Photographer David Yarrow explains how he managed to get close up with lions, tigers and grizzly bears, and why his pictures had to be in black and white
The great war photographer Robert Capa said that if a picture isn't good enough, you're not close enough. You can't get a sense of menace through a telephoto lens, so I decided to get close up. This was shot remotely from ground level with a wide angle lens on a camera slathered with the Old Spice aftershave used by the Masai – I was in a jeep 150 yards away at the time. Just after I took this shot the lioness grabbed the camera in her mouth and loped away. We had to follow her into the bush to get it backPhotograph: David Yarrow PhotographyThere's a vulgarity, a garishness to colour images, whereas black and white pictures have a tranquility which makes them timeless – if the technology had existed, almost every image in this book could have been taken 200 years ago. A black and white picture is also obviously manufactured, self-evidently unreal Photograph: David Yarrow PhotographyThe camera wasn't protected for this shot at all – one more step and the elephant would have crushed it to a pulp. My guide told me to just keep firing the shutter. The whirring of the motor drive was enough to make the bull elephant stop and step around the unfamiliar noise. I started using steel cases around my remote cameras shortly afterwardsPhotograph: David Yarrow PhotographyI've travelled all over the world for this book. I met this grizzly bear in Katmai national park in Alaska – it was just me and him on the road. You're given safety briefings, but you never think you're going to meet one. You're supposed to talk to them, so I kept saying 'Hello Mr Bear' and so on. He looked back at me with contempt and ambled off into the woods – the only time they'll go for you is if you get between them and their youngPhotograph: David Yarrow PhotographyMost of the pictures in the book were taken before breakfast or at sunset – with good light comes a greater emotional perspective, a greater soulPhotograph: David Yarrow PhotographyThey say a picture is worth a thousand words, but combine that picture with the story behind it and it's worth even more. It took 28 hours lying face down on a boat deck in False Bay, near Cape Town, to capture this moment – you can't just turn up and take a snap of a great white shark eating a seal – but now I've caught it, it will never disappearPhotograph: David Yarrow PhotographyWe're all part of the natural world as well. I spent three days on the Sudanese border before I took this portrait of an Omo warrior. Standing up to my waist in a dirty river I could feel creatures brushing against my legs – I still have no idea what they werePhotograph: David Yarrow PhotographyThere are only 1,000 Royal Bengal tigers left in India. Some people call images like these earth porn, but if a picture can help people make an emotional connection with the wonders of the natural world, then maybe it can make a differencePhotograph: David Yarrow Photography
