Ronan Donovan Instagram – Sharing some images and notes from an IG takeover for @ilcp_photographers of images from early on in my exploration into photography, long before I was a working photographer. Most of these images were taken between 2006-2012. ⁣ ⁣ My goal in sharing these visuals and captions is to help those of you that are curious to learn more about the process of visual storytelling related to conservation and also to younger storytellers who reach out to me on a daily basis for advice. I hope you find these posts helpful and please don’t hesitate to ask questions in the comments section below and I will do my best to reply. ⁣⁣ The first question to address, and the most common question I’m asked, ‘how can I become a conservation photographer?’ Well, everyone’s path to iLCP is different, but many of my colleagues share a common background as wildlife field biologists. That was my path into this world and is what continues to fuel my curisoasioty about the natural world. ⁣⁣ ⁣ Photo 1 – I’m testing out the lighting of a homemade camera trap to try and capture an image of a beaver in my home state of Montana. ⁣⁣ Photo 2 – A northern spotted owl in Yosemite National Park taken on film during my first wildlife field biology job through the Student Conservation Association. ⁣⁣ Photo 3 – The eye belongs to a plains spadefoot toad (Spea bombifrons). This was taken back in 2010 when I was working as a field biologist for the state of Montana.⁣⁣ Photo 4 – An American mink running back to its lair with a freshly caught crayfish in Montana. ⁣⁣ Photo 5 – A collage of images representing my obsession with photographing waterbirds across Montana (I am a lifelong bird-nerd)⁣⁣ All of these images I took while I was a working wildlife field biologist becoming obsessed with documenting the wildlife I was observing. You will note that all of these images are single photos of an animal, not stories and most without behavior.