How did your interest in wildlife arise?
In 2021, after my divorce, I started going to the countryside and beach on weekends when my son and daughter had their turn with their father. I found in these journeys space for connection and personal knowledge that, by little, gave me calm and peace. Started photography using a small camera that was gifted to me, then came a DSLR Canon and next I changed to a Pentax., To learn to use and improve the technics, in 2013, I took a course in Nature Photography with my teacher Jean Paul de la Harpe, that included classes and workshops in the field.
My first travel in Chile for photography was to San Pedro de Atacama in the desert in 2015 with my Pentax gear. My next destination was Torres del Paine in 2016. In 2017, I traveled with two friends to South Africa and Madagascar; my dream came true. In 2018, with other friends and photographers, we traveled to Puerto Piramide in Argentina’s Patagonia, where I fell eternally in love with the whales.
In 2019, with my classmates and our teacher, we published a Nature Photography book about the central zone of Chile. We also had a photographic exhibition at the museum MUI in Las Condes, Santiago.
In 2020, I changed my gear to Sony because I had problems with my Pentax lens, next came the pandemic and the rest is a history that we all know…
The workshops on the field and the travels made me grow my interest in learning and knowing more about nature. I remember my first bird photograph with a lot of nostalgia and how hard it was, and I thought I’d never be able to memorize the names because of my bad memory. It’s been almost ten years, I can identify some species with their local names (scientific or English names have been difficult for me yet), and I can also recognize some vocalizations. I am still learning and trying more challenging things every day.
Also, I am printing my photographs; I took a framing course and one in bookbinding, all to materialize my idea of taking my pictures a little beyond social networks.
How do you describe your journey as a photographer and a person?
I remember my father always holding a camera when I was a little girl.
My journey as a person was challenging until I got divorced and when away from photography.
Today I cannot imagine myself without my camera, and sometimes I think, why have 40 years of my life passed without all this?
I do not regret it because I became a mom of two marvelous teenagers, Catalina and Agustín, my sons, and I’m so happy about that. Still, I feel that if my school or my parents had taught me from childhood to know and care about nature, maybe my life would have been different.
Because I have a terrible memory, I look for information for each specie or place I photograph, read about its characteristics, and try to learn a little more; until now, it has been a journey in constant evolution. I hope still to do this for much more time.
Photography has helped me get to know my country, learn about ecology, and seek a path in which I continue constantly challenging myself, step by step, to improve.
What is your view on Nature Conservation? How can we, as wildlife photographers, help to protect Mother Nature?
We are living in times where it is necessary to be more conscientious about the environment and nature conservation. Climate change is a reality, and we must do everything possible for all of society to understand the problem and act.
However, I still find trash in every place I visit, the protected areas are being threatened by fire, under economic pressure, and the latest news from my country is not encouraging.
It is not easy; there is still a long way to go, and I hope it is not too late for the new generations to get equilibrium and that all human beings on this planet will be respected.
For this reason, my goal through photography is to make the biodiversity that I capture shine with all its beauty through my images; this way, I get more and more people to know, take care of the nature that surrounds us, understand and appreciate how beautiful we are and that we must take care of it, I feel it as my grain of sand in this fight.
Can you give our readers the best nature photography tips? Do you have any recommendations on settings or gear for wildlife photography?
Patience to wait, stay quiet, and move slowly. These are difficult tips to follow because anxiety often makes us make mistakes. The important thing is to try not to disturb.
I recommend looking for light from sunrises or sunsets and if it is cloudy, look for reflections, for example. To photograph wildlife, I would recommend a 300mm or longer lens for birds, ideally a camera with good focus. For travel, a 24-105 telephoto lens, for example, is light and very versatile.
What plans do you have in the future related to nature photography?
A long list of places to travel and photograph birds and whales. I want to go to Colombia and Costa Rica, to the Amazon, and I hope to return to Africa one day.
I want to continue learning to print. I will take some workshops to learn about bookbinding, and I hope to start working on an author’s book with photographs of birds from Chile.
Tell us something about the gears you use?
I have two cameras, a Sony a7iii and the new Sony a7iv with a fancy focus.
My lenses are a Sony 100-400 that I use for wildlife and birds, a Sony 24-105 for travel, and a wide-angle Sony 16-35 for landscapes. My tripod is a Leofoto, and my backpack is Shimoda.
