Cotton Carrier: Where do you call home?
Timothy Irvin: Cheslea, Quebec - but I work in the Great Bear Rainforest.
CC: How long have you taken photographs for unprofessionally and professionally?
TI: Since 2001
Timothy Irvin using the CCS G3 Harness available on our website now.
CC: How would you define your style as a photographer?
TI: Undefined and under construction :)
CC: Have you ever gone to photography school?
TI: No. But I have learned a lot from guiding professionals and high-end amateurs for the last 20 years.
CC: Where is your favorite place or thing to shoot?
TI: Spirit Bears and wolves in the Great Bear Rainforest
CC: What Camera(s) / Lenses do you use?
TI: Canon 5D IV. Lenses: Canon 16-35, 24-105, 100-400 and 500 f/4
CC: What’s the craziest thing you’ve ever done to get “The Shot”?
TI: Once, I went on a 7-week solo canoe trip in the arctic to photograph arctic wolves (among other things).
CC: Who has inspired you as a photographer?
TI: Ian McAllister, Neil Ever Osborne, Paul Nicklen, Steven David Johnson, Peter Mather, Eiko Jones, Ronan Donovan, Florian Shultz, Cristina Meitermier, Joe Riis.
CC: What advice would you tell an aspiring photographer?
TI: I am a wildlife photographer, so my advice to aspiring wildlife photographers is to pick something unique and close to home that you can focus on and shoot it exhaustively - beyond when you think you are done. Then and only then consider travelling to some distant exotic place to photograph all those other iconic species. If you want to distinguish yourself, it is way easier to do that by shooting something different or by shooting something in a unique way. Seek out new techniques to highlight your subjects in new ways. But what do I know...
CC: Can you share a photographic resource you personally use?
TI: The Journal of Wildlife Photography
CC: How has photography shaped your day to day?
TI: Seeing the world with a photographer's eye simply enhances one's vision. The small beautiful things stand out and the world becomes more beautiful, more wonderous.
CC: Where has photography taken you, and made you experience?
TI: I mostly take photos in the Great Bear Rainforest - because that is where I work as a guide. I have also travelled to Canada's high arctic, but generally I do not travel to far-off destinations. There is so much to explore close to home. More importantly, as a community, I think we need to grapple with our desire to travel and explore and the impact our carbon emissions are having on the wildlife, people and places we seek to experience. Am I also full of contradictions? Of course! But these thoughts keep me up at night.
Find Timothys work: @timothy.irvin on Instagram and his personal website.
