International Women's Day - Women in the Wild

International Women’s Day – Women in the Wild

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Today is International Women’s Day, and we’re embracing the theme of #BalanceforBetter by taking this opportunity to highlight the work and achievements of some of our amazing female photographers. In an industry where the image is king, it shouldn’t matter who’s behind the lens, but it’s hard to deny that the world of wildlife photography has traditionally been rather male dominated, so we’re delighted to celebrate the success of our female photographers.

Jen Guyton

Jen Guyton is a photographer and ecologist with a passion for wildlife conservation and communicating about nature. She has a BSc in Conservation and Resource Studies from the University of California, Berkeley and a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University. Jen is a National Geographic Explorer and Fulbright-National Geographic Digital Storytelling Fellow in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique and has spent ten years travelling and working on wildlife and conservation projects in Africa. She has been successful in a number of international nature photography competitions, including a category winner in Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2018, and her photo features on animal behaviour and conservation issues are widely published.

View a wider gallery of Jen’s work here.

Cones of a female Welwitschia plant, Swakopmund, Namib Desert, Namibia. They are among the most ancient organisms on the planet.

Cape ground squirrels (Xerus inauris) mobbing a Cape cobra (Naja nivea) that had come too close to their burrow in the Kalahari Desert, South Africa.

Meerkat pup (Suricata suricatta) standing among its family in a field of Devilthorn flowers (Tribulus zeyheri). Kalahari Desert, South Africa.

Ground pangolin (Smutsia temminckii) foraging for termites, taken during a biodiversity survey in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique.

Several species of butterfly from the genus Graphium 'puddling' in Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique.

Rüppell's griffon vultures (Gyps rueppelli) and white-backed vultures (Gyps africanus) squabble over an elephant carcass (Loxodonta africana), Laikipia Plateau, Kenya.

Sue Flood

Sue Flood is a wildlife filmmaker and photographer, specialising in the polar regions and marine subjects. She spent 11 years working for the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol, before going freelance in 2005. She was an Associate producer on the award-winning BBC / Discovery series The Blue Planet, and also more recently worked on Planet Earth as a field assistant and photographer, which took her as far afield as the Arctic, the Antarctic and the South Pacific. Sue has also produced three films for the BBC including Polar Bears on Thin Ice and also a Killer Whale Special for the BBC/Discovery Channel. She has recently published a book featuring her emperor penguin photography.

View a wider gallery of Sue’s work here.

Emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) adults leaning over young chicks, Gould Bay, Weddell Sea, Antarctica.

Tourists standing in a circle around the North Pole

Emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) chick flapping wings, Snow Hill Island rookery, Weddell Sea, Antarctica. November

Aerial view of iceberg, with majority of berg visible under the water, Antarctic peninsula

Emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) adults with young chicks at Snow Hill Island rookery, Antarctica. October.

Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov in the Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Karine Aigner

Karine-Aigner Raised in Saudi Arabia, Karine motorcycled through Vietnam, circumnavigated the globe by ship, taught English in Taiwan, and then there was the time the hyena pups chewed her shoes (while on her feet). On her first trip to Africa, she fell in love with a continent. From one chapter to the next, her adventures uncover her fervour to tell the stories of life through the lens of a camera; her passion became stories of animals, their relationships to humans, and their own world. For nine years, as the Senior picture editor for National Geographic Kids magazine, Karine learned all she could about good storytelling and the makings of a ‘good picture’. In 2011 she ventured outside the office walls to a life of freelance photography and picture editing. Karine leads photographic tours across the globe to cool places like the Galapagos and Tanzania.

Karine is an associate fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP) and a member of NANPA. Her work has been featured in National Geographic Magazine, GEOLino, Nature Conservancy Magazine, and BBC Wildlife to name a few. Karine lives in Washington, DC. When she’s there, she can be found trying to carve out an hour of her day to get her newly adopted rescue dog out of the concrete jungle, and into the woods.

Wild Bobcat (Lynx rufus) family of three cubs drinking water from bowl, with mother stretching Texas, USA

Biologist Nathan Cooper holding male Kirtland's warbler (Setophaga kirtlandii) before replacing previous nano tag with a new one. Michigan, USA.

Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis) leaving maternity colony at night to feed, with red lighting at entrance to cave. Bracken Cave, San Antonio, Texas, USA

Bee hummingbird (Mellisuga helenae) male, the world's smallest bird, endemic to Cuba. Cienaga de Zapata National Park, Cuba

African wild dog (Lycaon pictus) walking alongside a pup carrying regurgitated food. Malilangwe Wildlife Reserve, Zimbabwe

Portrait of a Downy woodpecker (Picoides pubescens) with white background, Block island, Rhode Island, USA. Bird caught during scientific research.

Tui De Roy

Tui De Roy is an award-winning wildlife photographer, naturalist, and author of many books on wildlife themes around the world. She is also an ardent conservationist who has combined her life’s three passions — wilderness, photography and conservation — into a successful career as a world communicator striving to sensitise her audiences to take better care of our natural planet. Tui is Belgian by birth, but grew up in the Galapagos Islands and now divides her time between the Galapagos Islands and New Zealand. Together with her business partners Tui runs The Roving Tortoise Nature Photography under the motto ‘Images of Wildlife and Wilderness from Our Planet’s Most Pristine, Uninhabited Regions’.

Galapagos sea lion (Zalophus wollebaeki) killing tuna. A group of the sea lion bulls have learnt to herd Pelagic yellowfin tuna into a small cove, trapping them. The fish often leap ashore in an effort to escape. Punta Albemarle, Isabela Island, Galapagos.

Atlantic yellow-nosed albatross (Thalassarche chlororhynchos). nesting amid Blechnum palmiforme tree ferns. Gough Island, Gough and Inaccessible Islands UNESCO World Heritage Site, South Atlantic.

Emperor penguin (Aptenodytes forsteri) chicks, Amanda Bay, Prydz Bay, Ingrid Christensen Coast, East Antarctica, November.

Marine Iguana (Amblyrhynchus cristatus) grazing on algae, Cape Douglas, Fernandina Island, Galapagos Islands, Ecuador

Northern Rockhopper Penguin (Eudyptes moseleyi) in windswept nesting colony. Gough Island, Gough and Inaccessible Islands UNESCO World Heritage Site, South Atlantic.

Green turtle (Chelonia mydas) female digging nest, North coast, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos

Sandra Bartocha

Bartocha_Sandra_Portrait Sandra Bartocha grew up in the beautiful countryside of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. Her father introduced her to photography at a young age – he worked as a photographer and would take her with him on shoots. She photographs local landscapes and nature, in particular coastlines, forest scenes and flowers. The beauty of nature and the beauty of natural light is a great source of inspiration to Sandra. She tries to photograph nature in an artistic way rather than trying to document it, focusing on details, light, colours and moods and using creative camera techniques to capture the beauty of a scene in the best way. Her pictures have been published in European magazines, books and calendars, and she has received prizes in numerous international competitions – including the Wildlife Photographer of the Year. She was one of the photographic team on the pan-European Wild Wonders of Europe initiative. Currently she is working on a long-term project about the north of Europe – LYS.