Life after winning a Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award

When Marc Albiac was a teenager exploring the craft of photography, he and his dad would spend hours on a website where leading Spanish wildlife photographers talked through the techniques behind their images. He remembers Mario Cea explaining how he'd created a double exposure of a moonlit owl in just one frame. Fast forward a few years and Marc was at a major photography fair presenting his work alongside Mario. Marc is now a Canon Ambassador, with many accolades to his name, including a prestigious Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year award he received at age 14.

Here, he and fellow ambassador Michel d'Oultremont, who lives and works in Belgium and is a two-time winner of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year Rising Star Portfolio Award, tell us how this contest kickstarted their careers, as well as sharing advice for young nature photographers eager to follow in their footsteps.

Marc Albiac: Before I could even walk, my parents used to take me with them to the mountains. My father liked to photograph the landscapes and animals there. When I was seven years old, he upgraded his photographic equipment, and I inherited his camera, a Canon EOS 30D (now succeeded by the Canon EOS 90D). My love of animals came first. The camera was a tool that let me take this wildlife back home with me.

Michel d'Oultremont: Definitely the love of wildlife. I started out birding for three years quite intensively. Photography is just the medium that allows me to immortalise my wild encounters. It could have been sculpture or painting, but I don't have that talent. My first images were made in a marsh. Lying on the mud waiting for the water birds. They were mundane images, but it was fabulous to bring those moments home. The marsh was less than a mile from my house, so it was really convenient. I started with a Canon EOS 400D (now succeeded by the Canon EOS 850D) and a 20-year-old EF 300mm f/4L USM lens (now succeeded by the Canon EF 300mm f/4L IS USM).

Michel: In all competitions, you need luck. Luck to be selected, but also to win a prize. I have been lucky enough to win this award twice. It's an honour, and it's nice to see that my view of the wild world appeals to the jury and the public.

Marc: I never took photographs in order to win a contest, I did it because I wanted to. I think that's the secret. I shot my winning image in my grandmother's garden. Wherever it is you can spend the most time is where you'll take the best photographs. Working close to home, you don't have the pressure of knowing you have to get on a flight in a few days. And if you don't get a picture you're happy with one day, you can just go back the next day.

Marc: I'm quite shy, even now that I'm 22, and I was 15 then so I was nervous. But it was a dream come true. They sent me the email letting me know I'd won in the spring, and the ceremony wasn't until the autumn, so I spent six months not being able to tell anyone.

Of course, I have entered other contests and I haven't received any awards. One of the best things about photography is its subjectivity. The same photo can be liked by some people and disliked by other people – contests are the same. The jury has to like your photo more than the others but it doesn't mean that this photo is better or worse than others.

Like wildlife photography, photo contests require perseverance. In wildlife photography it's very important to persevere because most times animals don't show up and you come back home without any photos. But, if you try hard and you go after the photo you want, in the end, you have more chances to get the picture than by staying at home.

Michel: I was really surprised. When I was a young photographer, I used to look at the Wildlife Photographer of the Year winners with admiration. It is very gratifying and flattering to be able to say that my images have been voted among the best in the world.

Perseverance is the key, you have to keep trying and trying. I'm an optimistic person and quite stubborn so if I don't see an animal in the beautiful light I'm looking for I start again to hope to make the encounter of my dreams. There was an image that I had been sending out for three years into many contests and it had never been selected until 2014 – it was an image I really liked and I thought it had good potential.

How did your win kickstart your wildlife photography career?

Michel: I shoot a lot by feel, without worrying too much about what will work and what won't. I don't create my sets, and I just take things as they come. Wildlife encounters allow me to capture my feelings when I come face-to-face with a wild animal.

Marc: I still don't see a common style across all my photographs. For each animal, I try to do different styles of images, some more documentary and some more artistic, some black and white, some in colour, some close-up, some showing its habitat. I'm most interested in photographing vertebrate animals: mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians. You have to know about them, their habits and where to find them.

Marc: Yes. There are mistakes I still make now. For example, if there's an animal I really want to photograph, I get nervous and try to get a little closer. This sometimes means it runs away and I miss the photo.

Michel: I would say waiting for animals. It takes a lot of knowledge about wildlife and a lot of patience to observe them without disturbing them. But that I learned from a very young age. I am extremely patient in all areas, which means I don't get frustrated easily and can always be optimistic.

Michel: Young photographers are too quick to want to get countless likes on their images on social media. For me, this race has to stop because it is by wanting more and more that you end up doing something in the field that disturbs the animals.

Marc: The most difficult part is finding someone to take you out in the field. I was lucky that my parents were interested in mountains and animals, but I have friends who don't have that opportunity. If you live in a big city like Barcelona, it's harder to see a wide range of animals.

Michel: Learn, read and understand animals before you photograph them. This is very important. The animals and the environment need to be calm and not disturbed. Scaring an animal away for a picture will make the photography ugly.

Marc: Photograph what you like, in the way you like. If you want to shoot in black and white, do it. If you like shooting with a telephoto lens, do it. Don't take the kind of photograph that you think you should, take the photographs you want to take.


Written by Rachel Segal Hamilton