No matter the obstacle, this well-published, Santa Fe-based nature shooter and educator has found a way to thrive in the competitive world of wildlife – and now landscape photography.

It's March in a southern Oregon marsh. Two black-necked stilts – long-legged wader birds – move closer to each other among the reeds in the shallow water. With no one around to disturb them, and with spring in the air, the male bird gets an age-old idea in his head. In seeming privacy, he hops on top of the female's back and begins to mate.

What the two lovebirds don't know is that they are being watched patiently from a nearby log in the water – or at least by something that looks like a log. Inside the object is no predator, however. It's Tim Fitzharris, one of the busiest and most celebrated nature photographers in the industry...

Home and studio: Albany, Calif.

Website: davidsanger.com

Family Life: Lives with his wife, Sally. "My whole family likes to travel," Sanger says. "My son and I just went to Peru last year."

Favorite locales in which to work: "South Africa, for the light; Europe, for the density of interesting subjects; and the Caribbean. I'm the guy you see in the Caribbean with the tripod, big lens, black camera bag and long pants, trudging down the beach, sweating."

By noticing small details that others may miss, the Bay Area's David Sanger specializes in finding sublime images in even the most mundane locations.

Veteran travel photographer David Sanger often wonders why anyone would visit some of the places he goes, especially when he struggles to find the photographs hiding there.

He knows some magic will probably happen, and eventually he'll find the shots to make the trip worthwhile. But first, there's often some real and powerful discouragement he must overcome...