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A meeting with a legend—what else would you call an encounter with Lonesome George, the last known individual of his kind? On the remote Galápagos island of Pinta, the last male of the island’s unique subspecies of giant tortoise was discovered in 1971. Sadly, George passed away in 2012, and with him, the Pinta Island tortoise went extinct. “A symbol of hope,” reads the sign in the room that now holds his taxidermied body at the Charles Darwin Research Station on Santa Cruz Island. I don’t know… I might have chosen a more fitting phrase, though it probably wouldn’t flatter us humans. It is why I believe it is so important to photograph, film, and protect the world around you.

In every genre of photography, there seems to be a lesson that must be learned in order to get good photos more easily. For example, portrait photographers often talk about developing a rapport with their subjects, and from own experience with portraits, I do think that’s true. But what about bird photography? I think the lesson here should be: Every bird has a secret.