Patrick Stantina

Patience, humility, courage, passion .... some qualities necessary for the wildlife photographer who wishes to enter, always with modesty, in the wilderness.

I practice the wildlife photography for fifteen years. Without special naturalist eductaion, I gained my knowledge during the hundreds of hours I spent in the field, mainly in France.

I am interested in mammals as birds. My work is often linked to a project and I prefer to focus on a few species that I take the time to well know or natural sites rich in wildlife that I wish to highlight in order to better preserve them.

I work regularly, in my region (Ile-de-France, south of Paris) with the National Forest Office and cities in the area, on public awareness projects through photographic exhibitions and conferences for adults and schoolchildren. I am also involved in ornithological monitoring of the "Basses Vallées de l'Essonne" (nature 2000 site). The wildlife photography for me is one more reason to find myself in nature at dawn or at sunset, to contemplate the wonders that Mother Nature creates every day. I am a member of the ASCPF (Association of of French Wildlife Photographers), the LPO (Association for the Protection of Birds - BirdLife Partner) and WWF.

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The photographic equipment is also important in this sometimes ungrateful practice that is wildlife photography. It often takes many hours of observation to have in front of your eyes the picture that you were dreaming and at that time you only have few seconds to capture this wonderful scene.
I work with Nikon digital SLR cameras with different telephoto lenses, from 200 to 600mm according to my observation subjects. All these photographic equipments are not enough to produce the nice picture, the photographer must be in the right place at the right time and he has to play with light and framing. Finally, the technical mastery is nothing without a good knowledge of the biotopes that the photographer wishes to show and highlight.

 

Thanks to ...

Thanks to my uncle, Andre, that gave me when I was yougn the passion and respect for the wildlife and that learnt me how to discover and love nature. Thanks to my wife, Beatrice, who agrees to see his companion away long hours at sunrise and sunset, and that sometimes accompanies me, and my daughters for their encouragement.