ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Ted Steinke was born and raised in central Wisconsin in a family that loved to hunt and fish. It is there that he grew to appreciate the beauty of nature and wildlife. He lived in Michigan for 7 years and the Black Hills of South Dakota for 7 years, before moving to Utah in late 1987. Ted says the following:

I have been a photographer for over 35 years and have a B.S. in Biology from the University of Wisconsin.  I retired on 1/3/06 after more than 33 years with the Federal Government. Retirement from a full-time job gives me more time to photograph and work with my favorite subjects—wildlife.

I formerly specialized in videography of deer, elk, bighorn sheep and other wildlife, having videotaped and produced 9 feature length wildlife behavior videos. Hours and hours of this footage are still available for sale as stock video footage.  

Instant feedback is important. In the days of shooting 35 mm film with the SLR I didn’t get to see my work until days or even weeks after I took the shots. The advantage of video was that I was able to view my video footage as soon as I got the tapes back to a VCR. It was from this instant feedback that I learned which subjects and compositions were the most pleasing to the eye and which ones were not. This knowledge carried over to my work with the still camera. In the past 7 years I’ve switched primarily to digital SLR still photography of wildlife and have made somewhere over 1,000,000 images.  I like the immediacy that the still camera gives me. I can shoot a subject in the morning and have it printed and displayed several hours later.

My favorite subjects are elk, bighorn sheep, grizzly bear, coyotes, moose, mule deer and white-tailed deer, for the mammals.  For avian subjects, my favorites are eagles, harriers, kestrels, other hawks, owls, geese, tundra swans and the various duck species found in and around the Great Salt Lake, plus various wading birds, including avocets, egrets and herons. As long as it’s flying or performing interesting behavior, I like to photograph it. I am fortunate to have good opportunities at flying Cinnamon Teal and Mallards, two of my favorite duck species. I especially like to photograph Great Blue Herons because of their wildness (at least around areas I frequent), their interesting behavior, their adaptability, and the challenge of photographing them in their 1001 different poses.

I currently live in Layton, UT, which gives me good access to the mountains and to the areas around the Great Salt Lake, yet is still within reasonable driving distance of the National Forests and National Parks in ID, WY, MT and southern Utah. I also like to visit the game-rich, beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota to fish and photograph. Much of my local photography takes place on the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge.

I donated many photographs to the new Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge Visitor's Center.  Examples of my work with bird photography may be seen at www.utahbirds.org, where I am known primarily for my awesome photos in the 3 feature articles on Bald Eagles.  I have approximately 300 photos of various bird species on that website.  To see the eagles, check out http://www.utahbirds.org/birdsofutah/PhotoIndex.html.

For questions or comments please contact Ted at tsphotos@msn.com.