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...

Studio location and staff: Santa Fe, N.M. His wife, Joy Fitzharris, is his office manager. He also employs a computer systems manager and an image librarian.

Latest projects: Fitzharris' new coffee-table book of landscape photos, "Seasons Across America," from Firefly Books, will debut in 2010. He is also planning another book, tentatively called "Hummingbirds of the World."

Advice to aspiring nature photographers: "Think long term and build a solid collection. I'm still selling pics I took 25 years ago," he says. "Also, anticipate the movement or behavior of your [wildlife] subject; get into position for the best light, background and angle on the action. Then wait for it to happen."

Website: timfitzharris.com

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...

Studio locations: The Los Angeles area. Turning rents studios as needed, including motion-picture soundstages for her larger-scale projects. She once had her own shooting space, but it has been converted into a postproduction studio.

Favorite cameras: Hasselblad film cameras with Phase  One P 45 backs and Hasselblad H2 digital cameras. "I use large-format, up to 8x10, when it is called for and it suits the assignment," she says. "You can't beat the aesthetics of large format, working deliberately and slowly. That is close to my heart."

Photographic heroes/inspirations: Painters in a wide range of styles, from the Old Masters to pop art. "The best ones really teach you how to see and control light: Delacroix, Maxfield Parrish, Francisco Clemente," she says.

On being a woman in a male-dominated business: "To me, it's been a nonissue. My work speaks for itself."

Website: For more of her work and rep contacts, see turningpix.com.

The L.A. photographer's fantastic set designs and multiple exposures elevate even the most mundane subjects to heroic proportions.

Young Kate Turning's fantasy-fueled work was a bit too fashion-forward for the U.S. market in the late 1980s.

In those days, Turning was working as a newly minted photographer in the fantasy-friendly pop music industry, and her work was selling well. But she didn't want to be limited to record packages, promo shots and posters.

To move on to the big leagues, the studio specialist needed to take a daring step. "I had to leave America to truly find my voice," Turning explains from her Los Angeles studio, where she is enjoying a brief pause before jetting off on another assignment.

"It is very important to develop a personal style" in order to succeed in the hyper-competitive world...

Gallery locations: Denver and Breckenridge, Colo.

Favorite gear: The Linhof Master Technika 4 x 5 view camera and Fujichrome Velvia 100 film. "I used other field cameras while working my way up financially, and the Linhof Master Technika is the most durable for wilderness work, and the most flexible with movements," Fielder says. "I've destroyed several cameras, including Linhofs. The Master Technika is made of metal alloys, and it is the least destroyable field camera I've used..."

John Fielder's background in retail has helped him build a successful niche in high-quality local-interest calendars and books that show off his beloved Rocky Mountains.

It's one thing to take a photograph," says nature expert John Fielder, "but it is another thing, entirely, to sell it."

Colorado specialist Fielder excels at both of these difficult challenges. He's a seasoned and hardworking large-format nature and landscape photographer who runs a multifaceted business selling his work....

His spooky, brooding images sometimes scare people, but this Los Angeles photographer has become one of the most in-dmand portraitist of A-list stars.

Frank Ockenfels had a problem early on in his career. His unusual work, with an emphasis on spooky, dark images, scared some people.

It was a real issue: For some time, he actually had trouble getting assignments to photograph women. "It was a label I had for years," says the upbeat and forthright Ockenfels. "My work was seen as too moody, too much toward the dark side of photography."

Working the dark end of the street was a deliberate decision on his part, one born of necessity. "I had no choice but to take this stand in the first five years," he explains. "Everything I did was a 15-minute shoot, no matter how much time I was promised."

Being limited to 15 minutes wasn't the end of it. The bigger the subject, the harder it often was to get their cooperation, even under the lights...

A Napa Valley photojournalist points out the world's inequalities through his lens.

Photojournalist Peter Menzel is passionate about what he views as the sorry state of American life, from "red-state" politics and war to junk food-based diets.

But he doesn't just gripe about it. He's successfully published five photography-based books, including "Material World: A Global Family Portrait" and "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats," to raise awareness of these issues...