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By Margo Whitmire

High school reunions are tricky for Natalie Bartley. An outdoor educator, guide book author, newspaper columnist and recreational therapist, it’s hard to sum up her career on a name tag. “The first reunion I went to, I decided I better pick a title,” she said. “I put ‘Recreation, Education and Therapy Contractor.’”

Bartley lives in Boise, Idaho, where she writes about sailing, snowshoeing, orienteering and other outdoor pursuits in her outdoor column for The Idaho Statesman. She is the author of two guide books, “Best Easy Day Hikes Boise” and “Best Rail Trails Pacific Northwest,” from Falcon Press Publishing. She also works steadily on assignments for Treasure Valley Family Magazine and Idaho Senior Independent News. An outdoor career is a natural fit for the former U.S. kayak polo team member and licensed backpacking guide, but outdoor journalism wasn’t always on Bartley’s radar as a career choice.

Bartley grew up in Pennsylvania. She moved to West Virginia to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in parks and recreation and worked as a rafting guide during the summers. She met her husband, David Lindsay, when he started working on the same river and they “assigned him to my raft,” she said. “I had summers off to do all of these great outdoor jobs, raft guiding and sailboat director at a Girl Scouts camp,” she said. “It was too much fun to stop and go get a real job.”

She went on to complete her master’s degree in parks and recreation administration at Eastern Kentucky University and a doctorate in education, parks and leisure services from the University of Idaho. Though she wasn’t aware of it at the time, she was also honing her skills as an outdoor writer.

“At that time in the 70s and 80s, they had the rec majors do so much writing–journals, reports–and that really refined my writing skills because they were having to prove this is a valid profession,” she said. “We’re not basket weavers, we’re the people that will run your parks, plan for the wilderness and run your youth programs. They made us write our guts out.”

After school, Bartley worked as an instructor for the Hong Kong Outward Bound School and as an outdoor recreation training coordinator for the U.S. Air Force Model Outdoor Recreation Program. She also traveled to India and Europe to give presentations for the World Leisure Recreation Association. “I’ve always been an outdoor communicator teaching people outdoor skills,” she said.

In the early 90s, Bartley was in the United Kingdom for a World Leisure Recreation Association conference. She visited some friends, who handed her a travel writing how-to book. After years of writing reports, presentations and journal articles as part of her outdoor recreation emphasis, “it was like a light bulb went off in my head,” she said. “Here I was writing for free for publications in the field of outdoor recreation.” Looking through the guide, she was inspired: “What? People are paid for this?”

Bartley went to the library to learn how to sell her outdoor experiences to magazines and newspapers. One of her first bites as a freelancer was with Aquatics International, who took a cover feature about kayak polo.

Early on, she strived for national and international publications, but eventually found it more cost-effective and productive to concentrate on local markets. Rather than trying to keep up with the transience of editors in the publishing industry or wait months for an answer to an article query, Bartley calls up the editor at The Treasure Valley Family Magazine, for instance, and the conversation is something like this:

“Hey, what do you think about these ideas?”

“Yeah, I’ll take two or three of those. Here’s your deadline.”

Of course, larger publications usually pay better, but having local relationships that are a phone call away is more appealing to Bartley. “It’s not bad to get really knowledgeable about a specific area and that’s your expertise and that’s what you’re known for,” she said. “So even though my travels are worldly, I think I’ve settled into an Idaho and regional specialist.”

Bartley joined OWAA in 2001 and the Northwest Outdoor Writers Association (NOWA) shortly after. “She’s a breath of fresh air,” said OWAA and NOWA member Sue Hansen. “More and more women are getting out in the outdoors, but I think she’s a pioneer and a model of what the outdoors is all about.”

To supplement her writing, Bartley teaches kayaking at Boise State University and provides recreational therapy to hospital patients. She also writes about energy efficiency for a utilities company in the off-season. “I prefer variety no matter what my life is,” she said. “It’s not great for retirement budgeting; but life can be really short, it can be over today, so why not try to enjoy it?” ◊

Margo Whitmire grew up in California, where she spent most of her life until moving to Missoula in 2008. She recently completed her studies toward a graduate degree in environmental studies at the University of Montana. She has a bachelor’s degree in print journalism from California State University, Sacramento, and worked as a music editor for Billboard Magazine.

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By Margo Whitmire

John Haviland’s kids smile proudly from the framed pictures in his work room, holding up hunting trophies of duck, deer, elk and red fox for the camera. Nicknamed “The Bunker” by his wife, Gail, this room of his house in Missoula, Mont., is where Haviland keeps all things hunting.

“No girls allowed,” he joked.

An MEC 600 Jr. Mark V shotshell reloader commands the room, with shelves of bullets, shell casings, gunpowder and reloading manuals lining the walls. Heading down the stairs to this room in the basement, Haviland pointed to the mountain lion hide mounted spread-eagle across the wall.

“That’s the lion that tried to bite me,” he said.

A University of Montana journalism graduate, Haviland, 56, makes a living writing about the thing he loves most – hunting. In the last two years, he has tracked moose in Sweden, roe deer in Germany, wild pigs in Texas, quail in Florida and pronghorn antelope in Wyoming.

Adventure aside, as a full-time freelance firearm writer, he is always working. “You go outside, you have your camera—which is like an albatross around your neck—and you’re always thinking of an angle,” he said.

After graduating in 1977, Haviland picked up odd jobs in mining and ranching, and worked as a tree thinner before settling in at the plywood mill in Bonner, Mont. In his spare time, he continued to hunt and read hunting magazines.

“Every month you’re going somewhere,” said Haviland of his favorites like Sports Afield and Outdoor Life. “Idaho with Ted Trueblood, tiger hunting with Jack O’Connor, rabbit hunting down South.”

A few years into his job at the mill, Haviland decided to try writing about his own hunting adventures. In 1986, Outdoor Life accepted the first pitch Haviland wrote and paid him $1,500. He thought, “This is easy. They’ll just call me and I’ll write stories.” When nobody called after a few months, Haviland went to the library and got a few books and learned how to write a query. During swing shifts at the mill, he wrote queries in the morning. It took a few years, but eventually Haviland was getting enough bites to quit the mill to work as a full-time freelance writer.

Besides giving it “everything you got,” Haviland said the keys to his success as a full-time writer are his relationships with good editors like John Anderson at South Dakota’s Varmint Hunter. “To have to enter a new market every time, get to know the editor, and what they like is hard,” Haviland said. “Here’s the editors, here’s this grand canyon, and here’s the writers over here. To bridge that gap is huge.”

Haviland’s assignments range from first-person hunting narratives to news items and product reviews for magazines like Varmint Hunter, Rifle, Handloader, Successful Hunter and Buckmaster’s Gun Hunter. Specializing in big game rifles and hand loading, Haviland has made a name for himself as a discerning product reviewer.

“I’m critical,” he said. While testing rifles, scopes, binoculars or a pair of boots, Haviland thinks about the reader who works at a mill, making $15 dollars an hour. “Is this $1,200 pair of binoculars worth it? He wants to know. And I’m not going to sugarcoat it.”

“Some magazines in the shooting industry these days are more interested in pleasing advertisers than publishing any sort of fault with any of the products,” said former OWAA member John Barsness and longtime hunting buddy of Haviland. The two met at a 1987 OWAA conference in Kalispell, Mont. “I think that’s limited his market a bit because he’s so honest, but there are still some magazines that publish honest reviews, and John is in high demand in those areas.”

Haviland also volunteers as a hunter education instructor for Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks. “When you kill something, it’s not pretty,” Haviland said. “Taking care of it from the field to the table makes you a hunter. Putting a hole in something doesn’t make you a hunter.”

A lot of his students are young teenagers who are eager to get out and shoot something. Haviland is afraid these kids get the wrong idea from TV hunting programs today, and emphasizes respect for animals during his course.

“You see these guys bragging about killing, giving high-fives and jumping around to acid rock music,” he said, “And they have no respect for the animal. They’ll slow-mo an animal struggling with a bow in it or something, and you don’t glorify that sort of thing.”

Haviland’s favorite hunting partners are his wife and sons. He and his wife go grouse hunting every year for their wedding anniversary. They met in Haviland’s hometown of Deer Lodge, Mont., in 1973 and were married at 21 years old. “Only smart thing I ever did,” Haviland said. ◊

Margo Whitmire grew up in California, where she spent most of her life until moving to Missoula in 2008 for a graduate degree in environmental studies at the University of Montana. She has a bachelor’s degree in print journalism from California State University, Sacramento, and worked as a music editor for Billboard Magazine.  Her intern duties include crafting Character Sketch articles, compiling Supporting Group News Tips, News Briefs, Bookshelf items and Outdoor Market listings. Contact Margo at intern@owaa.org.

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By Margo Whitmire

As a boy in eastern Wyoming, Jim Halfpenny developed an early infatuation with the wild. After discovering Ernest Thompson Seton’s “Animal Tracks and Hunter Signs” at the library when he was 8 years old, Halfpenny began scouring the nearby wilderness for animal evidence. As a young teenager, he stood mesmerized at his first glimpse of a black bear loping across the Laramie Mountains.

“I was out there alone, and here was this creature of romance,” Halfpenny said.

Halfpenny, 63, wasted no time turning his reverence for the natural world into a successful career. He began teaching animal tracking classes when he was just 18 years old. Today, he is a noted author, scientist and outdoor educator. An OWAA member since 2007, Halfpenny travels the globe teaching tracking clinics as president and co-owner of A Naturalist’s World.

Based in Gardiner, Mont., the ecological education company offers a range of classes from basic mammal tracking to rare species snow tracking. A former research fellow at Boulder, Colo.-based Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research and a founder of the National Outdoor Leadership School’s Yellowstone and Wyoming winter programs, Halfpenny spends a lot of time testing old wives’ tales associated with animal identification.

“In general, you find there’s a lot of mythology associated with tracking that doesn’t hold up under scrutiny,” he said.

Many myths were considered fact when Halfpenny worked as a licensed hunting guide in Wyoming before attending college. Listening to other guides and outfitters talk about track identification, he realized that some of them were “full of crap,” Halfpenny said. “As a person who studies scat and scatology, I can talk about crap.”

Halfpenny made a point to learn the science and techniques of tracking with a bachelor’s and master’s degree in botany and ecology from the University of Wyoming and a doctorate in biology, ecology and mammalogy from the University of Colorado. His 1986 “A Field Guide to Mammal Tracking in North America” was the first field guide to explore the gait patterns of animals and what can be proved by looking at how they move through the landscape.

Halfpenny specializes in professional-level tracking courses for agencies, like the Forest Service and Department of Natural Resources, that use tracking to gather evidence about endangered species. These courses focus on how to read the whole story of a track, including gait, footprint and signs like scat piles, claw marks, fur, scent and urine stains.

We’re in an arena now where you’ve got to be good and accurate and you’ve got to collect quality evidence that will hold up in court,” said Halfpenny.

Wildlife photographer Michael Francis urged Halfpenny to join OWAA after the two published the book “Yellowstone Bears in the Wild” in 2007. In addition to his outdoor skills, Francis was impressed by Halfpenny’s affinity for bear food.

“He would dig up a plant, explaining that that the bears like to dig this up in the spring, and the next thing you know he’d wipe it off on his pants and stick it in his mouth,” Francis said.

There was also the time Halfpenny took Francis to a black bear den and “pretty much got stuck,” Francis remembers. “It was a very tight fit for Jim, and I got quite a few amusing pictures of him stuck in that den.”

Halfpenny has shared his expertise and experiences in numerous books and videos including the “Scats and Tracks” book series. He wrote his first book, “A Climber’s Guide to Vedauwoo,” while stationed in Saigon during the Vietnam War. With extensive field knowledge of Vedauwoo, as well as a collection of photographs and old cairns, Halfpenny felt an obligation to share and preserve the information. “I was stuck in Vietnam, worried it could be lost with one bullet there,” he said. “So I bought a typewriter and I sat there and I wrote.” He sent drafts from the war zone to Jan Mathiesen in the U.S., who helped publish the book.

Halfpenny’s career is unique from most doctorate folks, said Francis. “He’s not teaching at a university or researching just one animal.” While some people in academics tend to isolate themselves, Francis said, “He’s really a people person and works with the general public really well. He’s into a little of everything and he’s got a vast knowledge.”

Halfpenny owns A Naturalist’s World with his love of more than 20 years, Diann Thompson, who coincidently shares a name with his childhood tracking mentor, Thompson Seton.

“We met in a dentist’s office when she was 11 and I was 13,” he said.

They reunited many years later when Thompson, a registered nurse, took care of his aging parents and they saw each other during Halfpenny’s visits to the hospital. Thompson co-produced the videos “Living With Ice Bears,” “A Celebration of Bears” and “Tracking Elk for Hunters” with Halfpenny, and the two travel together for A Naturalist’s World tracking clinics.

With more than 40 years in the field, Halfpenny still feels that teenage excitement when he sees an animal in the wild. “The romance is still a part of it, definitely,” said Halfpenny. “I’d call it love.” ◊

Margo Whitmire grew up in California, where she spent most of her life until moving to Missoula in 2008 for a graduate degree in environmental studies at the University of Montana. She has a bachelor’s degree in print journalism from California State University, Sacramento, and worked as a music editor for Billboard Magazine.  Her intern duties include crafting Character Sketch articles, compiling Supporting Group News Tips, News Briefs, Bookshelf items and Outdoor Market listings. Contact Margo at intern@owaa.org.

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By Amanda Eggert

Cartoonist and illustrator Bruce Cochran takes advantage of slow, quiet moments on hunts by painting what he sees. He pulls out a small kit of watercolors that he keeps with him and uses the available water to paint a landscape or perhaps a small cartoon.

“I really like that idea, that he uses the water where he’s hunting,” said photographer Jon Blumb, Cochran’s friend of more than 20 years.

Inspiration for the idea came from “Muriel Foster’s Fishing Diary,” a 35-year collection of art and prose the pioneering author compiled throughout her life as a fly-fisher. “I said something to my wife about it and she said, ‘Well, you’re an artist, why don’t you do anything like that?’ So I started that in ’98,” Cochran said.

He’s filled 10 or 11 sketchbooks since picking up the habit. Cochran jokes that he’s “about 70 or 80.” He’s a hair closer to the 70 side – he’s 74 years old.

As a kid, Cochran spent a fair bit of time in the outdoors as a Boy Scout, eventually making it into the Exploring program as a teenager. “We used to go out and camp where we mostly just took our guns and our fishing rods and we were going to live off of the land,” Cochran remembers. “I ate a robin once and a woodpecker and all kinds of weird stuff, whatever you could get.”

These days, Cochran hunts for turkey and deer on a couple hundred acres of land he shares with four other people. “It’s nothing too fancy,” Cochran said. “But we have a nice little house up there with five bedrooms and a couple of bathrooms.” Cochran is quite the avid fly-fisher, too.

Cochran lives in Prairie Village, a suburb of Kansas City, Mo., with Carol, his wife of 52 years. They have two children and four grandchildren.

Cochran started working in the art world before he graduated from the University of Oklahoma, where he studied design. During his last year of college, he worked part time at an advertising agency. “The most valuable experience that I got out of that was that I learned I never wanted to work at another ad agency again,” Cochran said.

Cochran has been drawing ever since he was an “itty bitty kid.” His mother and older sister were artists. His mother primarily painted landscapes and was skilled with both oil and watercolors. His sister, Adrienne, worked as an illustrator for the Daily Oklahoman in Oklahoma City.

“A lot of people ask me, ‘How did you get into cartooning?’ I do kind of have a stock answer for them, but it’s true,” Cochran said. “I always say, ‘Well, if you draw all over your schoolbooks instead of reading them, by the time you get out of school the only thing you’re qualified to be is a cartoonist.’ It’s true, actually. What else could I do? I never learned anything else.”

Thankfully, there were no career counselors around when Cochran decided at a young age that he wanted to be a cartoonist. “If there was, I probably would have done something else because everybody probably would have told me, ‘You can’t make a living at being a cartoonist, you can’t do that.’”

But he has, and he’s done well for himself. Also a writer, Cochran has 11 books to his name. His first four cartoon books, “Buck Fever,” “Bass Fever,” “Duck Fever” and “Trout Fever,” kicked off the popular “Fever” series. Wyoming Wildlife, Pheasants Forever Journal, Ducks Unlimited and Kansas Wildlife & Parks are a few of Cochran’s regular clients. There’s an oddball in the mix, too – Playboy, one of Cochran’s long-standing clients. They pay well and it’s a fun commission, he said.

Cochran is known among his friends and colleagues for his sharp wit. Cochran’s friend Mike Levy, a past president of OWAA, said his wife, Cindy, is amazed that “a guy who looks like a Sunday school teacher has such a wicked sense of humor.”

“I think he’s got a keen appreciation for things that are ironic,” Blumb said. “That’s a slightly different emphasis than being just plain funny. He’s very observant, as you would imagine, and of course witty.”

Blumb recruited Cochran to OWAA and the Outdoor Writers of Kansas in the early 90s. Cochran doesn’t know of any other cartoonists in OWAA, aside from OWAA past president Cliff Shelby. Cochran said he’s learned a lot about the craft of writing and its business aspects from Joel Vance, Tom Huggler, Dave Richey and many speakers at OWAA conferences. In the past decade, Cochran has won several awards in the magazine category OWAA Excellence in Craft humor contest.

Cochran’s artistic talents aren’t limited to cartoons – his wildlife prints aren’t too shabby and he has a knack for the written word. The last few books he’s written are what he calls “heavily-illustrated humor books.” Two of Cochran’s books, “Antler’s Away” and “Marsh Madness,” include haikus on sporting themes.

Levy also wrote a haiku of his own. It honors his friend:

“Clutching inky pen
Cochran’s humor enlivens
Our outdoor pursuits”

“Bruce is always relating some of his work to things that rest of us [outdoor enthusiasts] have experienced and kind of filed away in our minds,” Blumb said. ◊

Amanda Eggert grew up in Billings, Mont., skiing in the Beartooth Mountains and rafting the Stillwater River. She has since moved to Missoula, where she is finishing up a degree in print journalism at the University of Montana. As OWAA’s fall intern, her duties included crafting Character Sketch articles, compiling Supporting Group News Tips, News Briefs, Bookshelf items and Outdoor Market listings.

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By Amanda Eggert

When editors started telling Michael Furtman, “Nice story, where are the photos?” he decided to pursue photography to support his articles. It wasn’t long before he was selling photographs independent of articles. Furtman, 54, has since earned a reputation as a talented and dedicated photographer willing to help others in the business while still producing a remarkable volume of writing.

Furtman, an OWAA member since 1985, is also known for his commitment to conservation. In 2000, he received the Jade of Chiefs Award for his work in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeast Minnesota.

“Mike is a real crusader on conservation,” said Joel Vance, a fellow writer and past Jade of Chiefs recipient. “He’s worked awfully hard to protect the Boundary Waters … That’s probably his number one fight.”

The Boundary Waters holds special meaning for Furtman; he’s gone there on family outings since he was five years old. “I came from a very modest economic background, so camping, going on picnics, and fishing were inexpensive ways for my mom and dad to entertain the kids and instill a love for the outdoors in all of us,” Furtman said.

This summer he spent quite a bit of time in canoe country with his wife Mary Jo, a middle school math teacher.

“I love my own backyard here. I love the north woods and the nearby prairies,” he said. “I’m fortunate that I can make a living wherever I want to live, so I stay here.”

When the 1996 OWAA conference was held in Furtman’s hometown of Duluth, Minn., Furtman served as the local conference chair.  He met Randy Zellers, the managing editor of Arkansas Wildlife at the conference. Zellers praises Furtman’s talent and professionalism.

“Michael probably knows more about photography, digital photography and Photoshop, than a lot of the photo editors out there,” Zellers said. “I would suggest that anyone who goes to an OWAA conference attend all of the classes he teaches.”

Furtman is lauded for his tack-sharp images of birds. “One of the things that he does absolutely great is catching birds on the wing with crisp images,” Zellers said. “He almost specializes in it.”

Furtman’s dedication to his craft – or crafts, more accurately – is evident in both the volume of work he produces and his day-to-day work ethic. He has won dozens of awards from OWAA and other organizations for his writing and photography.

He goes out into the field to photograph nearly every day, rain or shine. His dedication has paid off. Since the late 90s his photography has evolved into a stand-alone part of his business that makes him as much, if not more money than his writing.

Reliability and professionalism have been distinctive features of Furtman’s career.

“You don’t have to be the greatest writer or photographer in the world to make a living at this, but you do have to be a professional, you do have to be reliable. Editors cherish both of those qualities,” Furtman said.

Furtman’s career also includes some time spent writing television scripts.  For a period of about two years, he wrote scripts for Ducks Unlimited television and Trout Unlimited television. He also wrote the script and co-starred on a television program called Outdoor Ethics that appeared on ESPN 2. It was a five-minute program sponsored by the Isaak Walton League of America and Orvis that appeared between sporting shows and focused on ethical dilemmas that sportsmen and women might face out in the field.

“The one thing that I love most about this job, other than the fact that I get to be outdoors a lot, is just the creative part. Whether you’re creating a photograph, creating an article, or creating a television script, it’s all very mentally stimulating,” Furtman said. “[It’s] very immediately rewarding, if not financially, at least spiritually.”

Fellow photographer Tim Christie is impressed by the friendly, helpful attitude Furtman takes towards other photographers. “He’s very giving in terms of both his expertise and his knowledge,” Christie said. “Michael is the kind of person that will not only tell you how he took a particular photograph, but he will probably tell you where he took it and that’s pretty unique.”

“If someone told me that they wanted to get started in freelance outdoor photography, they’d be hard-pressed to find a better role model or mentor,” Zellers said. ◊

Photo courtesy Michael Furtman.

Amanda Eggert grew up in Billings, Mont., skiing in the Beartooth Mountains and rafting the Stillwater River. She has since moved to Missoula, where she is finishing up a degree in print journalism at the University of Montana. Her intern duties include crafting Character Sketch articles, compiling Supporting Group News Tips, News Briefs, Bookshelf items and Outdoor Market listings.



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By Amanda Eggert

The titles of professional photographer and bear spray tester wouldn’t regularly go hand-in-hand, but if you’re Michael Francis, they do.

Several years ago, Francis was in Canada with another photographer when they were charged by a grizzly bear sow. They stopped her from a full charge when she was just six feet away – they couldn’t use the spray any earlier because underbrush interfered with the spray’s range.

“That was the first time that Counter Assault had ever been used on a charging female grizzly bear with cubs,” Francis said. “No one knew whether it would really work or not and obviously both my friend and I are here, so the spray worked well.”

While it might be a stretch to say such situations are the norm, Francis, 55, has found himself in a number of dangerous situations during his three-decade tenure as a nature photographer.

Yellowstone National Park’s beauty – its unique geothermal features, assortment of wildlife and stunning landscapes – inspired Francis to pick up a camera more than three decades ago. “It pretty much started my first day in Yellowstone Park when I said, ‘Hmm…This is what I’d like to do,’” he said.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in entomology and taking three years of photography classes at Montana State University-Bozeman, Francis spent several years perfecting his craft while managing hotels and lodges in Yellowstone.

He started showing his photos to fellow employees, then to guests. Before long, he was winning photography contests.

“Pretty soon I started thinking ‘you know, I think my stuff is as good as what I see in magazines.’”

His professional career took off in 1983 when National Parks magazine published some of his work the same month he had the cover of Bowhunter.

Francis estimates that he now works regularly with 15 to 20 publications from his home-base in Billings, Mont. where he lives with his wife Victoria and his 17-year-old daughter Emily. His 22-year-old daughter, Liz, is a student at the University of Nebraska.

Francis’ background in biology helps him recognize subtle cues animals give before they’re about to do something exciting. “I’m always looking for natural behavior and I think a lot of editors around the country know me for my behavior as opposed to my animal portraits,” he said.

Francis spends about 200 days a year in the field – photographing everything from orangutans in Borneo and polar bears in Manitoba to lemurs and chameleons in Madagascar – but still tries to make it back to Yellowstone once a month.“My favorite place, even though I travel all around the world, is still Yellowstone Park,” Francis said.

Francis is lucky enough to see his former role models become friends. Growing up, Francis admired the work of Leonard Lee Rue III. Now he counts the legendary photographer among his friends.

In the early 2000s, Francis led Joseph Van Os photo tours with Rue III’s son, Len Rue Jr., in Manitoba, Canada. They led groups of outdoor photography enthusiasts on trips to photograph polar bears.

“He was great,” the younger Rue remembers. “He’s responsible, fun, and gets along great with people. He’s excellent.”

Photo tours are one source of revenue in an increasingly competitive market. “Selling photography is a lot more difficult today than it was when I started in the 80s, much more difficult,” Francis said. “What you’re doing now in order to be successful is finding as many little niches as you can in order to sell your expertise.”

Photo tours are one niche, book projects are another. Francis has 35 single photographer books to his name.

“His publishing record is enviable,” said Francis’ colleague Michael Sample. “It’s an amazingly wide body of work.”

Another way Francis supplements his income in the midst of falling stock photography prices is by maintaining a state-of-the-art Web site (www.michaelfrancisphoto.com) where approved professional photography buyers can purchase photos without having to contact him personally, an important consideration for someone who spends so many days in the field.

“They can go onto my site, find the image they want and actually download a high-res TIFF off of my site, use that, and send me a check without ever having to talk to me,” Francis said. “There are just a very small handful of us right now that are doing that, but that will probably be the norm in less than ten years.”

Although the digital revolution has changed the professional market and it is a constant struggle to stay abreast of new technology, Francis said he prefers digital photography to the old film days. “It is, I think, a lot more fun,” he said. “I would never go back to shooting film. I don’t think I could.”

Francis joined OWAA in 1989. He also joined the North American Nature Photographer’s Association when it was founded more than 15 years ago, serving as its president from 2003 to 2004.

“He’s done a lot to promote outdoor photography,” Sample said. “He’s just an all-around upbeat, positive, ethical, friendly photographer who’s quite skilled at what he does.”

The hunting season is underway – orange and camouflage-clad hunters are roaming the outdoors with bows and rifles in tow. Francis will be combing the woods for wildlife, too, but with a camera rather than a gun.

“I used to be quite the avid hunter, but really, hunting and carrying a camera don’t go very well. You can be good at one but not good at both typically,” Francis said. “I haven’t carried a rifle with me for quite some time. Basically, I hunt year-round, but with a camera.” ◊

Amanda Eggert grew up in Billings, Mont., skiing in the Beartooth Mountains and rafting the Stillwater River. She has since moved to Missoula, where she is finishing up a degree in print journalism at the University of Montana. Her intern duties include crafting Character Sketch articles, compiling Supporting Group News Tips, News Briefs, Bookshelf items and Outdoor Market listings.

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