems of Costa Rica. Then I found an ad by Borderland Tours of Arizona, promoting a tour with the owner Rick Taylor and the guide Carlos Gomez. Could it be my Charlie? Sure enough, it was. I immediately signed up for the tour, which was thrilling. I discovered I had a unique talent: I always look at the wrong Y-shaped branch, white tree, or whatever. I have always had poor eyesight, making it even more difficult to see more than a dark shape. Then Charlie lent me his Swarovski binoculars to see a squirrel monkey carrying her baby on her back. I was captivated for life. Every summer I traveled with Rick and Charlie to Costa Rica and once to Panama, photographing everything I could.

That ended when my mother became too old to be left alone, and I spent several years only photographing the birds in my area of Florida. My mother died in 2008, just short of her 102nd birthday. That summer I joined Borderlands in Costa Rica. After a couple of trips, I wanted to see the rest of the country. One trip included Carlos and a Secret Service agent, who knew nothing about birds but saw absolutely everything. Carlos was able to identify what he spotted.

Mexican Porcupine Asleep in a Tree

I was lucky enough to encounter Luis Barrantes driving for a company that no longer exists. He has his own company, LUBARO (=LUis BArrantes ROdriguez). He has the best eyes for spotting tiny creatures as well as great patience with me. I have spent every vacation from school with him; after my retirement, I was free to travel at other times of the year. As I grow older, I often depend on him for photographs of birds I cannot see. He can go to places I can no longer reach, and he is devoted to full-time effort for his clients.

My massage therapist friend and outstanding photographer Nick Katris has joined us for several trips. He has been a tremendous help to the person who reminds him of his grandmother, keeping me moving as I age, as well as taking photographs. Nick also took all of the photographs in my first book of the series about his Italian greyhound, Seeley, titled “Who Is My Best Friend?” Since then, I have met Seeley and traveled with them in California. 

It is a great advantage to have several photographers, shooting the bird from several angles or shooting different birds and animals at the same time. There are places where no bird is visible and places where a mixed flock appears, and no one can shoot photographs of a number of birds at the same time. Birds often are attracted to the same food at the same time. At one time, late in the day, Luis, Nick and I were overwhelmed by a group of squirrel monkeys, a howler monkey, and a couple of birds.

One of my goals is to photograph as many volcanos, lakes, waterfalls, and other natural wonders as well as non-natural wonders such as the Panama canals (Yes, there are now 2).

Cinnamon Becard at nest, Las Dimas

Another goal is to photograph as many wildlife activities as possible. I do not count birds. I try to get birds and animals in action: flying, running, eating, bathing, feeding young, courting, whatever. I try to see how species interact and depend on their environments. For several years I have been working on an extensively illustrated PowerPoint book explaining how different parts of nature work together and depend on each other for their existence. A good friend, Cinthya Castellon Miceli, suggested I write children’s books using my photographs.

That means I need multiple views of the subject’s actions, and it is difficult to hold a camera with a long lens high for an extended period of time.

Red-Eyed Tree Frog or Leaf Frog

As soon as I lower the camera to rest my arm, the subject does something interesting, and I hope another photographer caught it.
If one of us switches to another subject, the first subject becomes active.
Nature is so varied, beautiful, funny, interesting, relaxing, charming, that one can never tire of it. It is necessary to the health of our planet as well as to people and must be enjoyed and protected.

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