Riding the ‘trans-Siberian’ railway; meeting Prince William, the gray woolly monkey (and Instagram sensation); watching the arts re-emerge in Kosovo
|  | Saturday, December 4, 2021 | | | | |
| In today’s newsletter, riding the ‘trans-Siberian’ railway; meeting Prince William, gray woolly monkey (and Instagram sensation) … and watching the arts re-emerge in Kosovo. | |
 | PHOTOGRAPHS BY CHARLIE HAMILTON JAMES
| | By Whitney Johnson, Director of Visual and Immersive Experiences
The ebb and flow of 1.4 million wildebeest and zebra as they chase seasonal rains across the Serengeti and Masai Mara is the largest and most impressive animal migration on Earth.
But how do you approach a subject that has been photographed thousands of times, knowing there are dozens, if not hundreds, of stunning photographs already published, including in the pages of National Geographic?
That was the challenge we put to Nat Geo photographer Charlie Hamilton James, behind the cover story in December’s issue, with Kenyan conservationist and Nat Geo Explorer Paula Kahumbu. (Pictured above, the wildebeest and trailing egrets during the migration.)
Working closely with longtime photo editor and now deputy director of photography Kathy Moran, Charlie decided to frame the wildlife as classic dioramas, using lighting and medium length lenses to lift the animals off the landscape.
The challenge was to get close enough without disturbing the animals. Charlie succeeded, capturing behavior within the context of the scene. When you look at these photographs below—the giraffe nibbling at the acacia tree; lions guarding their eland carcass from vultures; spotted hyenas emerging from their den at sunset—you experience wildlife behaving naturally within the landscape. | | | |
| | Charlie, also a Nat Geo Explorer, used every piece of “kit” and visual style to create one of the most powerful documents of the Serengeti ecosystem ever produced. Pictured below, male elephants play fighting; farther down, vultures feeding on a wildebeest carcass. | | | |
| | Charlie photographed herds of wildebeest from the air (pictured below), galloping through the dusty plains; at night, backlit by enormous electrical storms; and at eye-level, positioning cameras to await their arrival as they crossed the Mara River. | | | |
| Proof that our approach made for impactful images? The reaction from Charlie’s peers, other wildlife and conservation photographers. As Nat Geo photographer and Explorer Tom Peschak says: “So hard to make fresh images there, but I think CHJ made some surprising and memorable frames.”
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY JUSTYNA MIELNIKIEWICZ @JUSTMIEL
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Getting the embouchure right: Before playing, this trombonist for the new Kosovo Opera gets his lips, tongue, and teeth in the proper position by blowing into his mouthpiece. Photographer Justyna Mielnikiewicz covered the opera’s inaugural concert in October, of particular significance because many music institutions in the former Yugoslav region were halted amid ethnic tensions three decades ago. The opera is part of an initiative to create new cultural institutions alongside the otherworldly monuments to a nation, Yugoslavia, that no longer exists. In Kosovo, nearly half of its 1.8 million people are under age 30, making it the youngest nation in Europe.
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 | | VIDEO BY JOEL SARTORE, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PHOTO ARK | | A minor sensation: A video of an endangered gray woolly monkey named Prince William has stirred viewers on our Instagram account, getting nearly 7 million views in less than 24 hours. Photographer and Nat Geo Explorer Joel Sartore took the video at Brazil's Mantenedor da Fauna Silvestre Cariuá, writing: “High up in the treetops of cloud forests, these primates spend much of their day traveling in search of food, using their long, prehensile tails to bridge gaps between trees.” The video is part of Joel’s Photo Ark project of the world’s vulnerable species. See Prince William here.
In the line of fire: Photojournalists who covered protests in Portland, Oregon, following the death of George Floyd found themselves assaulted from all sides. “I hit the cement so hard with a helmet that my teeth hurt for a couple of days,” one photographer says. Why do they do this line of work? A new documentary, Between the Lines: Photojournalism in the Crossfire, features interviews with several photojournalists from Portland. See the trailer.
‘End of life shoots’: Photographer Julia Earhart has always loved animals. That’s why the Detroit photographer is offering free photo sessions for owners of pets that are at the end of life, People magazine reports. "There is a real connection and a lot of emotion that these animals can bring out in us. Witnessing that as a photographer? It fills me with a lot of joy,” she says.
Twitter’s new photo policy: The social media platform has updated its privacy policy, changing what users can and can’t share on the site. Images or videos of people, shared without their consent, will be taken down at their request. The policy on what can be posted is vague; Tatum Hunter answers some FAQs in the Washington Post.
One man’s trash: When Fabrice Monteiro returned to Senegal, the country of his birth, he was shocked to find plastic waste everywhere. So he shot a series to raise awareness of environmental concerns. One image, featured in the Guardian’s My Best Shot, shows what appears to be a spirit emerging from Mbeubeuss, a mountain of garbage. See the amazing photo.
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 | PHOTOGRAPH BY CHIARA NEGRELLO
| | Enjoying the sunset: Dear reader, don’t know about you, but we’d love to be aboard a train watching the sun’s last rays glisten over Italy’s Abruzzo region. The Chiara Negrello photograph above is one of several in her story on the Sulmona-Carpinone route, nicknamed Italy’s “Trans-Siberian” railway. The mountainous 73-mile rail journey, dating back to 1897, rekindles a connection to the heyday of train travel in Italy, Chiara tells Nat Geo’s Allie Yang.
Subscriber exclusive: What you get when you follow the herd in Italy
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| This newsletter has been curated and edited by David Beard, Heather Kim, Jen Tse, and Monica Williams. Amanda Williams-Bryant, Rita Spinks, Alec Egamov, and Jeremy Brandt-Vorel also contributed this week. Have an idea or a link? We’d love to hear from you at david.beard@natgeo.com. Thanks for reading! | | | |
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