SEATTLE — On a rainy December day we found Art Wolfe at his West Seattle home, signing copies of his latest book, "Wild Lives."
"'Wild Lives' is a look at how the animals that share this planet are doing in the Age of Man," Wolfe said. "And how they are being affected by climate change and increased human presence."
While scientists predict more than a million species could go extinct in the coming decade, Wolfe offers images of hope.
"There's a lot of animals that are thriving simply because they have reconciled with what humans are," Wolfe said. "They're not freaking out and when that happens, they breed."
Consider the Japanese macaques, who were once cautious of visitors to the Nagano Hot Springs. The first time Wolfe visited them, there were only two other people there. Times have changed.
"On any given day of the winter, there's over 1,000 people that come in so consequently the snow macaques will walk through your legs. They'll hold onto your tripod. They think they're human," Wolfe said.
His latest book, 10 years in the making, is the first to feature the elusive snow leopard. Captured with a 12-hundred mm lens.
"I never could see the cats with my naked eye," Wolfe said. "I had a look through the lens and carefully scope and then I would see the cat. But with the high-quality cameras we have then you could crop in the shot and they're decent in the book."
The cover photo was shot in Katmai, Alaska where Wolfe regularly captures the feeding frenzy of bears in the wild. His favorite photos involve eye contact.
"I want people to feel the emotion at the moment that I felt and it translates right through the camera and into their eyes," he said.
For the past 25 years Wolfe has hosted a photo tour of Alaska's Glacier Bay from aboard a 100 foot yacht.
"You see humpback whales, orcas, Steller sea lions, and the scenery," Wolfe said. "And it's just, for me, it's the closest thing to a vacation."
"You don't go on real vacations?" we asked.
"I have never taken a vacation in my life and people go 'Yeah but what you do is a vacation,' and I like people to really envy me for that, but until they traveled internationally and all the nonsense of going through airports, and waiting in lines, and, and, and, they wouldn't want to be my assistant," he said. "I know that for a fact."
True. It's not all glamour. Wolfe discovered there's a downside to shooting right underneath millions of flying bats in Thailand.
"It was raining bat urine," he said. "And it's not the nicest smell and people think 'Oh, you have such an exotic life.' You haven't lived until you're covered in bat guano or urine."
The price of capturing such memorable photos of animals in the wild.
Wolfe has a lot of upcoming events planned to help promote his new book, you can find them here.
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