Wild Planet Interview
While in London, Tim was interviewed by Wild Planet about winning the portfolio award in the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition. The article features 14 questions and all 6 winning images.
New BBC film: Attenborough's Paradise Birds
If you are in the UK, or anywhere you can get BBC2, don’t miss Sir David Attenborough’s newest film on the Birds of Paradise called “Attenborough’s Paradise Birds”. It is airing at 8:00 PM on Thursday, Jan 29, 2015.
Many video shots and sequences made by Tim Laman and Ed Scholes are found throughout the film, including this title shot which you may recognize if you know Tim’s work:
See the trailer here:
ATTENBOROUGH'S PARADISE BIRDS TRAILER
Featured in the film are Tim Laman and Ed Scholes and their project to photograph all the species of Birds of Paradise, including a sequence where they share rare footage of Carola’s Parotia with Sir David in the BBC studios.
Shortly after broadcast, the program will apparently be available at the BBC2 website so check back here:
2014 – It’s Been Quite a Year!
Wildlife Photographer of the Year award, Explorer’s Club membership, and a Canon exhibit and ad campaign make for a banner year.
Fieldwork is what I am all about…. Field research and exploration, and spending many months in the wild corners of the planet seeking those elusive, story-telling images of rare species and wild landscapes. This year was no exception, with a lot of field time on my “Documenting Orangutan Diversity” project in Indonesia and Malaysia, as well as shooting in some other locations such as the Maldives, the Sierra Nevada range, and China.
But as the year wraps up, I also realize that it has been a very special year for me. It’s very rewarding when all the hard work in the field yields not only published photos and articles, but also other types of exposure and recognition. These were some of the special highlights of 2014:
Canon’s 100 Million lenses campaign: As Canon reached the major landmark of producing their 100 Millionth lens, they created a print ad campaign in Japan that featured my Greater Bird-of-Paradise image and a shot of me with my camera up in the canopy in the New Guinea rain forest. I have been an enthusiastic user of Canon equipment for over three decades, so it was a great feeling to be selected to represent all the Canon photographers out there and the Canon brand for this ad.
The Explorer’s Club: As I combine video shooting on Canon DSLR’s more and more with my still photography, it was a milestone for me to receive my first filmmaking award at a film festival in January. We won the “Best Exploration Film” at the New York Wild Film Festival. The Festival was held at the famous Explorer’s Club in New York, and led to opportunities to meet many members and see the club. Subsequently, I was nominated and accepted for membership in the Explorer’s Club, which I am very excited about. I look forward to opportunities to meet more of the renowned explorer’s who are involved with this club, and to continue to make expeditions in the spirit of exploration the club represents.
Wildlife Photographer of the Year Portfolio Award: I’ve been entering photos in this granddaddy of all wildlife photography competitions for nearly twenty years. It is without a doubt the premier competition of its kind in the world. While at least ten of my images have received honors over the years, I had never one a major category or award. So it was a real career high point when my portfolio of six Birds-of-Paradise images won the new Portfolio Award category.
Canon Gallery Exhibit: In January, my year started out with a real milestone. Something I had dreamed about since I was a kid visiting Canon photo galleries in Tokyo. I had my own exhibit of my Birds-of-Paradise work shown in the Canon S Gallery at Canon Marketing Japan headquarters in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It was a thrill to see this childhood fantasy come true, and to spend time in Tokyo, giving a lecture to accompany the exhibit.
Meeting Sir David Attenborough: It’s pretty exciting when you get to meet a long-time hero and inspirational figure like Sir David. It was a real pleasure and an honor for Ed Scholes and me to meet Sir David in Bristol, UK this past April to work on a film project together. With our common interest in Birds-of-Paradise, we hit it off immediately. The film will be out in early 2015, so stay tuned!
2014 is going to be hard to beat, but here’s to 2015!
Ten Questions with Tim Laman
Here is a recent interview I did for a Singapore newspaper. Since I get many questions about my background and my photography, I thought I would share it here. Hope you enjoy it!
- What is your earliest memory of travelling? How did it inspire you?
My earliest memories of traveling are going by ship across the Pacific Ocean from San Francisco to Japan with my family when I was 4 years old in 1965. My parents lived and worked in Japan when I was growing up, so we traveled a lot back and forth from Asia to the States and to other places my whole childhood. Traveling was just normal to me growing up. I think it inspired me in the sense that I never felt there were any limits to going anywhere in the world. All you have to do is make up your mind, find a way to get that plane (or boat) ticket, and go.
- When did you realize you had an interest in photography?
I started playing around with an old camera of my Dad’s when I was in 7th or 8th grade, and I bought my own camera when I was in high school. So my interest started early. I just kept getting more serious about my photography as time went on.
- Have you gone completely digital? Are there differences?
Yes, I’ve been completely digital since late 2004. A big advantage to digital is getting immediate feedback in the field. This makes a huge difference since I am often in remote areas where I can’t process film. The other huge advantage has been the improvement in low-light performance of newer digital cameras. This helps me out a lot because I like to shoot animals early and late in the day and am often working in the rain forest where light is very limited.
- You like going to wild locations. What draws you to these places?
I love exploring the little known areas of the world. It is exciting to go to places few people have been, and to see things few people get to see. It is the opportunity for real exploration that I find the most rewarding, and scientific research projects and photography are the ways that I get to do these things.
- What is challenging about getting to those places? How much do you rely on local guides?
The most extremely remote places can be very expensive to get to because almost by definition, they don’t have good access or transportation available. So raising funding for expensive transportation like helicopters or boat charters can sometimes be the first challenge. With regard to local guides, it varies tremendously by location. Some of the most remote locations, like uninhabited islands, or remote mountains, have no inhabitants and thus no local guides. We go in with a small team and are on our own. In other cases, when local residents are present, I rely on them a lot. I definitely try to take advantage of local knowledge and so I am often hiring local guides to help out when they are available.
- Patience is probably a virtue when it comes to shooting wildlife. How long have you had to wait out a shot?
Patience is definitely very important. It’s all a matter of motivation and if you want to be doing it. I can go crazy in a 30-minute traffic jam. But I can sit in a blind all day to try to capture an image of a unique bird-of-paradise display. I’ll say it again, it’s all about your drive and motivation. I’m not sure exactly, but I’m pretty sure I have put in more than eighty hours in a blind over a ten day period for some shots.
- When you go to remote locations, how much time do you spend there? What are conditions like usually?
It is really variable and depends on what I am after and how easy it is to go back. But for example, when I got dropped off by helicopter in the remote Foja Mountains of Papua, Indonesia with a team of biologists, we stayed for three weeks before the helicopter came back to this completely road-less area to pick us up. We camped in a very wet rain forest. It rained every day, and was incredibly muddy. It wasn’t exactly a picnic.
- What has kept your interest in photography buoyant?
The thing about photography is that you can never take a perfect picture. There is always room for improvement, something to strive for, and to keep trying to get better. With gear improving all the time, there are always new ways to make images that weren’t possible before. And in my field of documenting rare and endangered wildlife, there are so many important stories to tell. I will never run out of subjects or ideas.
- What are some things an aspiring photographer should do?
Here are some suggestions:
- Find out what you really love photographing, and put a lot of effort into that. Passion for your subject matter and for photography is so important, that you need to make sure you discover what you have a passion for.
- Realize that you can do a lot with even the simplest photographic equipment. The creative process of conceiving and capturing the photograph is more important than the equipment. So don’t get obsessed with gear or always having the latest. Camera’s and lenses are our tools of the trade, but the photographer makes the pictures. So work with what you can afford and put your energy into developing your craft, not your equipment collection.
10. What is the biggest lesson you have learned through all your travelling and photography?
There is a big world out there! There are still plenty of poorly known places and animals to photograph and make discoveries about. What I am saying is, this idea that the world has been explored, and there is nothing left to discover is just completely wrong. For example, I pursued a project for many years to photograph all 39 species of Birds of Paradise in the wild for the first time. Even in 2011, there were members of this famous group of birds for which the male courtship behavior had never been described, and few if any photographs existed in the wild. There are countless species, especially in the tropical regions of the world, both in the rain forests and underwater, that remain poorly known and poorly photographed. So go out and explore the world. That’s one of the greatest things about being a photographer. Your camera becomes your passport for exploration.
Postcards from Borneo
The final installment of our summer "Postcards from Borneo" blog series on the Nataional Geographic PROOF Blog has just gone live. Check it out HERE.
In this post, my wife, orangutan researcher Cheryl Knott, wraps things up from her perspective. It has been an amazing summer working in the field with my wife and her team of students and research assistants in Gunung Palung National Park, in Indonesian Borneo. As we have for many years, we also took our kids Russell and Jessica with us and they had a great time at this unusual summer camp. This year, National Geographic invited all four of us to contribute stories to their PROOF blog about our adventures.
Here are links to all six of the blog posts our family members published on National Geographic:
Postcards from Borneo: A Family Adventure Begins Anew (by Tim Laman)
Postcards from Borneo: The Boat Trip Upriver (by Russell Laman)
Postcards from Borneo: Chasing Orangutans (by Jessica Laman)
Postcards from Borneo: The World's Stinkiest (But Best) Fruit (by Russell Laman)
Postcards from Borneo: The Best Swimming Hole in Gunung Palung (by Jessica Laman)
Postcards form Borneo: My Rainforest Family (by Cheryl Knott)
To learn more about research and conservation of orangutans in Borneo, visit www.saveGPorangutans.org.
Fieldwork with the Family
For many months of each year, I am in the field on my own. But most summers in recent years, I have traveled with my wife Cheryl Knott, who is a Boston University professor and orangutan researcher, to her field site in Gunung Palung National Park in Borneo. And we have also been taking our children with us. This year I have been working on a new orangutan project for National Geographic, and NatGeo asked us to also cover the family angle. So we have been writing a series of blog posts for their PROOF blog.
See the latest post from my daughter Jessica at: Postcards-from-Borneo-the-best-swimming-hole-in-Gunung-Palung
To learn more about conserving orangutans in the spectacular Gunung Palung National Park area, visit saveGPorangutans.org
National Geographic PROOF Blog
This summer follow Tim's adventures with his family in Borneo documenting orangutans for an assignment with National Geographic on their PROOF blog. View his first post: Postcards From Borneo: A Family Adventure Begins Anew.
Tim Laman has been announced as the keynote speaker at this years Wildscreen Photography Festival
On Saturday October 25, Tim will be the keynote speaker at the Wildscreen Photography Festival held at the Royal Geographical Society in London. Formerly WildPhotos, this 3 day event includes workshops and talks from the best environmental and wildlife photographers. You can see the announcement and some of Tim's pictures on the Wildscreen Festivals website. 
Tim Interviewed on Talk Radio
When Tim and Edwin Scholes were in Philadelphia for the opening of their Birds of Paradise exhibit at the Academy of Natural Sciences at Drexel University they did a radio interview. You can listen to the podcast of Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane as they discuss the behavior of the birds of paradise and how they captured all 39 species. As part of the interview they broadcast some of the birds of paradise mating calls and explain how they do it.
Documenting Orangutan Diversity
Currently, Tim is in the rainforest of Indonesia working on his orangutan project for the summer. Part of the project is a new National Geographic story which he will document their behavior in several different populations around the country. Check Instagram for pictures from Tim in the field. @TimLaman
Highly Honored Winner in Nature's Best Competition
Tim has been highly honored in the Birds Category of Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards 2013. His picture of the displaying lesser bird-of-paradise captured the attention of the judges. This picture was taken in the Vogelkop Peninsula in West Papua, Indonesia. The winning images will be on display at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington D.C. this fall.
Birds of Paradise Move to Philly
Tim's exhibit, Birds of Paradise: Amazing Avian Evolution, is now open at The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA. The exhibit developed by National Geographic and The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is open from May 3 to September 1, 2014. Check out The Academy's website to plan your visit.
"Best Exploration Film" winner at the New York Wild Film Festival
Our short Bird of Paradise film called "Paradise Found", shot by Tim Laman, Ed Scholes and Eric Liner, and produced/edited by Tom Swartwout won the category "Best Exploration Film". It was a real honor and thrill to attend the festival this past weekend in New York City at the famed Explorer's Club.
Here is the TRAILER for the festival, which gives you a great overview of the films we saw last Saturday. You'll see glimpse of Tim rappelling and birds of paradise performing in the reel.
Go to the festival WEBSITE to see the trailers for the individual films and learn more about the winning films.
Canon Gallery S Exhibit in Tokyo
Ever since I was a teenager growing up in Japan and visited the Canon photo galleries in Tokyo, I had a dream to one day have my own work featured there. Now I am happy to say that a selection of my best Bird-of-Paradise photographs are on exhibit at the Canon Gallery S in Canon S Tower in Shinagawa, Tokyo. It is a short walk from Shinagawa station, so if you are in Tokyo, please check it out. It includes a video I shot in 4K using Canon's amazing EOS-1D C camera recently in Australia, displayed on a huge 84 inch monitor, and also samples of stills taken from 4K video frames.
Birds Of Paradise Book In Japanese
Birds Of Paradise: Revealing The World's Most Extraordinary Birds has been translated into Japanese and is available for purchase. One great addition to the book is that in the Japanese edition, it contains QR codes that take you directly to videos of the birds. You can find it in bookstores in Japan, or order it from the Nat Geo Japan website. If you are in the US or elsewhere and are interested in purchasing a copy please contact us by email at office@timlaman.com.
BBC Wildlife Portfolio
BBC Wildlife magazine published Tim's Birds of Paradise images in their December issue. The 13 page portfolio includes 12 of Tim's best Birds of Paradise photographs.
Birds of Paradise in Outdoor Photographer
This months issue of Outdoor Photographer features a story on Tim's Birds of Paradise project. Writer Amy Gulick tells of Tim's 8 year journey culminating with the publication of "Birds of Paradise: Revealing the World's Most Extraordinary Birds". It features some of Tim's best Birds of Paradise photographs. You can view the article online at Outdoor Photographer's website: Birds of Paradise. If you live in the U.S., you still have a couple more days to order the book to receive it before Christmas. Purchase the Birds of Paradise book at Tim Laman's store.
Print Sale
We are having a sale at Tim Laman's online archive. For the next 10 days everything is 10% off! At checkout, enter the coupon code: SALE10. This offer expires December 20th and can not be redeemed more than once. Happy Holidays!
N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences Host Birds of Paradise
The Birds of Paradise exhibit that deputed at National Geographic headquarters last year is now on display at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. You can visit the exhibit through March 23rd, 2014. Sarah Lindenfield Hall posed a nice review at WRAL.com
"Three Days, Three Wild Finds" in Harvard Gazette
Harvard University published a story on Tim's recent discoveries of new species in Cape Melville, Australia. This was part of his Cape York expedition where they were dropped off by a helicopter to the rainforest in the mountains made of boulders. Tim is an associate of Harvard's Museum of Comparative Zoology after receiving his Ph.D. in Biology from the prestigious university. View the entire story on the Harvard Gazette's website.