(PHOTOS) Nat Geo photographer Ronan Donovan, famous for wolf and chimp pics, visits UW

LARAMIE, Wyo. — Wyoming is, of course, a wellspring of beauty begging to be enjoyed recreationally. It is no secret, then, that many of the world’s most talented nature and wildlife photographers may find themselves here often.

And though a little out of the way from some of the state’s more iconic locales, one such photographer, National Geographic’s Ronan Donovan, stopped by Laramie last week to impart some wisdom on fledgling photographers and outdoor enthusiasts.

Donovan, most famous for his photographs of arctic wolves and chimpanzees, made an appearance for the University of Wyoming’s Haub School of Environmental and Natural Resources March 27. There, he gave a keynote presentation at the school’s 2025 Wild and Working Lands Film Festival.

The next day, he had a more personal Q&A session with University of Wyoming Communications and Journalism students, where he guided professional photographers and story tellers-to-be through the in’s and out’s of his line of work.

“What makes a good picture? It’s incredibly subjective and its the same idea of what makes good art. I’d go to galleries in cities and museums and a lot of times I would be confused. Like, I don’t understand—what am I missing? I don’t understand this image, I don’t understand why this is important. And then it would collapse with my imagery,” Donovan said. “Are any of my pictures good? Are some of them good? What if I put it into Photoshop, put it in Lightroom and tweak that? Could I make it good?”

Collaboration and visual literacy was his answer. Growing up reading National Geographic, as most aspiring wildlife photographers do, was what got him in the right headspace for making evocative and informative nature photos. The process, even for just getting one usable image, can take months at a time, Donovan explained.

“My last assignment for National Geographic just ended this past winter,” Donovan said. “I was trying to photograph — and eventually did, but it took three years — beavers under the ice, so underwater when they’re accessing their winter food cache.”

30,000 photos might be taken for a story that will end up using just 10, according to Donovan. The trickiest part of getting great photos? Doing right by your subjects.

“What is your style? What are you doing? I often try to think about what honors the subject best and what conveys the story best,” Donovan said. “You can tell I don’t have a very clear answer necessarily because it does change and it is subjective. I rely a lot on the stories.”

One COJO student, Zach Agee, had a question for Donovan at his Q&A that any photographer, professional or recreational, can tell you is something that plagues them often: how do you deal with photography burnout?

“A lot of what I do is trying to think about the photos I’ve already taken and all the experiences I’ve had already. Is there a way to communicate those in a different or new way? Or I’ll do photo workshops with young people. We’re doing a photo workshop for National Geographic on the Wind River Reservation this summer. That’s where we bring cameras to underserved populations and let them tell their own stories,” Donovan said. “I love doing those. Those are elements that rekindle that relationship to photography in a way where I’m not taking photos.”

So for photographers out there right now, here is Ronan Donovan’s advice. Say you’ve been photographing your school’s basketball games when they play at home. We’ll you might only be allowed to take pictures from certain parts of the sideline. After an entire season of taking pictures from the same spot, you might feel like you’re taking the same pictures over and over again without improvement.

Well, what can you commit to doing differently? Try a fixed-length lens — one you wouldn’t think of using in a sports scenario — and shoot with that exclusively. Don’t have another lens? Try shooting with a slower shutter speed and capture more motion blur. The key is challenging yourself to try something different. Even if the photos don’t turn out, they are, at least, not boring.

What better way to put those thoughts to the test, as well as get into the right spiritual and emotional headspace to properly connect with nature, than actually getting out into it? His final project at the University of Wyoming was to lead COJO and ENR students out on a hike through Vedauwoo Recreation Area to practice their photos and to get along with nature.