honorable mention
Vladimir Cech Jr. czech republicPhoto © Vladimir Cech Jr.
title
One moment of pure magic
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entry description
My love are animals, my obssesion are felines, my goal is "impossible" photography. If some say something is impossible it doesn´t mean it really is, maybe just from his perspective. That´s why I am trying to create my own view, my own angle and intimity with wild animals, sometimes with ghost itself. For fifteen days I became a small part of field team, who´s goal is monitoring and conservation of snow leopard in Mongolia. From the first day in mountains, I thought to myself, if it was not too much boldness from me to come there with the three home-knocked traps installed in plastic boxes from Ikea and claiming I had come for a picture of a creature, that even most of the locals have never seen and probably will not even see. If I speak Mongolian, I swore that they was little bit joking, smiling and even photograph me on the phone as I rolled during one of the installations and tried to focus on my backpack. Exactly after three days in the field they did not laugh anymore...I did not either. It worked!about the photographer
I'm not a "graduate" photographer, I have no experience with photo schools or courses. It´s seven years back when I borrowed my dad´s camera and start shooting via technique called "trial and error". In 2013 I had the enormous luck to visit India and fulfill until then relatively utopian dream - observe and try to photograph wild creature whose charisma and natural beauty can´t be described by simple words, The Tiger! Since then, I try to come back every year. Not only that I want – I just have to! I love nature and animals as a whole but I am obsessed with top predators. The mainspring and big passion for me are definitely felines. I believe my greatest success so far is creation extensive portfolio of big cats pictures for which I am known, published and awarded in my home country, Czech Republic. I think I´m not typical wildlife photographer who shoots everything in every opportunity. I need some personal motivation and connection with photographed object for longer time in my photography so I am rather try to work in long-term "projects" and publish more photo-journal work then simple photography. Last year I started an ambitious project based on "dslr" camera trapping and got great results with Eurasian lynx in Czech Republic forests and few months ago I was successful in Mongolian mountains, where I managed to get a picture of the ghost itself - snow leopard! On these projects I am use to closely cooperate with local NGOs and various conservation organizations.back to gallery