About the Photographer
Tom Isgar, the photographer behind Wild Images Photography, is based in Sarasota, Florida. Photography keeps him traveling both inside the US and out. In the past four years he has photographed all over the US as well as in Costa Rica, Honduras, Venezuela, Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uruguay, Trinidad, East Timor, China and Botswana.
As a full-time writer and photographers, he has published three to four articles a year since 2000.
He has been a photographer forever. It began when he bought his first camera, a Kodak Brownie, at 11 years old. His second was an OM1, which went around the world several times.
His photographs and articles have been published in magazines, newsletter and brochures. His prints are in many private collections.
About the Photography
He shoots thousands of images every year. The time is split between photographing in the field and processing images in the studio, which leads to great prints.
Almost all of the subjects are photographed in the wild: Lilac Breasted Rollers in Kenya, Southern Lapwings in Uruguay, and sting rays in the Caribbean. Tom shoots hundreds of images of each subject.
The only captive subjects are those that are no longer photographable in their habitat. Pandas are the best example. Photos of captive animals are labeled.
To photograph a wild subject, Tom researches habits, habitats and seasonal behavior; he may travel to local fields and distant continents. Sometimes photography is easy and other times not.
He had a report of burrowing owls in the middle of a New Mexico town behind a shopping center. He drove the truck to the lot and photographed as many as eight owls out of the window. That was an easy one. On the other hand, he once discovered a sandhill crane sitting on eggs. However, he didn't know when the eggs were laid. So, for 25 mornings, before dawn, he set gear up on the edge of a pond and waited for the crane to stand, hoping for a sight of chicks rather than eggs.
About the Process
Before digital, Tom was part of a very small group of photographers who chose to take each step in the creative process himself. He carefully tested and selected film. He researched cameras, lenses and locations; he shot and developed the film in a home darkroom. When other photographers asked,"Why?" the answer was, "I want to ensure the quality of the process rather than leaving it to minimum wage technicians who have no stake in the end product."
Today more photographers manage the digital processing of their images, but many still trust the production of prints to someone else. He still controls the process from beginning to end. (For more details on the all new magic of creating digital prints, see Purchase Prints.)
From thousands of shots, only a handful survives the selection process. The survivors then go through a more rigorous editing process which leaves only the best as candidates for prints. He selects a few to display: the images on this website are a sample of the images in the storage system. Think about the website as a gallery and the storage as the gallery warehouse. If you like what you see and want to know more about what is available contact him for a peek into the warehouse.