Wild life

Local photographer circles the globe in pursuit of award-winning nature shots

Photographing birds and critters isn't getting any easier for Tom Ulrich.

His 50-year-plus body creaks, especially when getting up before dawn. Or when lying hidden for hours in the cold, wet brush.

Pangs from stiff joints mingle with thoughts on how to improve a potential shot.

"The analogy I use is that you have to have a nervous system like an earthworm," Ulrich said.

"Once I get a frame taken, all the pain goes away."

Ulrich, who lives roughly 10 miles northeast of Columbia Falls, has been a freelance wildlife photographer since 1975. His photographs have won numerous awards as he has shot roughly 500 types of birds and 90 species of mammals in North America alone - not counting photographs of birds and animals in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Arctic, and on Pacific and Atlantic islands.

Next April, Ulrich will pit his skills and experience against the best nature photographers in the world.

This will be a first-of-its-kind contest.

One week prior to the contest, 20 photographers, including Ulrich, will be paired with 20 ranch owners in 19 central Texas counties stretching west from San Antonio and Austin. From April 1-30, each photographer will shoot a cross-section of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, insects, arachnids, plants and landscapes on his or her assigned ranch.

"We'll all be in the same boat," Ulrich said.

Patience, timing, a knowledge of wildlife biology and photographic skills will come into play, especially while avoiding making a bird or critter looking spooked in the shot.

The best portfolio of 75 photos wins. The Images for Conservation Fund is posting prizes from $80,000 to $2,000 to go to photographer-landowner partnerships that produce the top 14 portfolios. The organization hopes to turn this into an annual contest, setting it up in different parts of the country each year.

"I'd like to be in the top seven. If higher than that, I'd be real pleased. I'm going for the win. I'm gonna bust my butt to get as high as I can," Ulrich said.

Ulrich has photographed birds and animals before in central Texas, although he won't know exactly where he will compete until late March. He has done some homework, but is largely banking on his experience.

"When I get there, I'll see what's there. I'll know what to do," Ulrich said.

He knows the professional editing preferences of the three judges, who will inspect the submitted portfolios without knowing who shot what.

And Ulrich is friends with roughly two-thirds of the photographers he is competing against, although he has never worked directly with any because they compete in the freelance market.

His strongest specialty is shooting birds, although he has plenty of experience photographing the other categories. Mammals and reptiles will likely be the most difficult categories, simply because they are harder to find.

"After 30 days, I'll probably be drained. … Sometimes, you've gotta get up in the dark. Sometimes, you'll have to stay out until after dark. Do it day in and day out - it'll wear you down," Ulrich said.

A native Midwesterner, Ulrich - who declined to give his age, although the math shows he is in his 50s - graduated from Southern Illinois University and became a high school biology teacher. His brother was in Japan and got him a cheap camera.

Ulrich captured some woodpeckers and deer on film - and got hooked.

He quit his job, moved out to the Glacier Park area, and lived in a van for several years as he built a portfolio.

"I was the starving artist for quite a while," Ulrich said.

Eventually, he traveled to remote parts of the world, including Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego , the Pantanal region in Brazil, the Galapagos Islands, Africa, Costa Rica, the Arctic, and all across the United States. Later this month, he will head to the Falkland Islands for his second trip there. He spends seven to eight months out of the year on the road.

He has built up a library of 350,000 transparencies of photos that publishers, magazines and advertising agencies routinely dip into. If you see an exotic animal in a magazine advertisement, there is a chance that it could be an Ulrich photograph. Sometimes, Ulrich doesn't know he's made a sale until his agent sends him a check.

Also, seven books of his photographs have been published, including Once Upon A Frame, which shows its 100 favorite photos plus the stories behind them. Those top 100 include polar bears frolicking where a wind chill of minus 65 degrees numbed Ulrich's fingers so much that he couldn't change film in the cameras, a friend holding a piranha for a head-on close-up of its mouth and teeth, and a diving osprey catching a fish.

Photographing people and objects never really tempted Ulrich. People can be moved and posed at will. Birds and animals can't. That's the challenge that attracts Ulrich.

That and being able to photograph what people rarely see and the books barely touch upon - such as black swift nesting behind waterfalls.

Ulrich is fond of a pair of red-necked grebes that he has photographed off and on for seven years in Montana to the point where they don't fear him. Eventually, he would shoot them from two inches away, with his biggest worry being their beaks scratching the lens.

They even slept while he was up close, thrilling the photographer.

"Ever have a [wild] bird sleep in front of you? Most people never experience that."