Hummingbirds made Mike Lentz give up hunting.
But not right away, and not how you might imagine – a haggard hunter with bags under his eyes, desperately trying to draw a bead on a bird which even the smallest lead shot would atomize.
Mike had toyed with photography back when he was a high school student. After graduating he found pork and beef futures far more profitable. Yet as the Lakeville commodity trader looked out his kitchen window one morning, he saw delicate little ruby-throated things weaving in and out of his flower bed and resolved to shoot them.
With his old camera, of course – the city of Lakeville does not take a relaxed stance on discharging firearms within city limits. The shutter speed on Mike’s old camera was only slightly faster than an automatic garage door, so by the time he snapped a picture the hummingbirds were already thumbing their beaks at him from a different area code.
With his wife’s blessing, Mike proceeded to the store for state-of-the-art shutterbug paraphernalia. The hummingbirds were thus recorded for future generations, and a nature photographer was born.
Mike proceeded to sharpen his skills on ducks. Unlike hummingbirds, the saucy dabblers make a perfect subject for a novice thanks in no small part to their habit of frequently staying still. But ducks, as any ornithologist will tell you, are a gateway bird. Soon Mike was setting out to photograph elusive owls, winter swans, and bluebirds perched atop blazing star flowers.
Birds gave way to mammals. Mike has traipsed across the Badlands in search of mother swift foxes and their kits, scaled the Grand Tetons to get candids of moose (as well as the flying squirrels which often accompany them), and hiked throughout Yellowstone to find the bane of straw and stick houses.
Finally one day, as Mike snapped away at a whitetail, he realized that thoughts of trophies and venison hadn’t occurred to him. By studying all creatures great and small for so long, he developed a special fondness for each of their personalities. To take their lives no longer meant nearly as much to Mike as immortalizing their light.
The old 300 WSM rifle now collects dust.
“Nature photography is all about patience,” said Mike. “I’ve spent countless hours in the blazing heat and freezing cold, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes and sweltering in humidity that could cook chicken lobsters. It might take thousands of photos just to get one that evokes real emotion.
“Sometimes you fail. Sometimes you succeed. But when you succeed, you're proud.”
Mike’s extensive body of work is available for sale as prints and giclées. He also offers guided tours of his favorite spots to aspiring nature photographers. To learn more about Mike Lentz Nature Photography, please visit mikelentzphotography.com.