Why The Wild Journal?

I started “The Wild Journal” for those who love nature and want to learn more about it. Every month, I will share stories from the places I go, the animals I follow, and the photographs that rarely make it onto the wall.

For more than two decades, I've spent my time in wild places, following tracks, watching animals, waiting for light, and learning to pay attention to the small details that are so often easy to miss.

The photograph is only part of the story.

Behind every image is a place, an experience, and usually a fair amount of patience, persistence, and stubbornness. Sometimes it's a long hike into the backcountry. Sometimes it's hours spent waiting for an animal that never appears. Other times, it's returning to the same mountain for years before finally understanding what it was trying to tell me.

I created The Wild Journal to share more of those stories. Whether you're a follower of my work, a nature or wildlife photographer, or simply someone who loves nature and wild places, I hope you'll find something here that draws you in.

Here, I'll take you behind the photographs and into the places where they were made, sharing field experiences, wildlife behavior, tracking observations, camera-trapping adventures, lessons learned, never-before published photographs that never made it into my portfolio, and images from my archive that have stories of their own. Some stories will be about photography. Others will have very little to do with the camera at all.

If you enjoy getting a closer look at the places, the animals, and the experiences behind my work, subscribe to The Wild Journal and come along for the journey. New stories and field notes will arrive directly in your inbox, along with the occasional glimpse of something you won't find anywhere else.

My hope is that you'll not only see more of the wild, but begin to see it differently—to experience it more fully.

Because the longer you spend paying attention to the natural world, the more there is to discover. And the more you discover, the more you realize you've only scratched the surface.

Welcome to The Wild Journal. I'll see you inside!

-Zack