Meet The Pro: Dani Connor - Wildlife Photographer

Hosted by Toby Jermyn, this episode of the Pangolin Podcast features wildlife photographer, filmmaker, and Canon Ambassador, Dani Connor, known for her viral red squirrel stories from northern Sweden.

CONNECT WITH DANI
https://www.daniconnorwild.com/
https://www.instagram.com/daniconnorwild/
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCx9JiwPgJHy4cMThY4nmQmA

Here is a link to a gallery of Dani's images: https://pangolin.smugmug.com/SmugMug-Website/Pangolin-Podcast/Dani-Connor/Meet-the-Pro-Dani-Connor

Dani shares her experience hand-rearing a squirrel named Roo. She also discusses an image from her first safari in Zambia, and another image from an East Greenland expedition.

Dani talks about building a career through cinematic storytelling on YouTube, becoming a Canon Ambassador, and choosing a polar bear photograph as her admired guest image, before naming her ideal “humble dwelling” location.

GUEST IMAGE
Marco Gaiotti
https://www.instagram.com/marcogaiotti_naturephotography/
https://www.facebook.com/MarcoGaiottiPhotography/

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Transcript

Toby Jermyn 0:01 Hello and welcome to another episode of the Pangolin Podcast. I'm your host, Toby Jermyn. Thank you very much for joining me.

In each episode, I've invited a professional wildlife photographer to imagine themselves in a remote location. And along with their camera gear, they're allowed to bring five photographs to hang on the wall of their humble dwelling. Now, four of these must be their own. And the final image is one they admire by another photographer. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see the images as we talk. But for audio listeners on other platforms, there's a link to a gallery in the description. On today's show, we traveled across to this area on snowmobiles. We had to drive 12 hours across frozen rivers up and down these river valleys, across mountains in an average temperature of like -18 and it was tough. I'm never going to forget that day because when we arrived to the house, the gas heater wasn't working.

My guest today is a wildlife photographer, filmmaker, and Canon ambassador who has built a global audience by telling intimate animal stories from the forests of northern Sweden. She's best known for her remarkable bond with a family of orphaned red squirrels whose story went viral and turned her passion for nature into a full-time career as a content creator and guide. Today, she combines stills, video, and social media to inspire people to care about wildlife, running an eco-conscious online shop, leading wildlife photography trips, and using her channel to show how powerful a single animal story can be in changing how we see the natural world. It is indeed Dani Connor. Dani, welcome to the show.

Dani Connor 1:49 Hi, Toby. How are you?

Toby Jermyn 1:51 I'm very well, thank you very much. And how are you doing today?

Dani Connor 1:54 Yeah, I'm good. I had 10 hours sleep last night, but I'm still quite jet-lagged and exhausted because I've just been in Antarctica for two weeks and now I'm at my parents in London. It's very chill.

Toby Jermyn 2:06 It's very chill, but not quite as as chilly, I would have thought.

Dani Connor 2:10 I don't know. I find the polar regions to be quite comfortable because it's dry cold and I don't know. I find it actually more cold in London than in Sweden or Antarctica.

Toby Jermyn 2:21 Well, yes. We did mention at the beginning of the show that you're based in northern Sweden now, aren't you? And when are you heading back?

Dani Connor 2:28 I'm heading back in two weeks. So, I'm here in London for a week and then I've got a workshop in Iceland and then after that I'm back home.

Toby Jermyn 2:38 Excellent. Iceland. Well, that's another fantastic destination, one I'm hoping to go to myself at some point. Now Dani, obviously the question we ask everybody at this stage of the proceedings is we asked you to choose some images, but obviously there had to be, you know, spoiler alert, there's going to be some squirrel images in this talk, but how difficult was it to then choose other images for the show?

Dani Connor 3:01 I say this quite often, but I find the squirrels fund my wildlife photography. So I do love the squirrels, but I do love photographing all wildlife. Of course, I will always go back to the squirrels, but generally I'd say it was quite easy to pick other images.

Toby Jermyn 3:18 Well, whilst we're on the subject of squirrels, let's dive into your first image. Please, Dani, tell us about this image and why you chose it.

[1st Image - Baby Squirrel Kiss]

Dani Connor 3:27 So, this is two baby squirrels kissing or touching noses. And siblings do this to sort of recognize each other. And this was actually one of my first squirrel images that sort of went viral. And this was taken five years ago. And I was photographing their mother a lot. She unfortunately got hit by a car. And then I spent 6 weeks in the forest with these baby squirrels, providing them with water and some food. And I just loved this moment of the two kissing.

Toby Jermyn 4:02 It's a beautiful image, but you can understand why it's gone viral. So five years ago, so this is mid-COVID. Did this become, you know, an unexpected COVID project? Obviously in northern Sweden again, wasn't it? Had you just moved to Sweden at that point? Had you been there for a while?

Dani Connor 4:17 I had been there for a couple of months. And I initially went to Sweden to photograph golden eagles. And I was fed up of being in London. So I was working at the Natural History Museum and working for a zoo in London. And I was just fed up of city life. So I initially went to Sweden to photograph eagles and I was a volunteer for the guy who manages the eagle hide. His name is Konny Lundström. And he basically let me stay in his house during COVID. And because I had access to these red squirrels, I was just in the forest of them for three, four months just every day.

Toby Jermyn 4:58 I think it's safe to say that you probably had a good COVID then didn't you?

Dani Connor 5:02 I did have a very good COVID.

Toby Jermyn 5:04 A very good COVID. Isn't it remarkable how how COVID has caused a lot of us to sort of pivot in the way that we do things had it not been for well the decision that you'd made already to go to Sweden and then was just amplified by the fact that maybe it was difficult to get out further a field in Sweden and you had to work with what you have. I mean were these squirrels very close to where you were staying?

Dani Connor 5:25 Yeah. 2-minute walk. I was in the forest, old forest because a lot of Sweden is plantation. So this is forest that has been left and there's lots of dead wood. So there's lots of wildlife there. But for me, red squirrels were like really exciting because where I grew up in London, they're obviously extinct. You can find them in parts of England. So for me, it was almost like finding a rare Pokémon. I'd never photographed them. They're super charismatic. They have these long ear tufts and they just have big personalities.

And the thing that I really was surprised when I started photographing them is you can easily identify different individuals and that means you can sort of form bonds with different squirrels. So the squirrel that really changed my career was one called Baby Pear. And I posted a video clip on Twitter of him squeaking. And this was before like Tik Tok and like super viral content but it got 16 million views within a few days, and I gained 60,000 followers and that was like to go from basically 400 followers to 60,000 was just wild.

Toby Jermyn 6:36 Yeah. So the squirrels literally, I mean, that is extraordinary. How do you feel about maintaining that momentum afterwards? Did you have this overwhelming sense of pressure now like what am I going to do next? How do I satisfy that demand?

Dani Connor 6:49 Yeah, sort of. I did discover that more squeaking squirrel sounds was what the internet wanted. So, I was trying to get these squeaks, but it was quite amusing because after a few weeks, their squeaks go from like cute high-pitched baby squeaks to like grunty teenage squeaks. So, it didn't have the same viral success. But my next big project was creating a short film about the baby squirrels. And the amazing thing about that film is it got shared on the homepage of Reddit. So I had another wave of followers and that video is now I think almost on 3 million views.

Toby Jermyn 7:28 Wow. I also grew up in the UK as well. So all we have is we have the gray squirrels and then when you're growing up you hear about these mythical red squirrels. So I completely relate but I've never seen one. So when you made this film was that the beginning of your journey on YouTube as well?

Dani Connor 7:45 Yes, I had made a couple of YouTube videos, but not really seriously. And after this, I started to really focus on YouTube. And I basically spent the whole of 2021 trying to work out how to monetize what I do because I make all this free content via YouTube videos and photos, but how do I make this an income? And I noticed people really liked the cinematic storytelling videos. So, I just focus more on this arty kind of video rather than doing like tutorials or gear reviews.

Toby Jermyn 8:21 It is lovely, isn't it? Because it's a sense of escapism for people. Okay, let's go back to the squirrels. So, these are two orphan squirrels and you watch them grow up into adulthood. How does family dynamics and squirrels work? Are red squirrels solitary or do they hang around? I don't know anything about red squirrels to be honest.

Dani Connor 8:38 Yeah, so most tree squirrels are solitary. So, red squirrels, the babies will spend the first 3 months with Mum. Dad is long gone. He's not involved at all. And at 12 weeks old, Mum starts to kick them out. And they're tiny at 12 weeks. So, that's a big learning curve for them, trying to find food, finding their own drey or like a squirrel nest. And actually, most squirrels don't survive their first year. So only 20% reach their first birthday.

Toby Jermyn 9:14 And how old were the squirrels in this particular photograph?

Dani Connor 9:16 They're around 6/7 weeks.

Toby Jermyn 9:17 By this point, you are Mum, I presume. How did you look after them?

Dani Connor 9:21 So I was literally just scattering the food in the forest and providing water. And there were four. Sadly, after maybe a couple of months, two disappeared. I don't know whether they got predated on or whether they didn't make it, but the two that I really followed was this squirrel baby pear and another one. And that was really it. I mean, it wasn't hands-on. They were old enough that they had teeth that they could eat on their own. I have hand reared baby squirrels and had to go through the whole process of providing their milk. But these, it was quite easy actually. They were in the forest. I didn't have to take them home or anything. And so they were still okay wild squirrels.

Toby Jermyn 10:04 And you mentioned you went to Sweden to go work on photographing eagles. And so suddenly now you've got to learn everything you need to learn about squirrels. Were there resources available to you? How did you find this information?

Dani Connor 10:16 Well, I studied Zoology. I mean, I've never been close to squirrels before, but I knew roughly what they needed, but also I did have some I have some friends who are vets, so I asked some advice from them. But initially this was easy. It was just basically leaving food in the forest for them to find. It wasn't until I actually hand reared squirrels and had them in my house that it became more complicated and I needed help.

Toby Jermyn 10:41 There we go. I think we now learned an awful lot about squirrels. Thank you very much, Dani. Your history in Zoology, you didn't think about going into a Zoological field or is this just a natural progression that you find with your wildlife photography?

Dani Connor 10:55 Well, it's funny you say that because when I went to Sweden, I had a PhD lined up. So, my Zoology degree and dissertation was very focused on spider monkeys. And so I thought I was going to go, you know, be a researcher in the Amazon rainforest and yeah, a very different career change.

Toby Jermyn 11:15 And now it's squirrels in northern Sweden. Yes. I cannot think of two more polar opposite environments. Okay, brilliant. Let's move on to the second image, please. And tell us a bit about this image and maybe the story behind it.

[2nd Image - Roo running towards camera]

Dani Connor 11:30 So this is actually one of the squirrels I hand-reared. Her name was Roo and she was running towards my neighbour's dogs and this was when she was maybe 5 weeks old and a few days before we had found a mother squirrel hit by a car. So I knew somewhere she had baby squirrels or kits but my neighbour found Roo and walked to my house to give it to me and I was in London.

So for the first week I told my neighbour everything she needed to know. I had never hand-reared a squirrel myself. I was doing lots of research, talking to some friends who have hand-reared animals and after a week I returned to Sweden and I took over and for the next 4 months I had Roo. So for the first 6 weeks she lived in our house which was chaos. Climbing up the curtains, destroying sticks. At a very young age, they learn how to cache. So they will take food and put it in the forest usually. But she would cache like under the cushion or in the corner. So we just find random nuts everywhere.

And my partner and I, we made a soft release enclosure. So she was outside for a month. And when we released her to the wild, she returned a few days later with aspiration pneumonia. So we had to take her to the vet. Also bear in mind it's illegal to have wild animals in your possession for more than 48 hours. So trying to get an appointment at the vet was very complicated. The good thing is is throughout this whole process I had help from two red squirrel rehabilitators in Stockholm. So they basically listed me as a volunteer which is how I was able to take her to the vet and she recovered and this is her fully wild after 5 weeks. Wow. So Roo was still very friendly with us. So she would show us like mushrooms that she had dried in the forest. She would still play with us and she did take us to her drey. So as you can see there's lots of sticks, lichen, and this is where a squirrel sleeps.

Toby Jermyn 13:42 So obviously it goes without saying that you should never try and take a wild animal in unless you really know what you're doing and you've got a real support network. But what an amazing story for you to basically save the life of this squirrel and the fact that she sort of trusted you to bring her into her new wild life as well.

Dani Connor 14:01 Yeah. I thought I'd just add on the topic of like rehabbing wildlife, of course, if you find a wild animal should always take it to someone who knows what they're doing. Unfortunately, in the whole of my county in northern Sweden, there are no rehabilitators. So, we had one option of driving to Stockholm, which takes like 10, 12 hours. Will squirrels survive that? I don't think so. I did try to apply twice and the authorities rejected it because squirrels aren't endangered in my area. So, that's why the squirrel rehabs in Stockholm allow me to do it as a volunteer.

Toby Jermyn 14:38 It's always a problem that we have. We support an organization called the Kalahari Wildlife Project in the Northern Cape and she has a lot of meerkats and people think that meerkats are going to make the most amazing pet and they just do not. They are incredibly violent and they bite a lot. They scratch a lot. But unfortunately, people seem to think, you know, because they've been featured in sort of cutesy films that they make good pets. But we have to remember that these are wild animals and they're never going to be tamed or domesticated in the way you might do a dog, for example, or a cat or a stray cat. And so this is probably why some of your viewers, supporters, and audience have started calling you the Queen of the Squirrels.

Dani Connor 15:23 Yeah. This name started during COVID and I don't dislike it. It's a bit weird, but it's fine. I'm happy to be called that.

Toby Jermyn 15:32 Well, there we go. You've just been elevated to the nobility by your YouTube audience. I think while based on what you've done to promote, you know, red squirrels, I don't know the population numbers in Sweden, are they a thriving population? Are they a population in decline?

Dani Connor 15:47 I would say they're relatively stable. I think the biggest issue for red squirrels in Sweden is the plantations and the clear cutting. Red squirrels, they do need trees that are old enough to have pine cones and spruce cones, but if the forest is clear cut, then they've lost their home. And I've actually seen those impacts in Sweden. We had a massive area clearcut and suddenly there were all these squirrels. There's lots of fighting with the resident squirrels and these new squirrels. In the UK, it's very different because the introduction of gray squirrels has brought in squirrel pox and this has really decimated the population of red squirrels in the UK. I am an ambassador for the Red Squirrel Survival Trust. So, I have made some conservation films from different areas of the UK talking about their story of the red squirrel.

Toby Jermyn 16:40 And do you find people now are contacting you say they want to come and and film and photograph with you? Are there reliable places in Sweden to see and and photograph red squirrels?

Dani Connor 16:51 Well, for a Swedish person, they're always very surprised that I've made a career out of red squirrels because obviously it's almost a pest to them. It's like it's so normal to see a red squirrel that they just find it like wild that I can make a career out of that in Sweden. And I have noticed though in the past few years there are more places that are offering like red squirrel hides. So, I do think perceptions are changing and they're realizing how special they actually are. But I do an annual Patreon workshop where people I know through Patreon come and photograph my red squirrels. So, that's pretty cool.

Toby Jermyn 17:31 Maybe it's because you're highlighting the squirrels. Maybe that you are you are the cause of all of these hides coming up and people are leveraging off that. It's really interesting, isn't it? That if you see it every day, it's not exotic, but to you and I who grew up with the gray squirrels, it is very exotic and it's sort of mythical, isn't it? So fantastic. Okay, we're going to take a break now and then when we come back, we're going to see some more of Dani's photographs. Before you go though, if you enjoy this content and you're interested in learning more about what we do with Pangolin Wildlife Photography, I'm going to leave a QR code on the screen right now, which you can scan to sign up for our world-famous Friday Focus newsletter. Lots of photo tips, gear, advice, that sort of thing. So, if you're interested, please sign up. So, let's take that break and we'll see you in a second.

[Break]

Toby Jermyn 18:25 Welcome back to part two of the Pangolin podcast with my guest today, Dani Connor. Now, we've been talking about squirrels for the last two images, as you would have seen, and now we're going to move on to Dani's third image. Dani, would you like to tell the viewers and listeners about this image and why you chose it?

Dani Connor 18:45 So, it's not a squirrel. It is a wild dog. And this was taken on my very first trip in Zambia 2 years ago. It was my first time in Africa. And this was the target of the trip really for me. I've always been fascinated with wild dogs. I love their behaviour. I love their colourations. And I just really like this shot.

[3rd Image - African Wild Dog Portrait]

Toby Jermyn 19:12 They are amazing animals. And I'm assuming this was South Luangwa, Lower Zambezi somewhere around there.

Dani Connor 19:18 Yeah, South Luangwa.

Toby Jermyn 19:19 South Luangwa. So this is your first trip to Africa. How soon into your trip did you see your first wild dog? Were you one of those people who saw it first afternoon, first game drive, nailed it? There it is.

Dani Connor 19:31 I reckon it was maybe 8 days into the trip. Yeah. And this was the only day we saw them. But it was amazing because they had just eaten an impala. So as soon as we found them, it was maybe 4:00 in the afternoon, super harsh light. They were all full big bellies just sleeping in the shade. And then as soon as the sun went down, they started play fighting against the dust. And I do really like these photos, but this is like the perfect portrait in my opinion. Like I do love behaviour shots, but this is the kind of photo I'd want on my wall.

Toby Jermyn 20:10 They are amazing animals. We're also thinking now what we need to do is we need to have a new big five. The original big five was a legacy from hunting where these were the five most dangerous things that people had to shoot on foot back in Victorian days. But there is a very strong case for wild dogs to be making it into the photographic five. Wouldn't you agree?

Dani Connor 20:29 Yeah, I think so. I never like this idea of a big five. They have it in Antarctica like a top five and I don't like it because all the focus then becomes on these animals. Yeah. And you know, some of the smaller animals, even the herbivores, are just as cool and exciting to photograph in my opinion.

Toby Jermyn 20:49 Absolutely. I think that there's a real danger that people go on safari as well and they think, "If I haven't seen the big five, then my safari wasn't complete." So, let's go back to your early career then. So, you were going to go off to South America. You were going to study zoology. You're going to look at primates there. And had you always been a photographer, or is this something that came a bit later on?

Dani Connor 21:12 Yeah. So, I started photography now 16 years ago. I wanted to photograph my dog and my dad had an old camera. So, I just borrowed his camera, went to the forest and started photographing my dog. And it became quickly an obsession. And the first years of my photography journey was all about winning youth competitions, selling the kit, and buying nice gear. So at a young age I already had pretty good gear and when I went on to study Zoology, the photography was forgotten about for a few years just because I was so focused on studying and then I picked it up yeah before COVID basically.

Toby Jermyn 21:55 And recently you were appointed as a Canon ambassador. When did that start? When did your association with Canon start?

Dani Connor 22:02 So I have now been a Canon ambassador for three years and I was very lucky to have a mentor at Canon about a year before and I think my sort of big break was when I worked with Canon to do the R7 launch. So I went with Canon to Spain to photograph Iberian lynx and other wildlife. And that created so many opportunities like different talks, the Canon podcast, and I think that really helped me become a Canon ambassador.

Toby Jermyn 22:33 And is that something that look, everybody watching this who shoots Canon would obviously like to be a Canon ambassador and they can't be—you can't apply. It's not one of those things that you could apply to become a Canon ambassador. You are invited.

Dani Connor 22:47 You are invited. There we go.

Toby Jermyn 22:49 And yours was because of the work you did. So what advice would you give to somebody you know who is passionate about the brand? It could be any brand—Sony, Nikon, anything—you know, to get yourself out there. Have you got any advice for budding photographers?

Dani Connor 23:03 I definitely think that the main reason Canon were interested in me is my ability to share stories and you know I've created a career out of something quite basic, a red squirrel. It's a common subject. It's been photographed millions of times, but my ability to showcase them as a species and tell their story is really what Canon I think is interested in. So I think if you want to be an ambassador for something, working out a way of sharing a story, whether it's through photography, through YouTube videos, or you know, now everyone is doing short form content. Just finding your niche and your ability to tell a story I think is the main important thing.

Toby Jermyn 23:48 And I don't know if you noticed a recent trend in YouTube as well. I think that everything was focused so fast towards what you just mentioned now—the short form content—but I do see that changing and YouTube now is starting to say, "No, no, no, now we want more storytelling," like you say, "we want more cinematic," because in essence they want to become a streaming service to compete with long form content like Netflix, Amazon Prime, that sort of thing. Are you noticing that as well?

Dani Connor 24:14 You know what I'm actually noticing? I think the rise of AI has led to an audience wanting real authentic stories. Maybe it is how the algorithm of YouTube is working that they're promoting long form content, but I do think people want to hear and see real people talk about real stories and not some AI slop.

Toby Jermyn 24:39 I couldn't agree with you more. And I think it's even more important to put yourself out there and be on camera. You know, anybody can now go and, you know, take some nice cinematic footage, put music to it, but I think unless you as the viewer know that there is a real person behind that, I think you're going to struggle to find an audience.

Dani Connor 24:59 Yeah. And it's tough. It's not easy learning how to vlog or be on camera. It takes time. Like I watch some of my earlier videos and I just like, "it's terrible," because initially I couldn't talk on camera easily. So, I would have a script and I would basically read a line from my phone and then look at the camera, and that's how I did YouTube. But that's how I learned how to talk on camera. It takes practice, but I do agree with you that, you know, sharing your story and being on camera is the best way of doing YouTube and social media these days.

Toby Jermyn 25:34 And now's the time to do it as well because YouTube is also helping to promote much smaller channels. I notice in my own personal feed that it's not just the really big channels anymore that are being offered up to me. More often than not, I look at a video which has got 55 views and this person's got eight subscribers. I'm like, "brilliant." So now's the time if you're thinking about doing a YouTube channel, do it, and be a little bit thick-skinned at the beginning as well because it is mortifyingly embarrassing the first videos that you do. And then you just got to find your niche and you got to find your story. And it doesn't have to be super exotic. As Dani has proven, it does not have to be lions and leopards. It can be lots of things. Okay, Dani, we're now going to move on to your fourth image, please. And if you'll excuse the pun, it is the polar opposite to the image that we've just watched before. So, please tell the listeners and the viewers about this image.

[4th Image - Arctic Fox small in frame against a blue iceberg]

Dani Connor 26:34 Yes. So, this is an Arctic fox photographed last year in East Greenland. And the Arctic fox is quite small in the frame. There's this lovely blue ice. And this is an iceberg. And at the top of the frame, we have fresh snow.

Toby Jermyn 26:50 It's glorious. I love the different colours. I love the fact that you've made the Arctic Fox so small in these very dramatic landscapes. And you're in East Greenland. You're there for obviously Arctic foxes. What else are you looking for on this trip?

Dani Connor 27:03 It was an expedition to see what we could find really. So we photographed polar bears, musk oxen, Arctic hares, Arctic fox, ptarmigan, and that was pretty much it. This was definitely the wildest trip I've done in recent years. So I partnered up with a great photographer who knows a lot about the polar regions, David Gibbon. And so we planned this trip together. And generally people don't go to East Greenland in the Winter. And this was the end of Winter, early Spring. And we traveled across to this area on snowmobiles. And it was a trip with guests. But we did arrive about 5 days before guests arrived to prepare the hut where we were going to stay, which is basically an old hunting house, very small.

Toby Jermyn 27:54 Yes.

Dani Connor 27:55 And so to get there, we had to drive 12 hours across frozen rivers, up and down these river valleys, across mountains in an average temperature of like -18. And it was tough. That whole day was like, I'm never going to forget that day because when we arrived to the house, the gas heater wasn't working. So, we had to sleep in -25 Celsius with a sleeping bag and not much else. Basically, I just shivered the whole night. And the main reason we went early was to prepare this house, but also to create a track for the snowmobiles so it's easy to navigate and basically get there and back with guests. And we also distributed lots of fuel tanks for the snowmobiles. And then when the guests arrived, they had the easy route and I actually went with them by taking a helicopter to the hut, but we did make the journey back which is a whole other story and that was horrendous as well.

Toby Jermyn 28:55 Did they enjoy the trip at least? Did they have a good time?

Dani Connor 28:58 Oh yeah. Oh my gosh. There was a lady, this guest, she just like amazes me. She had never seen snow. She came from South Africa and she decided to go on the wildest expedition as her first encounter with snow.

Toby Jermyn 29:13 Okay. So, you're in Greenland. You've gone 12 hours on a snowmobile. You're in a hut. There's no heating. At some point, do you think to yourself, "I wish I was back home with my heating where I could just walk outside and see a squirrel"?

Dani Connor 29:26 I think that whole day I thought, why am I here? And also, we had hardly seen any wildlife. Like, it is a Winter desert. So finding these animals was tough work. We were travelling long distances using binoculars. The only easy animal was the musk oxen because they are dark figures in a very white desolate landscape. So you can see them from miles and miles away. And they're a bit nerve-wracking to photograph just because they're so big. They've never seen people. They are hunted in that region, so we needed to be careful to make sure they don't charge at us. But everything else was very difficult to find.

Toby Jermyn 30:10 You must feel immense pressure literally. I mean, at least they flew in by helicopter, but you've got them there. It's freezing cold. Are you using the snowmobiles, I assume, to go off and look for things to photograph during the day?

Dani Connor 30:23 The guests were amazing. They were more excited about the experience with the snowmobiles. None of them were just interested in wildlife. So photographing, you know, the blue ice, the icebergs, the landscapes was incredible. We could fly the drone and seeing glaciers, you know, on your doorstep was insane. So they were very happy.

Toby Jermyn 30:46 It's the adventure, isn't it? We do trips to Svalbard and everyone fixates about polar bears, but actually the photographs that everyone brings back are the more general game, but also the landscapes. The landscapes are extraordinary in these environments, especially when you have beautiful blue ice like this. Okay, so you had this moment, you had this Arctic fox. Was it curious? Was it alert and then disappeared off very quickly? What was the situation?

Dani Connor 31:11 So, initially when we found it, it looked like it was sort of foraging or looking for food. And so we drove to see if we could get an angle to see if it would stop. And it then walked around the iceberg sort of towards us. And it was amazing because it stopped right in front of this blue ice and then it was hopping but the background was the white ice on the bottom right of the image. So it was quite difficult to isolate compared to against the blue ice. So that's why I chose this photo as my favourite.

Toby Jermyn 31:47 But it's very difficult to expose for situations like this, isn't it? Because you would have thought with it being so bright, you have to sort of underexpose. I remember Guts telling me that actually you have to almost think the opposite and overexpose because the camera's desperately trying to underexpose because it sees so much white. But yeah, what are your top tips for photographing in snowy environments like this?

Dani Connor 32:09 So I personally always underexpose because I hate losing information in the highlights. So, I was struggling with this a lot in Antarctica last week that when there's sun, the chests of the penguins become burnt out. So, it's better to underexpose just to make sure you've got the information in the whites. So, generally in snowy conditions, I prefer to underexpose because you're not really going to lose any information in shadows. And I will have my aperture at the most wide and I will basically have my shutter speed depending on what I'm photographing.

Toby Jermyn 32:46 And I presume there's an element of danger in this as well. Not necessarily from an Arctic fox, but you also mentioned you were looking for polar bears as well. So you got polar bears out there. This isn't like you can run back to the refuge of a ship and go, "Thanks, pull up the drawbridge." You must have had lots of guides and guards and that sort of thing with you.

Dani Connor 33:04 Yeah, we had a guide with a gun and he was with us the entire time, but before we arrived with the customers, there was a chance that the house would have been raided by polar bears. So, we had to expect that. So, we brought acrylic to basically put up on the windows just in case polar bears had gone into the house. Fortunately, the house was all fine and all the windows were intact. We only saw polar bears on one morning. It was two and they were about a kilometre away and one looked quite nervous of us, but it looked towards us and then slowly walked away and we didn't see them again.

Toby Jermyn 33:43 You must at some point in the trip, you must sort of pinch yourself and think to yourself it was only 5 years ago that you were sitting there with a couple of hundred followers on social media and then suddenly here you are leading an expedition to Greenland.

Dani Connor 33:57 Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Like it was always the dream to go to Antarctica when I was young and now that I've been twice in the past few years leading workshops is just, yeah, wild to me.

Toby Jermyn 34:11 And it's not luck, it's the hard work that you put in, but it's also taking a chance as well and putting yourself out there. That's the big step, like we said before, that's what you have to do. It has to start somewhere.

Dani Connor 34:22 Yeah, there's luck and there's risks.

Toby Jermyn 34:25 Okay, so we are going to take our final break now and then when we come back, we are going to discuss the image that Dani has chosen by another photographer. But before we go, if you wouldn't mind giving this video a bit of a like and perhaps subscribing to the channel if you haven't done so already. So, we'll be back in a second for the third and final part. Thank you.

[Break]

Toby Jermyn 34:49 Welcome back to the final part of the Pangolin podcast with my guest today, Dani Connor—or Dani Connor Wild as she is better known on Instagram and on YouTube. This is the part of the show where we've invited Dani to choose an image taken by another photographer that she admires or maybe it's an image that she wishes she had taken herself. So Dani, tell us about this image. Tell us who took it and why did you choose this one.

Dani Connor 35:15 So, I chose this one by a photographer called Marco Gaiotti, and he is a bit unknown, but I just love how he creates atmosphere in his images. So, this is a polar bear photographed in East Greenland during the Summer, and it is on an iceberg. And this is sort of the dream image I had for my East Greenland trip. I just love how he's zoomed out and showed the environment. And I love how he's used the rule of thirds and I love the atmosphere.

[5th Image - Polar Bear on an iceberg by Marco Gaiotti]

Toby Jermyn 35:48 It's a really lovely image. It would also work very nicely as a tight crop as well because it's got that glorious sort of, you know, horizon line at the top of the iceberg. But I think the fact that it's balanced with this, should we call it a shard of ice on the right hand side as well, is really beautiful and you wonder where is the polar bear going. Polar bears are incredibly popular subject matter. In our photo competition, we get a lot of polar bear entries. There's something really enigmatic about polar bears, isn't there?

Dani Connor 36:18 Yeah. I think it's just because they're known to be this sort of ferocious bear. They are a symbol of the climate crisis and they're just in these incredible environments. And I'm actually going to Churchill this year to photograph polar bears and I'm very excited.

Toby Jermyn 36:35 They are amazing animals and also becoming more and more difficult to photograph. There are rules that have changed in Norway where you have to maintain a distance of at least 500 meters now from the polar bears. So getting shots of polar bears is very difficult, isn't it? Are we going to—were you going to struggle? I mean, Churchill is slightly different, isn't it, because it's land-based and it's a bit more controlled, isn't it?

Dani Connor 36:57 Yeah. So Churchill, you're waiting for the polar bears to go out onto the sea ice. So the polar bears congregate because they're waiting for the sea ice to form. So that's why you're more likely to see them there. But I do think East Greenland is becoming a popular location now for polar bears.

Toby Jermyn 37:16 East Greenland in the news for all the right reasons. There we go, as a wildlife photography destination. So before you mentioned him, I hadn't actually heard of Marco Gaiotti. I don't do a lot of social media, but I did go and pop onto his Instagram and he's got some really stunning images from all around the world and a really unique style, specifically his editing style. Is that what draws you to him?

Dani Connor 37:39 Yeah, I'm definitely intrigued by his editing style and I actually asked him once if he does editing workshops. He doesn't, but I just love that he also captures the environments so well. It's almost landscape photography with a wild animal in it. He really pays attention to light and colour and it has this like magical sort of atmosphere about it.

Toby Jermyn 38:03 We're going to leave a link to his Instagram and website, and who knows, maybe one day we will get him on the Pangolin Podcast so we can chat to him about his editing style. Okay, we've now reached the part of the podcast where I ask my guest to choose where they would like their humble dwelling to be. Where are you going to photograph in perpetuity, Dani? Is it going to be a sub-zero hut in Greenland?

Dani Connor 38:26 No, I will have to say Sweden. Maybe not the house I currently live in. I would love to have a house in the forest, but yeah, Sweden is home now. I love the forests, I love the winters, I love the midsummer light, having constant daylight for several months. It's just magical.

Toby Jermyn 38:50 There we go. So you've got your house. We would never dare to call your house a humble dwelling, but we're going to have a humble dwelling within walking distance of your house. Done. We shall make that happen. Dani, it's been an absolute joy having you on the show. Thank you so much. I know that your time zones must be really confusing at the moment. You're not sure if you're day or night, but thank you so much for agreeing to be on the podcast at such short notice as well. So, thank you.

Dani Connor 39:17 Thank you so much for having me, Toby.

Toby Jermyn 39:20 Thank you very much for joining me on this episode of the Pangolin Podcast. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. As always, I'd love to hear your comments and feedback, so please leave them in the comments down below. And if you don't want to miss the next episode, please make sure you subscribe to the channel.

Finally, don't forget to sign up for the Pangolin Photo Safaris Friday Focus newsletter. You can do that by heading over to pangolinphoto.com or you can scan the QR code on your screen now. I look forward to seeing you on a Pangolin photo safari soon. And all that's left for me to say is that the Pangolin podcast was hosted by me, Toby Jermyn, and produced and edited by Bella Falk. Thank you.