Photography

About My Photography

I primarily photograph nature subjects with my main interests being bird photography, landscapes and wildlife. I have been lucky to have been able to spend a lot of time working with Sea Otters and Elephant Seals, both charismatic animals in very different ways.

People often ask what kind of photography I do, and I struggle explaining, because my work doesn't fit into an easily defined category, beyond, well, "Nature stuff".

Bird/wildlife and landscape work are very different skill sets and require different gear to work, and often conflict with each other; there's nothing quite like being out with a 500mm lens chasing a Sandhill Crane when the late afternoon sunlight explodes into the glorious magic sunset dance, and your wide angle gear is 30 minutes away locked in the car.

Having relocated from Silicon Valley to Washington state in 2021, I’ve left many of my traditional photographic locations behind, and I’m just beginning my journey new locations and subjects as I begin to explore my new homestead regions.

My goal with photography is to display nature, especially the birds and locations that are special to me, in ways that help others understand what about these things brings joy to my life and value to all of us as part of nature.

Free Desktop Wallpapers You Can Download

(new images January 2024)

Portfolios

Recent Work

My favorite new and recently updated images

Licensing

All of my images are copyrighted and are not public domain. They may not be used without permission. Most of my images are available to be licensed, please contact me at chuqvr@gmail.com to discuss your needs and situation and we can discuss pricing.

If you are an environmental non-profit organization with 501(c)(3) status, I will usually license images to you at no cost for a specific use. I do reserve the right to decline a license if I don't feel the usage is appropriate. Please contact me for details about my licensing options and your needs. Both single images and bulk licensing options are available.

Location disclosure

I occasionally get requests for location data on one of my images. I thought I would put my policy on sharing that information on the web site, if only so I can point to it in the future and save myself some typing.

I do not publish any GPS data in any of my images. If ask where I took an image, I will usually be happy to share with you the facility where it was taken, if that facility is open to the public and encourages visitors. For instance, I'll always disclose that an image was shot at Yosemite National Part, or Merced National Wildlife Refuge. To be honest, when I GPS encode my own images, it is to the facility, not to locations within it, so I may not be able to remember a more specific location within that facility. Even if I do, though, I won't disclose it.

You are welcome to go there and find your own images within that place. If you're hoping to find my specific composition, I must suggest instead you buy a print of mine that you like so much and not clone a copy of it, or consider hiring me as a guide to take you there if you want it that badly. I have no interest in encouraging or helping people trophy hunt compositions. If an image is sensitive and is a location where visitation isn't encouraged, I will decline disclosing, or give a general answer that's not terribly useful.

I've seen too many of these sensitive places damaged and I have no interest in helping that kind of behavior. I've long worried about the impact of sharing sensitive locations, and so I have not shared images with GPS data for a number of years, and in fact, when I encode GPS onto my images, We need to do what we can to protect these sensitive and fragile locations, and I am doing what I can to promote that in my work and how I create it.