An Interview with Wildlife Photographer Melissa Groo

An Interview with Wildlife Photographer Melissa Groo

The path to finding passion and professional success is often circuitous. Melissa Groo took her Master’s Degree in education from Stanford and started bending her career arc towards nature and wildlife. Although relatively late to the game of photography, her win in the Audubon Photography Awards in 2015 not only helped catapult her photography career, but also established her as a strong voice within the growing conservation photography movement.

I caught up with her in Jackson, WY at the Photography at the Summit Nature Workshop where she previously attended as a student, but this year joined the impressive list of faculty.

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In this interview, we chat about:

  • The difference between the amateur enthusiast and the full-time wildlife photographer
  • Pitching magazines with different ideas to get published
  • On winning photo contests
  • Ethics in photography: “I think a lot of corners are cut sometimes to get that really ‘wow’ shot especially with social media always upping the ante…and some wildlife photographers do things that can really endanger the subject.”
  • The importance of conservation in wildlife photography
  • Do we need any more technology to take better photos?
  • The business environment for the professional wildlife photographer

You can check out more of Melissa’s work at her website and on Instagram.

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This article was written by

Allen Murabayashi is the co-founder of PhotoShelter.

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