THE PHOTOGRAPHER

Mark J Harlow is one of the top national award winning nature & wildlife photographers in the country and is a native Minnesotan. He is also a Fine Art Print Master, having spent over four decades in the Fine Art Print Making Industries. He is a Certified Laser Scanner Operator and has worked reproducing critical color art for a majority of his adult life. "I do what I do because I truly love nature, nature photography and reproducing elite level Fine Art prints and canvases (not to be confused with today's economical consumer grade products). I don't seek (but appreciate) the recognition to keep going". In just his second year back (after a 20+ year absence), Mark politely declined opportunities to work with  Nikon USA, Getty Images, and National Geographic, choosing instead to continue on his own, with his minimalistic photo style and staunch image capturing and editing ethics. Mark is one of the original true minimalist nature photographers of the digital era and continues to be a true minimalist photographer.

"I consider my self a minimalist both photographically and editing wise. Today's digital photography mindset seems to be... get it close, fix it in post, crank up the ISO settings and photograph in "speed or continuous" drive modes, letting todays software's taking care of the impurities and mistakes that occur with "convenient" settings. Some spend many minutes if not hours editing just one image because of those photographing styles. "Those photo capturing mindsets and editing styles do not interest me. My motto is... take pride in your in your initial exposures and composition. Photograph like you will be judged on your work straight out of camera. That is how I've photographed from day one and what I've strived for the last 40+ years."... says Harlow.

Mark's photography is never taken with a Pre Burst, Burst or Continuous Drive Mode. ALL images single drive mode (one click at a time, even the action Wildlife action imagery). He never baits, stages, or photographs backyard, personal or personal private property subjects. All images shown required loading up his vehicle and going out to locations (others may seldom leave their property or go to game farms, game preserves, or have even built their own private preserve environments where they photograph from). All of Mark's wildlife is truly wild, all events happened naturally, organically and unscripted. 

Image Editing is done at a minimum. No automated actions, editing plug in's, saved presets, focus stacking, stitching or traditional stacking, NO HDR, foreground/background separation or other automated techniques are ever used. Mark still only edits in the 12-15 year old (hard disk copy, not Cloud based)software with minimal adjustments. Most edits are easily done in less than a minute, not many minutes or even hours.