Building a Career as a Chilean Nature Photographer

It started with toads. Felipe Esteban Toledo Alarcón, the first winner of the Audubon Photography Awards Grand Prize, Chile and Colombia, was filming helmeted water toads (Calyptocephalella gayi) in a wetland in Valdivia, Chile. Fortunately for him, a pair of Ringed Kingfishers were also interested in them and their tadpoles. The male kingfisher gradually began hunting closer to Toledo until finally, on the sixth dive, Toledo was able to capture the kingfisher emerging from the water in good lighting.

Toledo is a wildlife photographer dedicated both to his craft and to supporting biodiversity conservation in Chile. He does this largely by using photography as a tool to inform Chileans about the wildlife and ecosystems around them. “Education is very important to me,” says Toledo. “That is my aim. I hope that my images and my videos serve the conservation of biodiversity in my country.”

To that end, Toledo has been hired by organizations like World Wildlife Fund, Humedales Sostenibles (Sustainable Wetlands), and Fundación Reforestemos (Let’s Reforest Foundation) to document Chile’s natural bounty. He also teaches photography classes and creates educational nature content on Instagram and TikTok for more than 83,000 followers. Recently, he started working on an independent documentary video series about Chile’s wetlands.

Toledo’s home, Valdivia, is surrounded by rivers. By exploring the area with his camera, Toledo realized that the wetlands fed by the rivers held the most species. But wetlands in Chile—as in much of the world—are often under-appreciated and destroyed. “There are many Chileans who live next to a wetland but don’t recognize it. They don’t know that they live so close and the importance these places have,” he says. Currently, Toledo is traveling across Chile to document the diversity of its wetlands and raising funds for additional trips.

Toledo’s enthusiasm for photography is infectious and his accomplishments at a relatively young age are impressive. But the path there was not straightforward. As a boy, Toledo never would’ve imagined winning an international bird photography contest, nor building a career as a nature photographer. When Toledo started his university studies, he went in committed to becoming a scientist in academia. He completed a bachelor’s degree in marine biology and started a master’s in genetics. A year into his master’s, he realized he was no longer interested in academia, and his lifelong trajectory hit a dead end—or so it seemed.

Two years prior, Toledo had taken a trip to Patagonia and brought a point-and-shoot camera to document it. When he came home, he was disappointed in his photos but captivated by photography. He purchased a used DSLR camera and began working hard to improve his skills. At first, photography was just a hobby, but soon it became much more. In 2019, he left academia entirely and opened a commercial photography business with his wife, Paulina.

Three years later, after his wife got a job as an engineer, Toledo decided to turn his passion for nature photography into his profession. He says his background in marine biology was one asset that helped him get hired by conservation organizations; his commitment to ethical photography was another. Disrupting nests, getting too close, using playback, and baiting animals are against his ethics. (Editor’s note: They’re against Audubon’s, too.) “I believe that when we want to get an image, it’s key to not use that type of tool because we alter the natural behavior of species. I always think positively, in the sense that if today isn’t the day, I’ll have an opportunity to get the photo in the future,” he says.

Toledo encourages other photographers to practice these ethics. He also recommends paying attention to three elements when making a photo: a special moment, preparation, and knowledge. By that, he means being in the right place during the right conditions, having the right equipment to capture it, and having the skills to use it to create a strong image. One can’t expect to become a great photographer overnight or acquire all the equipment at once: “It’s all about patience,” he says.

Looking ahead, Toledo’s dream is to make a living creating documentaries that educate people about nature and support conservation. His wetland films will be an important step in that direction. He already has many ideas for other ones—once the wetland films are complete.