Josh Pelta-Heller

Guide

My passion for nature and wildlife stretches as far back as my earliest childhood memories, the wonder of discovering Cedar Waxwings and the brightest red Northern Cardinals in my own backyard in Philly. At the age of 9, inspired by one of my childhood heroes, naturalist and illustrator Roger Tory Peterson, I had decided to try to illustrate my very own bird guide, but when I realized shortly thereafter that my bird sketches looked more like failed attempts to emulate mid-century surrealism, I picked up my first camera instead.

In the years since, I’ve been intent on traveling extensively, road-tripping my way through wildlife preserves and parks in all 50 US states and in many countries abroad as well, focusing as much as possible on renowned hotspots for biodiversity. As my appreciation and understanding of wildlife and ecology evolves, I’ve tried to leverage photography skills that I’ve developed as a way of engaging, interpreting and translating the natural world.

Photography for me presents a unique and exciting duality of seemingly endless rewards and challenges, the areas that demand proactive attention and study in pursuit of improvement. My wildlife images have been selected for Audubon’s annual “Top 100,” and have appeared in both Audubon and Nature Conservancy calendars. In addition to nature and wildlife photography, my portraiture and music photojournalism has appeared on Philly.com, Rockpile Magazine, Phawker.com and TwoOneFive Magazine, as well as at WXPN.org, where I currently work as a regular concert photography contributor.

PC: Kira Henderson