Sebastian Kennerknecht’s camera equipment—a Canon EOS 40D with a 500mm f/4 supertelephoto lens and effortless action—is the kind that makes photographers weep. But when Kennerknecht goes on a wildlife shoot, the contraption doesn’t even come out of its oversized padded backpack until he’s finished something else first.
“So this is what I do when I first get to a spot,” he explains on an overcast afternoon at Moss Landing. “I’m just seeing what’s out there, looking for patterns. Like those terns—there seems to be a spot they’re focusing on. So I’ll just watch and see.”
We’re standing on a walkway at the edge of the harbor looking down on dozens of sea lions lolling on a jetty, while overhead shorebirds wheel and whiz about on what look, to me at least, like arbitrary errands.
“Then eventually you’ll want to focus on one thing, note the predictive behavior and really kind of build a relationship with your subject. Like these pelicans,” he says, looking up at a platoon winging over the harbor in a northeasterly direction. “They spend their nights in the dried salt ponds. If I’d studied their behavior, then instead of sitting here wondering where they’re going, I’d already be there waiting for them.”
Kennerknecht’s studies in behavioral ecology at UCSC have equipped him with background knowledge and the right questions to ask—What’s this animal doing, and what does that say about its interaction with its environment or its fellow creatures?—but the patience to return day after day for the perfect shot of a burrowing owl, or to ignore the stings of mosquitoes covering his hands on a red-legged frog shoot, or to sit motionless while a curious juvenile condor waddles up almost to within arm’s length—that comes from someplace else. Listening to him talk, it sounds like Kennerknecht is a nature lover first, a scientist second and a photographer third.
“I love capturing [the image],” he admits, “but just seeing the animal out in the wild is the real reward. When you’re 5 feet from an otter, you’re 5 feet from an otter! It’s only after the encounter is over that I realize I’m really hungry or cold.”
Kennerknecht had an exhibit, “Endangered Neighbors,” at the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History over the summer and has several pieces in the Santa Cruz County Bank’s beautiful “Birds of A Feather” show, which closes Sept. 30. Next month, though, his career takes an international turn when he travels to Yemen to photograph the rare and elusive Arabian leopard, something he’ll do using his research skills and a camera triggered by an infrared sensor.
For Kennerknecht, photography is mostly a tool to help the public connect with the natural world in a way that inspires conservation, or just simple engagement. “For me the exciting part is sharing these photos and getting people excited about nature,” he says, “even if it’s just a walk in the woods.”
See more of Sebastian Kennerknecht’s work at www.pumapix.com.
