© Tui De Roy / Roving Tortoise Photos
De Roy captured these Royal albatross courting in New Zealand with a Nikon F5 and an 18-35mm f/3.5-4.5 Zoom-Nikkor on Fujichrome Provia 100F film. Click photo for more images by Tui De Roy and others.
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Revered wildlife photographer Tui de Roy is best known for her images of the Galapagos Islands, where she lived for 35 years. Her most recent project focuses not on a geographic location, however, but on a single species that resides in remote locales across the globe: the albatross. Working with Birdlife International's Albatross Campaign, De Roy is documenting every species of albatross, the most endangered family of birds. Her images will illustrate a book for the organization's campaign to reform fishing practices deadly to the huge seabirds. De Roy is attracted to the albatross because her "inspiration comes from the magic of true wildness." "And there is nothing more wild than these huge birds," she explains. Wild they are, but albatross chicks are helpless for more than a year after hatching. To protect them, parents roost in remote areas with literally no natural predators. Luckily De Roy has always been drawn to the "outermost frontiers of the world."
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To track these solitary birds, she has overcome shipwrecks and miles of red tape, even purchasing a specially outfitted sailboat for her multiple trips to nesting areas in the Antarctic. And because mobility is top priority in remote locales, De Roy travels light, with only her Nikon F5 (she shoots only film) and often a wide-angle to capture the birds' environment, as in this photo.
De Roy hopes her images help people form a deep emotional connection with the albatross. "With conservation, the key ingredient is to have people fall in love with the subject so they can't bear to not do anything about it," she says.
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