Meet your Master: Paul Nicklen explains to you the outline of the course and the different learning steps he’ll guide you through including live encounter sessions, photography exercises and drills.

Paul teaches you how to use your early life influences to shape your photography and storytelling. His early life in a remote and icy town in northern Canada formed a deep and irrevocable connection with nature that would later go on to inspire and enable his photography.

Know the rules and also when to break them. Paul explains his ’20-60-20′ philosophy of when to play it safe and when to get experimental in order to push your photography to the highest level and beyond and grow as an artist.

See Paul in action as he photographs a black bear in British Columbia. Learn Paul’s process in photographing and respecting animals in the wild. This includes positioning, his camera settings, equipment and lens checklist and lenses, how to build towards capturing the ultimate moment.

Overcome your problems, don’t let them overcome you! Paul outlines his strategies to setting goals and finding solutions to your problems to help you overcome any roadblocks to achieving your dreams in photography and beyond.

Learn how to ignore the little voices in the back of your head with Paul as he offers his essential checklist of tips for overcoming doubt and the fear of failure in your photography and in wider life.

One of the most deep and powerful encounter that Paul has ever had. See Paul in action as he photographs elusive coastal wolves in British Columbia. Learn his compositional and focal length techniques to capture the animals’ sense of place in wider landscapes as well as more intimate shots.

Whatever camera, lenses & accessories you use, the best photographers need to feel like their equipment is an extension of their own body. Learn with Paul the exercises that he uses to memorise the functionalities of your equipment.

Learn tips and tricks from Paul on how to get noticed and have your work published in major magazines such as National Geographic. Understand from Paul the effort and persistence it took to make one of his first breakthrough storytelling pictures.

As a photographer and a marine biologist, Paul is both an artist and a scientist. Let him teach you when to use the analytical side of your brain and when to let the creative side take charge.

Get Paul’s advice on some suggested compositional techniques to improve your own work. Discover his thoughts on when to use these ideas and when to get even more creative with your approach. Find out how Paul looks for patterns and a sense of place in his pictures.

Paul offers a range of quick tips & tricks based on his successes and mistakes spanning a lifetime in conservation photography. Discover his thoughts on the creative uses of depth of field, setting up your camera for quick and efficient use, exercises for improving camera stability and much more.

Learn the behind the image story to the most extraordinary encounter Paul has ever had. Journey with Paul to the Antarctic where he has an underwater adventure with one of the most feared and most misunderstood marine predator.

Paul teaches you to approach your photography with curiosity, humility & a code of ethics in order to create work that can change the world for the better.

Paul gives some parting words of inspiration & encouragement at the end of the first 15 episodes. Another 35 episodes are coming soon to help you to create captivating & impactful photographs which amaze, inform & inspire. Until the next release goodbye for now!

Learn how Paul took his first steps in photographing underwater. He describes his camera set up and the errors made and successes achieved during his early years.

Paul recommends a number of books that have guided his photography career. Books to learn to tell stories and to grow as an artist. Books from his photographic heroes about shooting underwater and above water to help you to study composition, lighting techniques and discover your own style. Books about the heroes at the front line of the battle for conservation.

Find out exactly which photographers form the group of photographic heroes that have most influenced Paul. He explains exactly why they provide such inspiration and helped shaped his work.

Learn techniques on how to respectfully approach and have encounters with shy animals. In this unique episode, we travel side by side with Paul along the coastline of British Columbia as he photographs the rare and beautiful Coastal Wolves.

Big focal length heavy lenses, low light conditions, moving animals: get tips from Paul in best wat to stay stable and sharp when photographing in all these situations. Hand holding or on tripods: learn the best techniques and practices from a master.

Informal brainstorms are fun and very productive! Here are some techniques Paul uses when getting people together and shaping communal discussion to find new projects and ideas.

The story behind the image. Paul explains exactly how he created one of his most famous images. A powerful photograph that defines so many of the ecological and conservation issues that face our planet today.

Photo stories are all around us. You don’t have to travel huge distances to wild places to create dramatic and important photo stories. Paul makes some suggestions for creating image stories right in your own neighbourhood.

Big surprises and more often big disappointments are all part of fun when using camera traps. See and hear how Paul has used them to achieve those jaw dropping images which would be impossible to capture in any other way.

Pauls opens his bag and explains his set up. Find out which camera equipment and lenses he uses for which situations above water. Get advice and tips on best practices for your equipment and shooting.

Some important elements of psychology a photographer needs to use. In this episode Paul explains some of his techniques to strengthen belief in yourself and suppress the negative little voices in your head.

Researching and understanding the elements of animal behaviour is critical to producing an iconic image. Find out how the famous image of penguins speeding to the surface to avoid predators was created.

Your backyard and beyond, discover Paul’s tips on where to find your own photography projects. Check out his advice and steps to develop the stories and achieve your visual goals.

How to think better creatively about your photography. How do we free up our mind from distraction and open it up to produce truly outstanding images? Paul gives us an insight to some of his methods and exercises.

The magic moments will happen in front of you, but are you totally ready and prepared to capture them? Don’t miss these in whatever you are photographing. Discover some simple tips from Paul to help you react quickly and confidently to capture them.

In this encounter with a bear, Paul gives us a unique opportunity to sit beside him on the coast of British Columbia as he explains exactly what black bear action he hopes to capture. We listen and watch the phases of action as Paul works towards creating the ideal image.

How to unleash your creativity! Try suggested techniques in this episode to see if you can come up with great ideas as well as reducing stress and pressure.

A rare insight into what Paul is using underwater. He explains what and how as he assembles his underwater camera and lighting rig.
Find out some best practises and also learn what to avoid as he explains some of his early mistakes.

Journey underwater where Orcas and Herring swim together. Paul describes how he captured a beautiful moment in a swirling geometrical dance between the hunters and the hunted.

Another set of tips from Paul on how to use nature to access and release the creative side of your thinking to reinvigorate your photography. The ideas are all there in your mind and here are suggestions on how to create an environment to tap into them.

By sharing the learnings and the mistakes that he made during his early experiences as a photographer, Paul offers you a smoother path on the journey to hone your craft. He talks about the experiences of shooting in manual underwater and working with strobes, testing everything, taking notes, experimenting and learning from each batch of new photographs.

What is it like to work on a National Geographic assignment? Paul walks us through his first big project for the magazine, sharing suggestions on how to manage your first personal project, about the kind of research to put into it, structuring the different shoots and how to work with magazine editors.

Once you begin to create images and put them out into the world, it’s natural to feel exposed. Fear of failure and rejection is common among photographers but how do you use it to your advantage? Paul gives his insights and personal practises to help overcome these and strengthen your belief in yourself.

How do you secure an assignment for National Geographic? This is one of the questions that Paul gets asked the most. He gives his insights and talks about his experience of securing not just one assignment but also regular work from the famous magazine.

When and where does Paul suggest using a shallow or deeper depth of field? It’s a creative decision that can enhance the storytelling aspect of your image. Find out more about Paul’s use of creative depth of field to improve your craft.

How do you begin to create and structure a photographic story? Whether in your local neighbourhood or further afield, Paul offers vital advice on how to start and what to prioritise when structuring your own stories.

Colour or Monochrome is a crucial decision, faced when looking through the lens and especially when reviewing the file in post production. Paul takes us through a selection of his images and explains this decision making process to choose colour or black and white for the optimal results.

How do you develop a personal style? Is having a strong personal style an asset or a liability? Paul takes us through the process of developing your own look and feel in photography, showing you how to recognise the positive steps and the pitfalls along the way.

Shutter speed can be used creatively to generate movement in your work or used to spectacular effect to freeze the moment. Paul gives us his advice and ideas on how to use shutter speed creatively and shares examples from his own work.

As we journey with Paul along the coast of British Columbia, we witness first hand the destruction of habitat and environment generated by the logging industry. Paul gives us critical learnings in how to approach the telling of a conservation story that can resonate globally.

Flash and blur used in conjunction can create powerful images, freezing a moment on top of an image. At which moment in the shutter opening do you prefer the flash to go off? Paul is a master of the rear sync flash technique and he explains how to use it.

Another wildlife encounter off the coast of British Columbia. How do you approach timid Sea Otters to get great images and importantly without disturbing and stressing them? Paul shows how he uses his 600mm in a rocking boat to create stunning portraits of these beautiful animals.

Back at his desk, Paul shows us how he reviews hundreds of files and makes edit decisions. Paul shows us his preferred methodology to select the ultimate images from a whole shoot.

Paul explains the different strands he has developed in his own photography business to generate an income. Discover how the photography business has evolved over time and how you need to diversify. Paul touches on stock photography, magazine assignments, selling art prints and speaking engagements.

Paul has the largest social media following of any photographer in the world. Discover how he has done it and how you can use his advice to build your following too. Learn the art of what, when and how to post from the master.