Beyond The Lens

Rick Sammon is an American photographer of many decades. He's a tireless, prolific and inspirational image maker and one of the most active photographers working today. He divides his time between creating images, leading photo workshops, making personal appearances, and writing books - always educating, creating and inspiring people. He's also incorporated smartphone photography into his professional work, which is the p...

Peter Gros and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant are hosts of the new Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom Protecting The Wild’ TV show airing on NBC, which is the successor to the classic Wild Kingdom that aired on the same network from 1963 – 1988. Peter Gros was a host from the original series during episodes in the 1980s and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant is a National Geographic Explorer and research faculty member at the University of California – Santa Bar...

John Stanmeyer is an award-winning photographer, filmmaker, and educator, dedicated to social, humanitarian, and political issues that define our times. For more than than 20 years, John has worked nearly exclusively with National Geographic Magazine, producing more than 18 stories, resulting in more than 14 covers. Between the years of 1998 and 2008, John was a contract photographer for TIME magazine. His years with TIME resulted ...

Dr. Tom Smith is  a professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where he studies human-wildlife conflicts, particularly involving all three species of North American bears and mountain sheep.  He also worked with the United States government in southwestern Alaska where he served from 1992-2006 as a research biologist for the National Park Service  and USGS.

Topics Richard and Dr. Smith discuss:

• Precaut...

Mike Olbinski is a Phoenix, Arizona-based storm chasing and extreme weather photographer and cinematographer.  His passion is capturing extreme weather events like tornados, haboobs, supercells, and lightning events on camera and stunning cinematic time lapse videos. 

Topics Richard and Mike discuss:

• A Texas tornado that was one of Mike's 2023 highlights
• What is an haboob and how are they created?
• Mike's career-...

This episode was recorded with my friend, Matt Payne as we made a wild crossing of the Drake Passage last month.  We were returning to Ushuaia, Argentina after a 21-day voyage to Antarctica where we encountered amazing scenery and wildlife, including the "impossible" emperor penguin on ice flows in the Weddell Sea.

This was an unscripted, unstructured conversation where we essentially interviewed each other. I wa...

Ami Vitale is a National Geographic photographer, Nikon Ambassador, writer, speaker and documentary filmmaker.

She's a traveler to more than 100 countries and the recipient of numerous awards for her photography, including Magazine Photographer & International Photographer of the Year, the Daniel Pearl Award for Outstanding Reporting, and  a six-time award recipient from World Press Photos.

Ami is also a founder of...

Hanne Strager is a Danish  biologist, whale researcher, and author of the award-winning book, The Killer Whale Journals: Our Love and Fear of Orcas and A Modest Genius: The Story of Darwin’s Life and How His Ideas Changed Everything. Hanne co-founded Norway's Andenes Whale Center and has served as the Director of Exhibitions at the Natural History Museum of Denmark.

In this episode, Hanne and Richard talk about her ne...

William Neill is an American landscape and nature photographer, writer and teacher.  He’s been a resident of the Yosemite National Park area since 1977, and his award-winning photography has been widely published in books, magazines, calendars, posters, and his limited-edition prints. For about 30 years, William wrote a monthly column in Outdoor Photographer magazine.

The conversation this episode focuses on William's...

In this episode, we talk branding, influencers, gaining and working with corporate sponsors, marketing, and social media for photographers and artists. What is branding and what isn't?  How important is consistency and authenticity? What should photographers do and not do on social media? How to market yourself. Plus a lot more.

Joey Lopez  is the Director of Brand Marketing at Lexar. He launched the Lexar Influencer ...

Will Burrard-Lucas is a British wildlife photographer, best known for innovative camera techniques and devices that allow him to capture unique perspectives on wildlife not usually seen otherwise. He's the founder of Camtraptions, a company specializing in creative technology and photographic contraptions, including the Beetlecam and his own camera traps.

Will has published three books,  The Ethiopian Wolf: Hope at th...

Terry White is a 27-year veteran at Adobe, Inc.  He currently holds the prestigious title of Principal Director, Creative Cloud Evangelist with a focus on photography.

Terry’s an award winning portrait and travel photographer who in 2016, was inducted into the Photoshop Hall of Fame. He’s delivered live keynote presentations at Adobe MAX, Photoshop World, and gave a TED talk titled AI Is Here.

He has a very popul...

Dr. Austin Gallagher is an American marine biologist, researcher, explorer, author and entrepreneur. He’s best known for his extensive research on sharks and hosting and producing content for the Discovery Channel’s Shark Week programming. His shark research has taken him all across the globe on more than 50 scientific expeditions and he’s published more than 100 scientific papers.

Austin founded “Beneath the Waves,” a non...

Wayne Suggs is an immensely talented landscape photographer hailing from Las Cruces, New Mexico. Wayne captures the beauty of the Southwest United States and shares his images not only for others to enjoy, but to help increase awareness of the necessity to preserve our precious surroundings. 

Wayne is a professional photography instructor with Muench Workshops and his hardcover photography book, The Color of Dreams, is an...

In this episode, Richard talks about  AI-proofing your photography as well as taking your creative work to the next level. That involves incorporating emotional engagement into your artwork, not "playing to the audience," and learning to create for yourself, not others, in order to find your true artistic voice.

Notable Link:

Art as Self Care by Katie Willard Virant, Psychology Today, June 2018

This ...

Raabia Hawa abandoned a successful career in radio and TV to found the Ulinzi Africa Foundation, East Africa’s very first NGO to help Kenya rangers in their fight against wildlife poaching.

Recorded in person during Richard’s recent trip to Nairobi, Raabia talks about her career, her personal and professional transformation from radio and TV personality to wildlife warrior, the evils of wildlife poaching, the dangers of working in K...

In this episode, I am joined by astrophotographer, Andrew McCarthy. 

Andrew creates stunning images of the moon, sun, distant galaxies, the International Space Station moon and sun transits, and much more. Many of his photographs have gone viral and are instantly recognizable once you visit his website, Cosmic Background.

He has more than 600,000 followers on Instagram and he generously shares how he captures many of the images featu...

Steven McCurry is an American photographer who has captured some of the world's most iconic photographs of the 20th and 21st centuries. From the war-ravaged landscapes of Afghanistan to the vibrant, colorful streets of India, his ability to capture the raw emotions and the spirit of humanity over the course of five decades has made his work both timeless and universally revered.

His most famous photograph, the  haunti...

Scott Kelby is the President and CEO of KelbyOne, the online educational community for photographers, Photoshop & Lightroom users. He’s a travel photographer, Editor and Publisher of Photoshop User Magazine, Conference Technical Chair for the Photoshop World Conference & Expo; host of the photography talk show “The Grid,” founder of the annual “Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk” and author of several bestselling photography,...