About Me
I am Steffen Foerster, a wildlife photographer, biologist, and educator.
On this site I share information about my wildlife photography workshops and mentorships. I also built naturephotocontests.info, a growing resource for nature and wildlife photographers who want a clearer way to track the contest landscape and learn from the results.
My background
A lifelong passion for nature and photography.
I got my first camera at eight, and nature has been the subject ever since.
I went on to become an animal behavior scientist, and eventually earned a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Columbia University. That foundation changed how I see animals in the field. I am not just watching for a composition, I am reading and anticipating behavior to capture moments worth making.
But understanding animals and making a photograph that connects with viewers are two different things entirely. The creative process behind a successful image is varied and can itself be informed by how our brains work. I quite enjoy this combination of science and art.
I am especially drawn to moments where animal behavior feels familiar. A gesture or a look or a posture can make an animal feel less distant. It can even make viewers feel emotions, and emotions can lead to a deeper connection, more curiosity, and care for the world.
Workshops and mentorship
I work with photographers who want to make stronger wildlife images.
In workshops, the focus is on fieldcraft, animal behavior, light, timing, and composition. Much of the work is learning to see more: to recognize situations with potential, notice compositions others may miss, and respond to animal behavior without forcing the scene.
Mentorship goes deeper and continues over time. We work across the full photographic process: planning shoots, reviewing sequences, selecting stronger frames, refining edits, improving post-processing, preparing contest submissions, and building a more coherent body of work.
2026 jury member
For the 2026 season, I am serving on the jury for Nature Photographer of the Year.
NPOTY is one of the leading international nature photography contests, attracting more than 27,000 submissions from around the world. Being part of the conversations that shape the final selection is both an honor and a responsibility I do not take lightly.
It also gives me a current and firsthand understanding of what separates images that win from those that do not, at the highest level of the discipline. That perspective carries directly into the workshops and mentorship work I offer here, and into the contest resource I am building at naturephotocontests.info.
NaturePhotoContests.Info
Because it needed to exist.
NaturePhotoContests has two jobs. The first is practical: track deadlines, rules, fees, and submission requirements across the major nature photography contests. The second is to preserve context, bringing winning images together in one place so you can study them easily. Beyond that, the site is growing. I am expanding the analytics section and developing ImageIQ, a new tool that lets photographers see how their own images compare to contest winners. The site is completely free to join.
