We are in absolute awe every time we’re scrolling on Instagram and we see one of Julia’s incredible illustrations pop up. Saying they’re realistic is an understatement - they truly capture the essence and beauty of the ocean creatures she chooses to document, and celebrates their uniqueness in the most detailed way possible. We wanted to speak to Julia about her process and how, with so much choice in the ocean, how she chooses who’s next.

We spoke to Wild Lens Collective member Annie Roth about her recent documentary, Penguin Love Island, and the grant she won which allowed the production to go ahead. The film was created with fellow Wild Lens Collective members Justin Grubb and Alex Goetz, co-Founders of production company Running Wild Media.

Two of our Collective members, Christy Frank and Alex Goetz, who are both based in Toledo, Ohio, are in the process finishing up their short documentary, A Bird in the Hand, after a successful pre-screening this past fall.

Children of the Wolves is an observational and expository documentary about the complicated past of wolves in Idaho, shown through the lens of young people fighting to keep them around.

Elliot Connor is one of the newest members of the Wild Lens Collective, and we’re so excited to have him on board. Elliot is an ‘Author-Filmmaker-Podcaster-Naturalist’, whose motivation to tell nature stories started when he hunted by a leopard aged 10.

Earlier this year we shared a grant opportunity with our members who were asked to submit proposals for environmental storytelling projects. Esther Nosazeogie’s project was a photography exhibition in Lagos, Nigeria, which raised awareness about the potential destruction of a local wetland and highlighted its beauty and value.

The following article was written by Munir Virani, Executive Vice President and Director for Conservation Strategy and External Affairs at the Peregrine Fund. Munir is featured in the pilot episode of the new animated series, the Chronicles of the Curious, which is co-produced by the Wild Lens Collective. If you’re feeling inspired by Munir’s story, learn more about this exciting new series!

I am Esther Nosazeogie, a writer and story-lover. I am also at a very early stage in my career as a researcher in Conservation Biology.

I’m Emily Stanford, a wildlife filmmaker, passionate conservationist, and a bat researcher. I quite literally stumbled into my passion for bats when I tripped over a bat hole in the forest floor in Peru. After I got over my initial fear of the bats that lived there, I became curious and began looking up facts about them.

Our story began in the hot steamy rainforests of Costa Rica when two filmmakers from Bowling Green State University joined forces to undertake a wild expedition to highlight the extraordinary species and conservation stories of one of the most biodiverse regions on the planet. After being awarded the Givens R. Memorial Fellowship, Alex Goetz and myself (Justin Grubb) packed our camera gear and headed off on an adventure of a lifetime.

Geoff Spanner now is involved exclusively in nature filmmaking. He has worked in many aspects of filmmaking over the years, including five years as a private college professor (known as a lecturer in Australia). He first started out in still photography and journalism for magazines over twenty years ago.

In 2014, I graduated with a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design and a minor in Business Administration. In the beginning at Northern Michigan University, I knew I wanted a degree in graphic design, having come from a creative and artsy family. 

Jason B. Milligan – Wild Lens Collective member, G.O. Get Outside podcast producer, co-founder of Butcher Bird Studios and generally multi-talented Louisiana-born mountain babe. Jason’s podcast is just about to reach its landmark 100th episode, so we thought we should celebrate by telling our Wild Lens community all about it, and all about Jason too.

Hello everyone! My name is Brandon Navratil and I am a wildlife filmmaker, naturalist, and guide based in the Yellowstone area. I have been pursuing my dreams of working in nature, capturing beautiful imagery, and making inspirational change since I was 7 years old. Always wanting to be a wildlife cinematographer and host, but thinking it was a ‘dream life’ that was impossible to achieve, I began my schooling in wildlife biology.

My life is steeped in thoughts of ecological crisis.  My ever-expanding knowledge of this ever-deepening crisis colors everything I choose to do, or not do.  The weight of our collective situation on this planet more often than not inspires sadness and frustration rather than a motivation to fight for our future. 

We are very excited to be collaborating with Running Wild Media and its co-founders Justin Grubb and Alex Goetz on their new VR series, “Dive In”. The first season of the show will focus on Honduras, and one of the aspects of the series that we’re most excited about is the opportunity to bring this content into Honduran classrooms. Justin and Alex are committed to this aspect of the project, and have launched a crowdsource funding campaign to raise the funds needed to make it a reality.

Years ago when I first heard the term Raptor; I immediately imagined malicious, human hunting dinosaurs from Jurassic Park! Of course, I quickly learned this was a term used for birds of prey. If birds of prey aren’t as spine tingling as extinct monsters for you, then you need only spend a few minutes with Steve Alsup, president of the Birds of Prey NCA Partnership.

My first black bear encounter involved spotting one while out jogging, which resulted in running my best mile in the opposite direction. Obviously, this is terrible advice in the event of a black bear incident, but the story had local black bear expert, Sally Maughan, laughing through the phone.

While in town for my artist brother’s DC finale, we made sure to visit one of his local haunts, Kenilworth Aquatic Park and Gardens. It was a brilliantly blue, late July afternoon and, armed with cameras, we took to the grassy trails that bordered a series of ponds overflowing with lush lotus flowers, their pink and white heads in all stages of blossom. Plenty of nature-loving folk wandered the paths, some still in their Sunday best, taking in the aquatic flowery expanses.

From Sarasota, I took the bridge to Lido Key, one of multiple barrier islands that line the west coast of the state of Florida. Following the sounds of the seabirds I walked out onto the grainy, off-white sands of Lido Beach, which overlooks the gleaming blue-green waters of the Gulf of Mexico.