Guardians of the Wild: A Call to Nature Photographers

By Erik Stensland

As nature photographers, we spend our lives in awe of the world’s beauty—standing in silence as the sun crests a mountain ridge, waiting quietly beside a forest trail for a glimpse of a fox, or wandering near a meadow’s edge enjoying the scent of wildflowers and the hum of bees. These moments are more than opportunities to make photographs. They are the healing of our souls as well as a way of resisting the growing threats to our world.

In the United States and around the world, the places we love are facing increasing risk. Public lands are being opened to extraction and development. Protections for endangered species are being weakened or ignored. Climate policies are being reversed or stripped of funding. And the cumulative effect is accelerating—shrinking habitat, rising temperatures, and biodiversity loss at a pace far beyond what many of us imagined we’d witness in our lifetime.

In the U.S., the current administration’s approach to environmental stewardship has been concerning. While some agencies and leaders continue to advocate for conservation, many decisions have favored short-term economic gains over long-term ecological stability. Oil drilling has been fast-tracked on once-protected lands. The Endangered Species Act has been revised to make protections harder to enforce. And climate initiatives have been undermined just as the world faces intensifying droughts, fires, and floods.

It’s easy to feel powerless in the face of such sweeping changes. But we—photographers—have a unique and powerful role to play.

We are not passive observers of nature. We are its witnesses, its interpreters, and potentially, its guardians. Through our images and our words, we can show others what’s at stake. We can remind people of what remains and of how much we stand to lose. And we can inspire the kind of love that leads to action.

Here are just a few ways we can step into that role:

Use your voice. Share your photos with purpose. When posting images online or exhibiting your work, tell the story behind the photo—not just the technical details, but what the place means to you, what threats it may be facing, and how others can help protect it.
Educate your audience. Incorporate conservation messages into your captions, blog posts, videos, and talks. Help people understand the connections between policy decisions and the beauty they see in your work.
Support conservation organizations. Donate a portion of your sales, offer prints for fundraising, or collaborate on awareness campaigns. Groups working on the ground need storytellers as much as they need scientists and attorneys.
Vote with the Earth in mind. Support leaders and policies that prioritize science-based environmental stewardship, Indigenous land rights, and global climate cooperation.
Practice and promote low-impact photography. Follow the Nature First Principles and help educate others—especially emerging photographers—on how to minimize disturbance and protect the places they love to photograph.

The truth is, we may never again see the Earth as it was just a few decades ago. But we are not helpless. Each of us carries a tool capable of preserving memory, stirring emotion, and sparking change. In our cameras, we hold more than lenses and sensors—we hold a way to defend what cannot speak for itself.

This moment in history calls for more than beautiful photos. It calls for bravery. It calls for honesty, for stewardship, and for love translated into action.

So go—wander the forests, wait beside the trails, stand in awe. But don’t stop there. Share what you see. Tell the stories behind the stillness. And let your work be a voice not just for beauty, but for protection.

Because the future of the wild may depend on what we choose to see—and what we choose to do—with the time and talent we’ve been given.