Michele Benoy-Westmorland
MICHELE BENOY-WESTMORLAND is a freelance photographer represented by Getty, Corbis, and other major agencies. She is a Fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers and The Explorers Club. In 2001 she was inducted into the Women Divers Hall of Fame. In 2015, she received the NANPA Fellows Award. She has won several awards, including the Environmental Photography Invitational, Photo District News, and the PNG Underwater Photo Competition. Her work has appeared in Outside Magazine, National Geographic Traveler, Outdoor Photographer, Scuba Diving, and many other conservation, outdoor, and underwater magazines. She is currently directing her first documentary “Headhunt Revisited”, the story of Caroline Mytinger, an American portrait painter best known for her paintings of indigenous people in the South Seas during the late 1920s.
3 words to describe Nature?
Awakening, spiritual, renewing
3 things Nature taught you?
Humbleness, respect, patience
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea; Cape Nelson, Papua New Guinea; the mountains & forests of the Pacific Northwest
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
You now are asking the right person! Peaceful, joyful and sometimes sadness in respect to the condition of our ocean environment
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
I feel much the same about the forests as I do the oceans.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Awe, amazement, admiration
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Joyful, thankful, restful
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Amazement, wonderment, sometime surprised with a touch of fear
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel?
Since I lived in Miami during Hurricane Andrew, howling winds always make me feel a little stressed and careful about being outdoors.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
9
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
Spending time camping in beautiful forests with my family
Charlene Winfred
CHARLENE WINDFRED is a Fujifilm X-Photographer who captures exquisitely the byproduct of a life in perpetual transit. She was born and raised in Singapore. She lived for 15 years in Australia. In 2013, she sold everything and began the life of a nomad.
3 words to describe Nature?
Overwhelming, longing, life
3 things Nature taught you?
That life persists. That death comes for us all. That to be able to walk, to test my body against the earth, is one of the finest abilities I am lucky enough to take for granted (at the moment, anyway)
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Arches National Park. The open ocean. Any inner city park, being the closest I normally get to Nature... sad but true!
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Overwhelmed and calmed at the same time
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Like I want to go for a very long walk and look at everything. This very rarely happens, however.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
I've never actually seen one, so I'll get back to you when I do!
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Sunrise - it's been a while since I've seen one of those. Next! Sunset - whenever I'm in a position to see an entire sunset vista, it honestly makes me feel like having a glass of wine.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Glad to be inside!
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Like I want to be outside, running around like a crazy person.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Of the 4, the Ocean has been the only one I can say I've been to enough to be familiar with its many moods. I like to think I'd be a mountain person, because I find rocks strangely comforting to be around (and climbing is one of the things I've wished I could afford to do since I was a kid), but that could be me romanticizing both mountains and my affinity for them! Again, will get back to you if/when that actually happens.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10, because it's everything. We can't live without nature can we?
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
There are no maritime background, or lineage of proud/rogue sailors in my family’s runaway past. My father was a mad keen fisherman though, and that’s probably where my draw to the ocean started. Dad would disappear for days on these extended fishing trips in the South China sea when I was little, bringing back ice chests full of all sorts of fish and a bunch of awesome stories each time (he was a sensational story teller). I begged to go for years and kept being told it would happen as soon as I was old enough.
So that was my 8th birthday present. My parents worried for their small, sickly child out at sea during the onset of the monsoon season, but as Dad would recall about 20 years later, I’d positively flourished in those 5 days. That was the beginning of yearly trips in Malaysian waters.
The things I remember about being at sea: Stormy days – large approaching masses of angry water waiting to eat the boat, securing anything that would fly when being tossed around. Listening to the boat creak and moan woefully in the thrash. Afterwards, small fish roiling on the water as the clouds moved away, far as the eye could see in every direction; a lone marlin worrying a frantic ball of its prey in the water, the glorious still-frame of a sailfish in flight, a line of sunlight gleaming off its saltwater lacquered dorsal fin, down curved flank and flashing off its sickle of tail. The curious, heady mix of brine and diesel fumes (and in this case, old fish) that to me, will always mean “port.”
But what I retain most about those days is staring up at clouds puffing into existence, wavering shards of sunlight converging conical to a point in the water, or at a horizon that was never really still, the way it is on land. I never took to fishing, but it allowed me to spend days dreaming in any available spot on the boat, with or without a rod in hand.
Flemming Bo Jensen
FLEMMING BO JENSEN is a Fujifilm ambassador, official Red Bull photographer and renowned music photographer. Music, especially electronic music, is a big part of what makes his heart beat. For him, being able to combine music and photography is a dream come true. Since November 2009 he has lived as a nomad. He was the former Head of IT in a Danish Government agency, but wanted to see new horizons and left Copenhagen and his job in 2009. He has been on the road for more than 7 years now, and is still wandering the world, although can usually be found in Copenhagen during the summer months, enjoying the music festivals. He is the author of the ebook GET IN THE LOOP – How To Make Great Music Images.
3 words to describe Nature?
Awe-inspiring. Heals. Home.
3 things Nature taught you?
I was born and brought up on a dairy farm, so here goes: Respect and love for our planet, nature and animals. Where I truly belong. And a cow standing on your 8 year old foot will not move and not care how much it hurts.
- oh as I started traveling, I learned a 4: Nothing more dangerous than a wounded mosquito!
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Arches National Park, Utah, USA. Rottnest Island, Western Australia. My home country and landscapes of Himmerland, Denmark.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
I was born on a farm, not near water so it used to make me feel great fear and a little bit drawn to it at the same time. Now that I learned how to swim and free-dive it still makes me feel fear - but now I want to go in it and explore!
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Peaceful, in a fairy tale, carrying mosquito repellent, afraid we will someday have no more forests.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
I will let you know when I see one!
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
I am not a morning person so sunrises are rare, unless they happen at 10am in the Scandinavian winter and I can have a coffee with it! Sunset makes me feel like bliss, like we are given a few minutes glimpse into a possible state of the world if we tried harder to protect nature, a few minutes where everything is alright.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Time to get the cows inside :)
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Cold. The wind is always cold in the Nordics.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Desert. I love wide open spaces.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10. My body couldn't breathe without it. My soul couldn't live without it.
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I used to take our dogs for long walks down the fields, just to be out there alone (featuring cows), in a wide open space feeling that everything is possible.
Kedyn Sierra
KEDYN SIERRA is W.I.L.D.'s 1st scholarship recipient. He is an Adventure & Commercial Photographer and Filmmaker, a proud brand ambassador for Guayaki Yerba Mate and sponsored photographer for SOG Knives, Kokatat, Klean Kanteen, Confluence among others. His work has been featured by DPR Construction, NOLS, Voltaic Systems, The Leader, National Geographic Student Expeditions, Environmental Traveling Companions, Klean Kanteen, Sierra Designs, and The Wild Image Project.
3 things Nature taught you?
Humbleness, responsibility, self-worth
3 most treasured Nature spots?
I met a weasel by a small creek in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness, I feel absolutely upset that I can’t pinpoint it.
The second spot is Raymond Lake on the PCT Trail. I’ve never felt utter pain and exhaustion from a hike so for that it takes second.
The last place that comes to mind is Avalas Beach, a small patch where people can kayak into while on Tomales Bay. Avalas shows you the meeting point of the bay and the great pacific ocean.
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
I feel calmness from the tranquility of the water. I realize I am simply a piece to a greater magnificent piece of life.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
The forests make me feel immersed.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
When I saw a Volcano (sleeping volcano) I felt on top of the world. 360 view of the landscape definitely feels phenomenal.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
I feel short on time. The minute the sun sets, the day has ended or begun depending on what's happening. Sunrises make me appreciate everything because I rarely get to see those.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Thunder makes me feel refreshed.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
When the wind howls it focuses me.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
A Forest person - conditions tend to be unfavorable in the Forest though it’s the only place you can truly feel the way everything is connected to one another.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
I would put a 10 to Nature for my well-being. Without it, I can’t seem to understand anything.
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
My family was born into a minimalist lifestyle in the middle of the Yucatan peninsula. I was raised around animals, cows, turkeys, chickens, ducks, cats, dogs amongst others. It wasn’t in a farm environment but rather heavy forest. The memory of the endless roaming with the imagination of a bliss kid was absolutely phenomenal and short lived.