George Nobechi is a Japanese-Canadian photographer living in Nagano, Japan. His work is often described as evoking solitude, duality and longing. Being bicultural, he is simultaneously an insider and outsider in both Eastern and Western cultures and this is reflected in his sensibility and vision.
Guy Tal is an American nature and landscape photographer, the author of several books, a regular contributor to photography publications such as LensWork and On Landscape, a prolific blogger, and educator. He resides in Torrey, Utah.
Matt Richtel is a Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times writer and journalist from San Francisco, USA. He’s also the author of ten books, including ‘Inspire: Understanding Creativity. A Journey Through Art, Science, and the Soul’ which addresses the science of creativity.
Art Wolfe is an American nature, wildlife, and cultural photographer who travels the world leading photography workshops and creating award-winning images for his dozens of books. His photography career spans five decades and covers every continent on Earth.
Matthieu Paley is a French photographer who has traveled the world working for National Geographic magazine. Focusing his efforts on regions that are misrepresented and misunderstood, he is committed to issues relating to diminishing cultures and the environment.
Rick Sammon is an American photographer of many decades. He’s a tireless, prolific and inspirational image-maker and one of the the most active photographers working today. He divides his time between creating images, leading photo workshops, making personal appearances, and writing books – always educating, creating and inspiring people. He’s also incorporated smartphone photography into his professional work, which is the primary topic of the conversation.
Peter Gros and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant are hosts of the new Mutual of Omaha’s “Wild Kingdom Protecting The Wild’ TV show airing on NBC, which is the successor to the classic Wild Kingdom that aired on the same network from 1963 – 1988. Peter Gros was a host from the original series during episodes in the 1980s and Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant is a National Geographic Explorer and research faculty member at the University of California – Santa Barbara.
John Stanmeyer is an award-winning photographer, filmmaker, and educator, dedicated to social, humanitarian, and political issues that define our times. For more than than 20 years, John has worked nearly exclusively with National Geographic Magazine, producing more than 18 stories, resulting in more than 14 covers. Between the years of 1998 and 2008, John was a contract photographer for TIME magazine. His years with TIME resulted in 18 cover images and 100-plus stories.
Dr. Tom Smith is a professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where he studies human-wildlife conflicts, particularly involving all three species of North American bears and mountain sheep. He also worked with the United States government in southwestern Alaska where he served from 1992-2006 as a research biologist for the National Park Service and USGS.
Mike Olbinski is a Phoenix, Arizona-based storm chasing and extreme weather photographer and cinematographer. His passion is capturing extreme weather events like tornados, haboobs, supercells, and lightning events on camera and stunning cinematic time lapse videos.
