Pelican Brief
As we were exiting the location scout, Jenni mentioned something about “pelicans in the living room,“ and I asked her to repeat what she had said. It turns out that our subject, Joel Sartore of the National Geographic Photo Ark, had pitched the idea of shooting him with a flock of pelicans stationed in her living room. Jenn Boonjakuakul ran the Iowa Bird Rehabilitation out of her Des Moines home and had been recruited to let us run our session out of it.
I asked her, “Are you really okay to bring those birds into the middle of your house?“ She replied, “Sure, but I need to pull up the area rug, as I’d rather not see it soiled.” That was more than okay, this was an exciting option.
On most shoots, there is a buildup, and the best shots come from the last situation or two, often in the last 10 minutes of the day. But lately, I’ve been getting the best shots in the first scenario. Is that a good thing? Hey, I’ll take the good pictures wherever I can find them, but it does feel like the subject and I become more present and focused as our time together develops. Nevertheless, a winning picture always wins. One of the hard-won lessons for a photographer is to select the best pictures, not the ones that align with your session goals.
Joel Sartore has been a photographer with National Geographic for decades, and is celebrating his 20th anniversary of building The Photo Ark, an archive of every living species.
And, he could not have been more gracious with us, pulling together the bird-wrangling team and lending his lighting equipment. Plus, he stepped up as an additional assistant, rigging his own lights for my setups. It was valuable to get a photographer’s perspective on shooting with me, like when he said that I run a no-nonsense set. That I gave clear yet polite direction to people, and did not allow pointless chatter.
Speaking of chatter, one of the highlights of the day was the continual communication of wrangler Sam to the birds. Over my shoulder, I'd hear an enthusiastic, “You’re doing so great! You’re so brave!" I asked Sam, “Do they actually understand what you’re saying? What if you were to say the opposite message but in the same tone of voice?“ Hence, we started to hear a chipper narrative of, “You’re doing so badly, this is such a failure!”
Top Image: This is a test shot, as we brought in the pelicans. It begins. Joel Sartore of The Photo Ark, photographed March 25, 2026, Des Moines, IA.
Second Image: Joel Sartore maintains his cool among animal chaos. Although some of his iconic on-set stories involve large mammals like rhinoceroses and zebras, he says that the majority of his sessions are with the beasts that could fit in a bread box.
Third Images: Posing with a turkey vulture.
Bottom Image: Behind the scenes photo by Jenni Boonjakuakul.