Staff: Most of the time, Menzel has four employees who handle the nuts and bolts of his Napa, Calif.-based operation. He also works with his wife and co-author, Faith D'Aluisio, mainly on book projects.

Favorite gear: Canon EOS 5D, featuring a 35mm-sized sensor...

Location: Scottsdale, Ariz. Ross has a 300-square-foot studio in his home, for portraits and still-life photography.

Latest assignment: "Last year I did a number of books, or partial books, for Fodor's "Travel Guides,' including a month in Costa Rica."

Favorite assignment: "They're all great. I am living my dream life by traveling around the world and using my camera to meet peoples I would not otherwise talk to."

Advice for aspiring travel photographers: "Stay diverse. Shoot many subjects to pay for the bills, especially when you are starting out. Portraits, corporate, weddings, your neighbor's dog - whatever."

Website: kenrossphotography.com...

Location: Studio in Beverly Hills, Calif. (manipulator.com). Resides in Los
Angeles with her husband and two children.

Number of assistants: Two to three, depending on the job.

Preferred equipment: Profoto, Elinchrome, Mamiya. Although Greenberg says that she prefers to use film to achieve her signature burnished look, she relies on digital image manipulation during production. After all...

Home, Studio & Gallery: Santa Cruz, Calif.

Website: franslanting.com

Staff: Depending on which projects are in the works, Lanting employs up to a dozen workers.

Books: "Eye to Eye" (Taschen, 2003); "Jungles" (Taschen, 2000); "Penguin" (Taschen, 1999); "Living Planet: Preserving Edens of the Earth" (Crown, 1999); "Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape" (University of California Press, 1997); "Okavango: Africa's Last Eden" (Chronicle, 1993); "Madagascar: A World Out of Time" (Aperture, 1990).

Equipment: Almost exclusively the Canon EOS-1Ds Mark II, what he calls "the Porsche of digital cameras." He sold all his film equipment on eBay in the summer of 2005. "I was actually surprised you could still get money for your film cameras," he says.

Major influence: The mid-20th century imagery of W. Eugene Smith. "He hits on a lot of cylinders for me," he says. "He's got a great sense of light, and he's passionate about his subjects." Psihoyos' favorite Smith pictures include "The Country Doctor" and "Spanish Village," but most meaningful to him are Smith's photographs showing the aftermath of a mercury-poisoning incident in Minamata, Japan.

Advice for up-and-comers: "If there's anything specific that's come out of the digital world, it is that it's become easier and easier to take bad pictures," he says. "In photojournalism school, they don't teach you how to take great pictures; they don't tell you how to light. Most of what I learned about lighting and taking pictures in general came from reading books and watching films shot by great cinematographers."

Website: psihoyos.com

Office and Home: Corales, N.M.

Upcoming titles: Our National Parks, with text by Ruth Rudner; Arizona, with text by Lawrence Cheek; and National Parks of New Zealand.

Recent Exhibits: Reed Photo-Art Gallery, Denver; Mountain Light Gallery, Bishop, Calif.; Santa Barbara (Calif.) Museum of Art; Phoenix Art Museum, with Ansel Adams and Jack Dykinga. Sponsored by Arizona Highways, this last exhibit also was shown at the University of Arizona's Center for Creative Photography and the Museum of Northern Arizona.

Website: muenchphotography.com

Office: Littleton, Colo.

(agpix.com/bharrington.com)

Gear: Nikon F100 and F4 bodies, Nikkor 20-35, 35-70 and 80-200mm zooms; Nikon flash and Lumedynes; Bogen carbon fiber tripods.

Film: Primarily Fuji slide films, including Velvia, Velvia 100...

Home life: Lives in the Hollywood hills of California with his wife, Tammy, and his two children: Jenna, 15, and Ian, 13.

Studio space: 2,000 square feet in Hollywood, used primarily for project administration, digital post-production and large-scale printing of fine-art work. "I've outgrown the studio so, on production days, we shoot at rented production facilities, bringing in sets that were built at a set shop," Wexler says.

Camera equipment: "To me, equipment is just a necessity. I don't dwell on that stuff," he says. "I typically shoot sets with a Sinar P2 4x5, and people or animals with a Hasseblad or Mamiya RZ. I often shoot landscapes that I use for backgrounds or fine art prints with a Mamiya 7. I prefer to shoot film for most of my work, but I have started to shoot with a Canon 1DS for situations where I need more immediate feedback, or when the extended depth of field of a 35mm format is required..."