Natalie Fobes compares photographing wildlife to shooting a football game. A photographer must learn the rules of the game, anticipate the action, capture those decisive moments and yield the right of way if a football player—or brown bear—runs his/her way.

She has photographed wildlife for many magazines. Bear, eagles, salmon, fox, whales, auklets, geese, walrus, seals and sea lions for National Geographic Magazine. The Resplendant Quetzal for GEO. Komodo dragons, timor deer and boar for Travel Holiday.

Natalie enjoys photographing animals in their world and not in animal farms. She has certainly had some close calls, like being brushed by a 1300 pound brown bear or surrounded by 12-foot-long komodo dragons, but feels it is worth it in order to photograph animals’ true behavior. Her hope is that when people see her photographs they will understand why it is so important to save the wild places the wild animals call home.