We recently connected with Rylee Jensen and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Rylee thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Who is your hero and why? What lessons have you learned from them and how have they influenced your journey?
Terry Tempest Williams is hands down my favorite author. Her book “Refuge” changed my outlook on life and relationships in the best way. Her vulnerability, compassion, and raw connection to the places she calls home translates into some of the most beautiful passages I’ve ever read. I was initially drawn to her because of the similarities she and I share: we both grew up in northern Utah with the Great Salt Lake within arm’s reach, pursued naturalist-focused degrees, and have a deep-rooted love for the places we call home. She channels her passion into fighting to protect the dying Great Salt Lake and the millions of birds and plants and thousands of people who depend on it. Her writing and activism has inspired me to evoke the same emotion in my photographs – to portray the reality of our changing world through stories, art, and the eyes of my wildlife subjects. People care about creatures and landscapes they can form a connection with; if you see the land around you as a living, breathing being, your relationship to it inherently changes. One of my goals through photography is to follow the work of Terry Tempest Williams and eventually stir individual change and community involvement through my work.
Rylee, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I am a 26-year old wildlife photographer, naturalist, biologist, and currently a graduate student studying gut microbiome diversity in African herbivores. I grew up just north of Salt Lake City, Utah with wilderness all around me. I honestly couldn’t tell you the first time I picked up a camera, or when I had an “ah-ha” moment about pursuing photography; everywhere I went, I carried a camera around my shoulder to capture the things and places I loved. Since high school, I have traveled seasonally all over the country, from the deserts of southern Utah and Arizona to the tundras and mossy rainforests of Alaska. I currently support my work through selling prints, both online through my Etsy shop and through in-person flea markets. However, I’m still figuring out how to market my photos and garner interest so it’s been a constant learning process!
My photography goes hand-in-hand with my budding wildlife guiding career as well. I began guiding in 2021 in Yellowstone National Park; each day I would drive visitors around the park’s wintery interior searching for wolves, bison, eagles, otters, coyotes, and walking through magnificent geyser basins. Guiding here seemed like a natural next step for me after spending so much time in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem on my own with firsthand knowledge about wildlife behavior. The following summer, I led tours in Juneau, Alaska where I kayaked among humpback whales and flew out to a remote island with one of the densest brown bear populations in the world. This is something I am the most proud of in my career – educating people from around the world about these incredible places and watching their faces light up after seeing their first bear or moose or wolf makes it all worth it. After graduate school, I would love to continue leading tours like these, potentially expanding to wildlife hotspots around the world.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
Combining my two main passions—wildlife photography and science-based education—has been the driving force behind my career. When I became involved with wildlife guiding in 2021, it was like a lightbulb went off in my head. This was it! Guiding is the perfect marriage of the two and something that I hope to do for as long as I can. It is fulfilling in more ways than one; not only do I get to be out in the field photographing wildlife (which I do in my spare time anyway), but I get to bring clients to some of the most remarkable destinations in the world. I teach them about the context and natural history behind what they’re seeing: the ancient ecological forces shaping glaciers hundreds of feet high, the physiological reason why salmon turn bright red in August, or about the stories that tracks, scat, hair, feathers, and claw marks on a tree can tell. For those who are not able to physically come out on a trip with me, I try to convey the emotion of an encounter through my photos. My goal through these expeditions and through the photos I capture is to inspire my audience to care about these ecosystems and wildlife. Hopefully, I can also use these photos to contribute to conservation efforts both locally and around the world.
How did you build your audience on social media?
My largest social media presence by far has been through TikTok (where I currently have 27.3K followers), and it came about kind of by accident. During the summer of 2021, I worked in Katmai National Park as a bear technician. I was based in Brooks Camp (where brown bears famously catch salmon at the lip of Brooks Falls) and my job was to “haze” bears out of camp to prevent surprise encounters with visitors. During one particular encounter, I was trying to shoo two yearling cubs back to the beach to rejoin their mother (a bear called 854 or “Divot”), but they were acting incredibly stubborn. Eventually a crowd formed behind me and one of my coworkers started recording the scene. I’ll admit it looks a little ridiculous with me, alone, stomping toward three brown bears, but interactions like this were normal for me and all part of the specialized training we go through as park rangers in Katmai. That video was posted to her TikTok page (@witchpixie) and quickly went viral, unbeknownst to me in camp where I had no cell service. Once I realized the growing popularity of it, I created my own TikTok page to respond to the video and clear up any misconceptions people might have about how to behave around bears on their own. I then started creating fun wildlife reels to post to the page and it took off from there.
My biggest advice to those wanting to build up a social media presence is to be adaptable! Trends are changing all the time; a sound byte or template that might be popular right now will probably fade away in just a few weeks. Over the years I’ve had to figure out ways to make my photos captivating to a diverse audience and catch their attention right away. The algorithm on apps like Instagram (and obviously TikTok) favors videos/reels over photos right now, and videos are a great way to get creative and instill a specific mood to your photos that you want your viewers to pick up on. I’ve learned quickly what works and what doesn’t by learning from my peers and watching trending videos. I’m constantly inspired by the community of young nature photographers thinking outside the box to showcase their photos. Don’t be afraid to reach out to creatives you admire to ask for advice as well!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.ryleejayphoto.com
- Instagram: @rylee_jay_photo
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/ryleejensenphotography
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/rylee-jensen
- Twitter: @ryleejayphoto
- TikTok: @ryleeswildlife
- Shop: www.etsy.com/shop/RyleeJayPhoto
Image Credits
Rylee Jensen (all photos)