Donal Boyd

Personally, I’ve been a little overwhelmed by the AI slop lately… the videos, the totally disruptive concepts of animals that twist reality. At times it makes me feel sad that we’re destroying the natural world at unprecedented rates in reality, while now also replacing what’s left of it with sensationalised and romanticised portrayals of nature. People cuddling lions, fake moments of connection with animals, all for likes, views, and what else? It’s a dangerous game, because yes, in general sharing pretty images of animals is important. We love animals. Landscapes, the places they live, amazing. That’s why they get all the likes, right? But on the one hand, it gives an unrealistic depiction of the state of nature. It makes it look like there is abundance out there when there isn’t. Nature, our Earth’s systems, are struggling now more than ever. And this year, I’ve seen so much of it firsthand. From coral bleaching and forests under stress to places that used to be full of life now sitting strangely quiet. So yes, these are pretty images of nature. But it’s not the whole story. These images in this post are not the whole story… I want you to keep that in mind next time you are looking at work like this. What you don’t see is the part of the jungle where an orangutan used to live that has been converted to palm oil. You don’t see the lions navigating conflict with people, or the elephants struggling to move through corridors where roads and new infrastructures have been built. These animals need room to roam, but we so often don’t give it to them. And we need them to roam, for our planet to sustain life. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve also seen a lot of hope this year. Incredible projects that aim to promote coexistence. Heck, I’m even working on a film called ‘Shared Space’ about that very topic. We just wrapped production and can’t wait to share it next year! And it’s what has kept me inspired. To keep pushing. To keep sharing real stories of real animals and real people. So although this post is all about animals, keep this in mind. The real world is complicated. And that is exactly why it is worth protecting.

Take note and save for the next time you edit your photos. If you want to go deeper into all of this, I break everything down in more detail inside my online editing course “The Art of Editing”. With 15-hours of on-demand video lessons... You’ll learn how to create consistent images with impact and develop your own unique editing style! Comment “2026” and I’ll send you a link to learn more and enroll today!

Trying to build a career in conservation visual storytelling and wondering if it’s actually realistic? For me, it didn’t start with a big savings account. At the same time, I did come from a place of privilege in other ways. I had access to a good education and the chance to build skills that gave me options. I don’t take that lightly. What I didn’t have was a clear path into this work. I grew up in the northeastern US and spent most of my time in the woods. I loved the forest. Frogs especially. I knew every fact about em’ and could recite them on the playground at a moment’s notice. I wore camo constantly & carried an old video camera everywhere. I was the animal-fact kid, endlessly curious about how the world around me worked. That curiosity pulled me toward math and science. I studied chemical engineering at @wpi and later earned a master’s focused on sustainable energy. I genuinely thought that was how I’d change the world. I worked as an engineer and photographed on the side. The job was solid, but my heart wasn’t fully in the cubicle. I wanted to be closer to the places and stories that mattered to me. In 2015, a friend named Bryan dared me to buy a ticket to Iceland. Thanks, Bryan. Day 1 felt familiar. By day 5, the déjà vu was overwhelming, like I’d been there before. Sitting on the outbound plane, I searched one thing. “Can I live here?” The answer was yes. I went back. Quit my engineering job. When I made the full shift, I’d saved around $15k. That was it. I lived in a truck for the first 2 years, made collaborations just to eat, & spent most of my time practicing the craft. Thanks @geysircarrental . I’m not saying you have to do that. That’s just what I did. Over time, I began working alongside NGOs and conservation teams whose values aligned with mine. Today, I work across photo & film (my own @atlas1studio ), focused on conservation visual storytelling. Not just animals, but people & the choices shaping the future of wild places. If you’re figuring out your own way into this space, there isn’t one version of how it’s supposed to look. What does your path look like so far?

Creating portraits of women standing up for wildlife and coexistence in the Amboseli landscape of Kenya. For years I’ve strived to create portraits that communicate the strength, presence, and humanity of people protecting the natural world. These here are a small sample of the incredible women carrying stories of resilience, coexistence, and community. ICONS in their own right. Huge thanks to @mpbcom for supporting the creation of this work and helping bring the project to life. Also thanks to @fujifilmnordic for the continued support in the field. Created in collaboration with @ifawglobal and the incredible women of @standupshoutout . Comment “ICON” and I’ll send you the behind the scenes film from the project that’s posted on my personal YouTube channel. By the way, if you’ve never heard of @mpbcom , they’re an incredible platform where you can buy sell and trade your used camera equipment. And it’s exactly how I got the FUJIFILM GFX 100 II that I used for this project in Kenya. I’ve wanted to own this camera for a really long time and instead of buying it brand new I traded some camera equipment that I already had and I wasn’t using for this camera to start this new project. It’s honestly a really amazing way to approach camera equipment since they’re already is so much used gear in the world might as well make sure that it is actually used. @mpbcom

Photographing the ICONS of Kenya: Live on YouTube - Comment “Icon” and I’ll send you the link. Check out the video and let me know in the comments what you think of these “ICONS”. A little bit more about the series and concept below. In this video, I’m so, so stoked to share a behind the scenes look at creating portraits of iconic women in Kenya for a photography concept that was graciously supported by @mpbcom . For years, I’ve been wanting to create a series of images in medium format specifically that communicate the strength and indomitable character of the people that stand up and do something for nature, wildlife, and our planet. With the support of @mpbcom , I travelled to Kenya last month to do just that. And for this chapter of my new series, I worked with @ifawglobal to document the women’s community empowerment project they support called @standupshoutout . More about them in the video of course… but… By the way… if you’ve never heard of @mpbcom , well, they’re pretty epic. Over the years, I’ve built up quite a collection of camera and film gear and instead of always buying new, whenever I need a specific lens or camera element, I try instead to trade for it. And that’s exactly what I did for this project. For years I’ve been working with Fujifilm cameras through a partnership I have with @fujifilmnordic , but I’ve never owned my favourite camera the GFX100 II, which I’ve borrow from them for quite a lot of fine art work and impact images. So, instead of buying one brand new, I traded an older camera I had and exchanged it for a used (practically new) GFX100 II. @fujifilmnordic still loaned me a few lenses for this project, which I’m very grateful to them for! Check the video to see which lense is my favourite to work with. Filmed and edited by legendary @daveygans !!! Anyways, if you’re keen on seeing more images from the series and seeing how the GFX100 II works in the field, comment “ICON” and I’ll send you the YouTube link. Cheers!

Atmosphere and turmoil battle out a heightened sense of intense austral updraft. Can you guess which focal length lens I used? 📍Chilean Patagonia.

Some places… neither in few words nor in many could one ever quite describe such a heightened state of grandiose. lol or what’s even the right thing to say here on IG these days? Tag a friend who you’d want to stay a night here in Patagonia. I’m gonna try my best to explain this place… It’s just hard to portray just how epic it was to stay here at @ecocamp for a few days offline in quiet retreat within the shadows of absolute towers of rock, golden and auburn fall colors, and the properly cozy interiors of these low impact dome tents. I hardly did any research before coming to Patagonia, my partner @emmaromeijn planned it all and I had very few expectations, because other than a few impressions, I wasn’t really sure what we’d be seeing. But to say I was blown away would be an understatement. Bother literally, because the wind got crazy at one moment, and metaphorically by way of sheer amazement from the spectacular vistas. @ecocamp was kind enough to host us for a few nights and it was just the coolest place I’ve stayed in a while! From Michelin level plant-based meals, to a truly overall outlook on sustainable accommodation - our pretty lux domes even had compost toilets! Anyways, everything was just so next level. We did a full day hiking, literally walking out the dome to the base of these crazy mountains, plus a full day hanging in their community tents by the fire. Can’t wait to get back here again soon.

That’s a wrap! 15 years in the making. Sharing some raw moments from the field after spending the past two weeks here in Brazil (Pantanal/Cerrado) with the @oncafari team. We were here with @atlas1studio creating media to celebrate their 15 years of perseverance in jaguar and landscape conservation when at the start everyone said what they wanted to do was impossible. They’ve met a lot of challenges with their initial idea to habituate jaguars in the Pantanal, but overcome so much and expanded into grander concepts of total biome protection in more regions and methods than I can keep track of. So much so that they’ve now grown into Oncafari International. And I’m honored to have witnessed a good part of this work since I first started documenting their work in 2019. There’s still a lot of work to do and it’s clear they’re up for the task! 15 years on and still, the work continues… Anyways, enjoy these little snippets that showcase just how hard it is to operate in these environments as filmmakers let alone to work in every single day tracking jaguars, working with local communities, and stewarding the landscape. @atlas1studio @emmaromeijn @daveygans @edu.fragoso_ @mariohaberfeld

Folks! Photo contest time! I’m judging the @theflowtrip photo contest for a second time this year and submissions are open! And best thing… it’s open to ANYONE, you don’t need to be a photographer, but you did need to take a photo ;) if you know what I mean. Prizes are something like $50k in prizes! Comment “SUBMIT” and I’ll send you a link to contest homepage. (Deadline is April 24th midnight ET) I’ve been working with @theflowtrip for years now, back when they had a whale in their name, if you’ve been following along since then. And the reason why I like them so much is because they’re all about storytelling and supporting visual craft in physical form. Every month they print a physical magazine. You know, like the real thing. And this contest lines up with their photo issue! So, winners will obviously get a chance to be printed in the real life magazine! Sometimes I just get so over seeing photos on my phone and whenever I can, I try my best to engage with printed media. Magazines, prints, and the like. Circling back to the photo contest… one of the other things I like about how they run it is a portion of the entry fees are donated to a group of really rad charities supporting things like nature conservation, water accessibility, music and arts, and more. Anyways, if you’re still reading, right on. But you should probably also head on over to @theflowtrip contest page and enter your best storytelling image into one of the 5 categories: Film, Surf, Nature, Energy, and Oneness. <3

None of these are AI by the way… a bit of a sad note that I have to call it out, but yeah, I have to call it out. These are all photographs, which I’ve curated over the years from real life scenes. Which is your favorite? And thing is, a great deal of effort went into the composition in the field, of course, but also quite a lot of the overall aesthetic is derived from the editing process. The color, tone, and detail. If you want to learn my approach for creating these types of minimalistic images, specifically in the edit and in composition, I’ve packed 15+ hours of lessons into my editing mastery course “The Art of Editing”. Comment “2026” and I’ll send you the link to learn more and to sign up to start learning today! What is “The Art of Editing”? 👇 ⁠ 👨‍🏫 You’ll learn everything you ever need to know about wildlife, nature, and landscape editing across 8-modules (subject focused) and more than 30 on demand video lessons. From theory to mastering all the tools in @lightroom  and @photoshop  essential for creating images with impact. You will learn everything that I know about post-processing to be able to create powerful images.⁠

How I used to edit my photos 10 years ago vs now… and what held me back at the start. In the early days, before I understood anything about building a style, my editing was all over the place. Wildly inconsistent and often flat. Every image felt like a new experiment and nothing connected. Looking back, it wasn’t a lack of subject matter. I had more than enough to photograph. What held me back was simple. I didn’t understand color theory. I didn’t understand how to shape light or use detail intentionally. And honestly… I was scared to step outside the sacred Nat Geo style of “keep it objective” and “don’t push it too far.” I thought editing boldly meant breaking some unwritten rule. Side note… I’m also curious where you stand with this… Do you lean more minimal or more expressive with your editing right now? Anyways… That mindset of Nat Geo editing kept me stuck. It wasn’t until I let go of that self-imposed limit that everything opened up. I realized the camera is a machine. It records. It documents. It captures what is in front of it. But I am not a machine (and neither are you). I feel things. I interpret. I respond to moments with emotion. So the RAW file is only the beginning. The edit is where intention enters the process. Now, to be clear… I’m not talking about manipulating images in a way that misleads people. That’s not the point. I’m talking about shaping light, color, and detail to bring the moment closer to how it felt. To guide the viewer. To tell the story in a way that feels honest to the experience. There is a spectrum of editing from minimal to maximal. Nat Geo style lives near the minimal end. You do not need to live there forever. You can explore. You can push. You can create atmosphere and emotion without crossing into dishonesty. Once I let myself do that… once I allowed editing to be a creative tool instead of something to hide behind… that is when my style finally started to form. COMMENT “edit” and I’ll send you a link to my online editing course The Art of Editing, where I teach you how to break free from restrictive mindsets and transform the way you approach photography and editing.

Encountered.