On any given day, I strut around with 9 or 10 whiskeys in me thinking that I’m all big pimpin’ with a mad tight nature game.
Hell, I’ll tell anyone that will listen, or I can force into being a captive-audience, that I am a big-swinging adventurer. In fact, I am so drunk with power and booze about my nature game that I started this piss-poor blog about my adventures. I mean, who does that??
As every geek on the street knows, if you want to roll with the nature big-dogs you need to have a mad-tight Instagram (or IG as the hep-cats call it).
If, per chance, you missed the none too subtle advertisement for my Instagram on my homepage, here it is…
Oh, you like your access to Instagram the old school way, eh? Well, here you go: @IdEcoSuperEco
When my adventure-ego is dialed up to “11” I like to creep on other nature based Instagram accounts. And that, svelte and muscular readers, is when I get properly humbled. There are people out there in this very world that are experiencing nature on deep levels, producing incredible photographs of beasts and landscapes, and absolutely dominating at social media. They expose me for the damn rookie that I am.
Completely free of charge save for enduring my ramblings and Google AdSense, I am going to list the Instagram accounts that are my favorites.
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Nairobi National Park
Instagram: @nairobi_national_park
Nature Photographed: anything that you would see on a safari including 4 of the African Big 5 (sorry, there are no elephants in the park).
Nairobi National Park is not only a great park to see African wildlife, but it is literally in the city of Nairobi. The people that maintain this Instagram account do a great job of capturing the wildlife, but also do a great job of getting shots of the animals with Nairobi looming in the background. You just don’t see content like that anywhere else.
The Wild Eye Safari Staff: Gerry van der Walt, Marlon DuToit, and Marcus Grant
Instagram: @gerrvanderwalt
Instagram: @marlondutoit
Instagram: @grant_marcus
Nature Photographed: anything that you would see on a safari including the Big 5 as well as the occasional wild dog. Also, Gerry heads up to Svalbard once in a while for polar bear pics.
These three gentlemen get lumped together as they all work for Wild Eye, which is a South African safari company that caters to photographers. As you would expect for a company that caters to photographers, the Wild Eye staff are grade-A beefy-boy photographers in their own right. I give these guys credit as they are not shy about showing the gritty predator-prey pics despite the backlash that they receive in their IG comments. Hey, nature is gonna do what nature is gonna do regardless of if someone is there to take a picture of it.
Note: Gerry also does a podcast called The Wildlife Photography Podcast. He gives a lot of tips on photographing wildlife as well as background on the safari business. The dude has a ton of knowledge to share!
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Andy Casagrande
Instagram: @abc4explore
Nature photographed: sharks and marine life
Have you ever watched Shark Week? If yes, then you have seen Andy’s work and likely Andy as well. Andy is a prolific marine photographer and semi-nature celebrity thanks to his TV exposure. His IG game is tight with incredible marine shots and tons of sharks! I would SO love to sit down someday and pick his brain on some of the cool stuff that he has seen.
Madison Stewart
Instagram: @sharkgirlmadison
Nature photographed: sharks!!!!
If you are going to go by the handle of Shark Girl Madison then you better produce a lot of sharky-goodness. Madison certainly does! Her IG is basically a love portrait to a creature that she obviously loves, and a creature that needs the love, SHARKS.
Madison is a ferocious conservationist when it comes to the ocean ecosystem. She has contributed to a film called Blue that revolves around marine conservation. I cannot wait to see Blue when it hits the states!
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Palaeo Art
Instagram: @palaeoart
Nature Photographed: fossils
I know nothing about the people that run this account other than they love fossils and fossil related art. These guys make fossils look like works of art, which, in fact, they are. Hell, trilobites are sexy models! Now you know.
If I didn’t live in granny’s basement I would line the walls with fossil art. No, granny likes puppy pics on the walls instead.
Paul Nicklen
Instagram: @paulnicklen
Nature Photographed: Arctic fauna, marine life, and incredible landscapes
Paul is the co-founder of Sea Legacy and works as a photojournalist for Nat Geo. With those kind of chops you would expect Paul to produce incredible images/video and he surely does!
I have to say that I really appreciate Paul’s work as there are plenty of people taking pictures of African animals as well as marine pics, but there are not a lot of Arctic specialists.
Chris Schmid
Instagram: @schmid_chris
Nature Photographed: African safari animals including the Big 5
Chris is the mack-daddy at making nature pictures into art. His photography is in such painful detail that it hurts my puny monkey-mind to comprehend how gorgeous the images are.
I will say that when I started my IG Chris liked one of my photos. I’m not a photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but, wow, did it feel cool to get a like by someone of his caliber.
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Chien Lee
Nature Photographed: mostly the fauna of Borneo, but there are other critters mixed in
From what I can tell on his IG, Chris is a professional photographer based out of Borneo. His photos are stunning pictures of the local, and sometimes bizarre, Borneo wildlife. This is another guy that I would put in the top echelon of nature photographers. What art!
National Geographic
Instagram: @natgeo
Nature Photographed: absolutely everything!
Seriously, did you think that NatGeo wouldn’t be on here. They are now, as they have always been, the all-time leader in incredible nature photography. Anyone taking pictures of nature can only hope to strive to the quality and variety that Nat Geo produces.
Other Instagram Accounts?
If there are other Instagram accounts that I should check out please shoot me a note about them. I’m always on the lookout for inspiring nature based social media.
Now if you will excuse me, I see some people at the bus stop that will make for a great captive audience. “Hey, did you people know that I’m a big time adventurer??? Want to see my Instagram account??? No, YOU put on pants!”