Home: West Seattle.

Studio/office: 1944 First Avenue South, Seattle; 206-332-0993; ArtWolfe.com; WildlandsPress.com.

Staff: Eight full-time employees; two nearly full-time.

Galleries at REI stores: Seattle - 222 Yale Avenue North, 206-223-1944; Federal Way, Wash. - 2565 South Gateway Center Place, 253-941-4994; Denver - 1416 Platte Street, 720-855-7887.

Favorite gear: "Canon is the only 35mm I use," Wolfe says, "which was really very appropriate for most of this work because I was dealing in ephemeral moments." He also uses a Pentax 6x7, a Fuji 6x17 panoramic, a Hasselblad panoramic and a couple of Mamiyas. "I almost exclusively use tripods because I like to deliver a very tack-sharp image."

Favorite film: Fuji Velvia, he says, "because I think it delivers a full range of color. There's a vibrancy to most of the images that just pops."

Accolades: Alfred Eisenstaedt Magazine Photography Award, 2000; Outstanding Nature Photographer of the Year, North American Nature Photography Association, 1998; Rachel Carson Award, National Audubon Society, 1998; Photographer of the Year, PhotoMedia, 1997. His first self-published book, "The Living Wild," won many awards and was voted "Most Likely to Save the Planet" at the Independent Publisher Book Awards, 2001.

Advice for beginning nature photographers: "In today's world, most photo agencies are full of the usual images," Wolfe says. "Find subjects that are under-documented. There are thousands of obscure animals and even some well-known animals that aren't photographed much. The same holds true for locations that are under-documented, such as Finland, Greenland and some countries in Africa."

Projects in the works: 1) "Vanishing Act," due out in 2005, a book of photos in which animals hide in plain sight. 2) "One World, One Vision: The Photography of Art Wolfe," a seven-continent retrospective of Wolfe's work at the Frye Art Museum, May 3 through July 13. 3) A possible TV series or special about his work in the field. "It would be an over-the-shoulder look at world travel and how a photographer goes about his craft," Wolfe says. "It has all the drama you can imagine, and all the misery."