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Milton Heiberg - Interview Recently, TGP contributor Bill Eidson spoke to Milton about his experience with both nature and commercial photography Article rating: 10.00

Click here to read Milton's Ten Tips on Nature Photography

TakeGreatPictures.com (TGP): So how did a kid who grew up in Brooklyn become a nature photographer?  

Milton Heiberg (MH): When I was very young during World War II, my idea of nature was the Victory Garden in my Brooklyn backyard. But when I was eight years old, my mother had a summer job at a resort in the Catskills. I was drawn to the country like a magnet; I was destined to be a naturalist.

TGP: Tell me about your first nature photo.  

MH: My older friends were hunters and they shot a weasel one morning. They thought they’d freak me out by putting it on my pillow while I was asleep. When I woke up, I wasn’t freaked out—it was more like, “Wow! This is for me? Thank you!”

I ran out to the barn and skinned the weasel and nailed it to a board. I was going to make a hat out of it. But before I got too far a golden eagle swooped down and snatched it away. While my friends were running to grab their guns, I ran for my camera. I still remember the way I felt when I got a picture of that eagle.

TGP: So that led to you enjoying bird photography?  

MH: It did. The next day, I walked to the next farm to visit a friend who was a birder. We went through his Audubon book of birds and identified the golden eagle. All that summer, I kept looking at that book and observing the birds nearby. I’ve been photographing birds ever since.

TGP: So when did you get a telephoto and start pulling in distant shots?  

MH: When I got my first SLR. I was in my mid-twenties with three kids. My camera was stolen from my car one day while I was taking my kids to the petting zoo in Central Park. With the insurance money, I got the camera I wanted.

TGP: Tell us about your own commercial studio in New York

MH: Even though I sold some stock photos of my nature work, I knew I couldn’t make a living at it. So I went into commercial photography, which I really loved. While I had no interest in climbing the corporate ladder in some big company, this was my own business and I was passionate about it. I had a two-thousand square foot studio in the Mason’s Building in NYC’s photo district, three assistants, and a rep. Although I cornered the book photography market with most of the New York publishers, five of the largest publishers gave me work consistently. It was very lucrative and successful.

TGP: Are there any similarities between your commercial and nature work?  

MH: In my nature photography, I found that I had a flair for composition. I learned the rules of composition and the arrangement of forms within a frame by watching my older sister do her art school homework. I was the bratty kid looking over her shoulder and making fun of her “modern art.” But, years later, I realized I was following a lot of the compositional guidelines I learned from her.

It helped that I came from a very artistic family.

TGP: I understand you also did some archeological photography in Israel.  

MH: Yes, a friend was a “Core Staff Leader” for an archaeological project in Israel. He asked me to come over. I did, and this led to becoming the chief photographer for several archaeological expeditions under the direction of Duke University, University of Texas at Austin, and The Smithsonian Institute. It was fascinating work.

TGP: Tell us about your books. Seven, right? 

MH: Yes, if you include the two editions of one book. They were mostly camera-specific how-to books that Amphoto published for the Olympus, Nikon, and Yashica cameras. But my favorite was one I published for myself, The Essentials of Nature Photography. ” Of course, I found that writing and publishing the book was one thing; selling it was another. It moved pretty well, when I was out there pushing it.

TGP: Was the switch from film to digital easy for you?

MH: At first, I resisted the move. I had been using digital camera backs in the studio for some time, but I didn’t find that my early digital cameras had enough quality to take nature photos until I got the Canon 10D. That changed when I was sent to Colorado on assignment to take a large format picture of the Lizard Head Wilderness Area. The end result was going to be a thirty-foot mural. But it was apparent we couldn’t carry the 4x5” up Blackface Mountain, and the airport security wrecked my 2 1/4” camera and ….so I used my then “brand new” Canon 10D to make several verticals, and then stitch them together later in Photoshop. That mural is a back-lighted Duratrans at the Grand Bear Lodge resteraunts in and around the Chicago suburbs.

TGP: Tell me about your current assignments documenting domestic cats in the wild.

MH: Last year, a corporate CEO gave his wife a gift of a book about her cats. She’s been taking in cats for some time and has 19 that are free to wander on their large wooded property. The cats make such great subjects…real characters. I’m in the midst of that job now.

TGP: What advice would you give anyone who hopes to make a career in photography?

MH: I’ve put together ten specific tips about “how” to do it—which I call “Milton’s Top Ten List,” (apologies to David Letterman). But the major point is to follow your passion. Many careers go asunder because people simply lose interest. But if you love your work the way I do, then you’ll find a way to succeed.

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