Name: Torie Hilley
Picture title: Follow the Leader
Category: Mammals
Nationality: California, USA
Occupation: Full-time wildlife photographer and oil painter!
Technical information
Camera: Canon R5
Lens: 400mm f/2.8
EXIF: 1/1000 sec at f/2.8, ISO 2500
HIGHLY COMMENDED CATEGORY MAMMALS
Torie Hilley | Follow the Leader
Name: Torie Hilley
Picture title: Follow the Leader
Category: Mammals
Nationality: California, USA
Occupation: Full-time wildlife photographer and oil painter!
Technical information
Camera: Canon R5
Lens: 400mm f/2.8
EXIF: 1/1000 sec at f/2.8, ISO 2500
Torie Hilley says:
Mother coastal brown bears (Ursus arctos gyas) and cubs are constantly on the lookout for male bears that will kill the cubs to mate with the mother to pass on their own genes. To see a bear cub is special, but to see THREE with one mother is extra special. I had the privilege to encounter these three little ones in Lake Clark National Park and Preserve in Alaska, USA. While with a professional bear guide, I followed them with their mother on the mudflats as they dug for clams, hoping to catch them in a line. For several days, I trudged through the thick, sticky mud in hopes of this shot. On the last day, I saw the cubs start to line up. I dropped to one knee into the mud and hovered my massive lens over the mudflat to blur out the foreground, creating an other-worldly feel. Patience can pay off, and I was thrilled to capture this behavior, especially with all three in step with one another. Back home and ecstatic to have achieved my goal, I, unfortunately, heard that all three cubs didn’t survive the upcoming weeks. Heartbroken to hear this, it reminded me to never take anything for granted and to enjoy nature’s beauty as much as possible in that moment because you never know what happens next.
Torie Hilley
USA
Born and raised in California, Torie Hilley is a wildlife conservationist, artist, and self-taught photographer. She was originally a wildlife researcher studying the behavior of predators throughout Southern Africa (Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, and Botswana) before she switched to visual arts. First studying the behavior of lions, she then got her master’s degree in Animal Behavior and specialized in the second most endangered carnivore in Africa, the African Wild / Painted Dog.
For several years, Torie began to realize that her passion for the African bush was due to capturing the behavior of predators and other wildlife through her lens. She felt that she could spread more awareness and send a message about endangered species more effectively through imagery, whether that was through her photography or realistic oil paintings. She then decided to dedicate her work to wildlife conservation.
Since 2021, she learned from some of the best wildlife photographers so that she could improve her photography to evoke more emotion from her viewers. Recently, she has photographed a variety of wildlife in Kenya, bears in Alaska, and pumas in Patagonia. Since 2014, while researching lions in Zimbabwe and Zambia, her photography has been featured in National Geographic, Remembering African Wild Dogs, The Nature Conservancy, BBC Wildlife, BigPicture, and counting. Her photography and oil paintings have also won several awards, including Best of Show, in the Professional Art Show of Ventura County in California.
She also donates 10% of her sales to various smaller wildlife conservation organizations because she believes in supporting the “little guys” on the ground protecting wildlife. She is currently exploring the world of wildlife conservation photojournalism to bridge the gap between the visual arts and the sciences.