(Note: All photographs displayed in this interview is copyrighted material, unauthorized use or reproduction for any reason is prohibited.)

I first met Haim Ziv several years ago when a group of photographers gathered in Clearwater, Florida. Haim traveled from Israel for the meeting, which lasted for a week. I soon began to appreciate his sense of humor and his love of photography. Haim is not a native English speaker and he struggles to communicate in English, sometimes spending many hours at an English dictionary trying to find the appropriate words to express his feelings.

I had admired Haim’s photography for some time. As a journalist, I had a great respect for the difficulty that he faced every day of his life while on assignment as a photojournalist in one of the most dangerous places in the world. In my view, there is no other more challenging aspect of photography than photojournalism because the photographer not only must master his or her equipment, but they work in the most demanding and sometimes dangerous areas.

His portrait of Ariel Sharon has always been my favorite of his works. The essence of the photograph, in my view, is Sharon judging Sharon, quite a remarkable photograph given the controversy that marked Sharon’s tenure as Prime Minister of Israel.

Following our first meeting, Haim and I became good friends and we continue to correspond with one another about our experiences. I share his love of nature photography and we sometimes discuss regions of the world that we would both like to explore.

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Question:

Your photographic career began as a journalist, what were the highlights of that experience?

In 1986, I started to work to for the biggest newspaper in Israel and became a part-time Photo Editor until the end of 2003. My first photojournalist camera was the Nikkormat FTN with black and white films. I had a very small apartment and my lab was in a very small bathroom. After printing with wet pictures on back seat of my very old car I would drive to Tel-Aviv very fast before the deadline.

The highlight of my experience was when a terror attack started in Israel when Palestinians sent a human bomb. I’m very sorry and it’s very very sad to say, but this dramatic situation was very good to be photographed.

I still have a very bad feeling about this; I remember my body shivering when I stepped on broken glass. The worse thing about this, as a photojournalist, was to confront people who had lost a loved one, when I was taking pictures at a funeral.

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Question:

Photography is difficult enough, how was it different when working as a photojournalist? What were the hazards? What was it like in a typical day?

A typical day is to photograph everything that is on the list of the Photo Editor. It means you have to do everything from simple pictures of many kinds of events up to high meetings of political people — through all kinds of community life, from good things to very bad things, from happy events to very bad ones. During the time you have to be on a standby for mighty events. You may not be the first photojournalist at an event, but you have to be available as a backup to your photojournalist friends.

Once in a week, during 24 hours it’s your turn to be on first in line on standby and everyone else becomes your backup. During the week you are on motorcycle just because the heavy traffic because you have to move very fast from point to point. The hazards thing is to take a picture of a very beautiful and nice event, and one minute after that deal with a terror attack or a very bad car collision.

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Question:

You have retired as a photojournalist and concentrate on wildlife and nature photography? What made you decide to give up photojournalism and pursue nature photography?

After 30 years of being a photojournalist, I become very tired but the main reason was that as a photojournalist I lost the ability to be everywhere, and ordinary people, using a cellular phone, and for a few dollars, were sending pictures to newspapers and the worse thing is that the Photo Editors were accepting it.

Since 2002, I saw amazing and beautiful nature pictures across the Internet and some of them in Photoblink’s forum, and I realized these things were around me and I didn’t notice it at all!! So I decided that this is what I wanted to do when I retired from photojournalism. I did not want to take people pictures any longer!

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Question:

Was there anyone (i.e. other photographers) who influenced your work, and what was it about his or her work that inspired you?

Weegee, was my favorite photojournalist!! His ability to be at the right place and time was fascinating. I was amazed when I found that he changed and moved things in the scene for better composition. [Note: Weegee was the pseudonym of Arthur Fellig (June 12, 1899 - December 26, 1968), an American photographer and photojournalist, known for his stark black and white street photography.]

The second one is Dorothea Lange. Her ability to tell a whole story in one picture without any words blows my mind.

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Question:

Have you done any formal training in photography, or are you self-taught?

I’m a self-taught. But during the years I went to see art at many kind of museums and heard many lectures about photography.

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Question:

What is your favorite/most used post-processing technique (unless this is a trade secret).

I don’t have any special post processing techniques. I shoot RAW files and use Canon’s DPP software and then Photoshop CS3.

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Question:

On your photographic journey, did you go through different phases? Different styles?

I’m trying to learn something from everyone. I go through different phases depending on which challenge I want to achieve.

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Question:

What influenced you in your choice of subject (landscape, portrait, etc.)?

Portraits are my favorite, much more than landscape. But today my choice is birds and nature.

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Question:

Did you ever have any advice from colleagues, reviews, etc. and how helpful was it to you?

My motive in my life is: as much as your ego is small you can get more info, learn more and accept wonderful things from other people.

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Question:

When you find your subject to shoot, are you usually looking for something to enhance it? I.e. nice foreground in a landscape?

No doubt! This is the first thing I’m thinking about even if it’s a very simple image.

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Question:

Tell us about your equipment and what pushed you to that decision.

Today I’m using Canon equipment for shooting birds just because it has faster AF than Nikon. During the years I have used Nikon and Canon, and in a global view there are times that Nikon is much better than Canon and vice versa.

If you asking me which kind of equipment you like to have my answer will be a mix between Canon and Nikon.

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Question:

How do you see your photographic future, what do you dream about?

My dream is to have time money and energy to travel around the world and to be in many places for nature and birds pictures.

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Question:

Do you have any specific photographic experiences that were of a wow factor and will remain with you forever?

There are many! And many of them will remain with me forever. I don’t think I have only one in my mind.

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Question:

How important is photography to you besides any financial gains?

Today I’m not getting money from photography as I did four years ago. Today photography for me is one of the main things that make me happy and produce joy.

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Question:

If you would change what is now your favorite subject in photography, what other subjects would you really like to follow?

I would love to go back and take portrait pictures of ordinary people.

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Question:

What really inspires you now?

All of the things about digital photography and where is the delicate line between digital pictures and digital creation.

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Question:

Which one of your own images is very special to you and why? Could we also have that picture to display?

The picture a called “field of hats,” just because I found a lots of mysteries in the scene. And I really saw it when I pushed the bottom.

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Question:

Can we have a link for our members to view your work on the Internet?

Birds-Photos

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Question:

And finally, what message would you send to the visitors of our blog and in general any new or fairly new photographers?

Just one thing: Love what you are doing it’s the main key for everything in life.

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I am grateful to Haim Ziv for taking the time to do this interview. I recognize how difficult it was for him to answer my questions since he is not a native English speaker and that it required him to spend many hours with an English dictionary in order to respond.