ABOUT
Evan Watts
I’m Evan Watts, a wildlife and landscape photographer born and raised in central Kentucky. For as long as I can remember, I have had a passion for the outdoors. Some of my earliest memories are of my grandpa and I riding deep into the Appalachian foothills of eastern Kentucky, exploring the mountains and catching frogs and salamanders. I am an Eagle Scout, and my passion for the outdoors was further developed on the many campouts we went on during my 12 years in Scouts.
My parents took my brother and I on many road trips westward as we grew up, and by the age of 17 I had visited 41 of the 50 US states and had developed a real love for travel. All of these experiences inspired me to pursue a degree in wildlife biology in college with the hope of eventually working in one of the western national parks.
While in college, I started a YouTube channel called ‘Watts Wildlife.’ When I did this, I bought a new camera to film YouTube videos on, that being the Canon 80D. As I began creating content, I found myself becoming more and more interested in using the 80D for photography as opposed to videography. Before long, I was shooting just as many still images as I was videos, and my idea for what the YouTube channel would be about began to shift. Originally made as a place to post educational wildlife and travel videos, the channel instead became centered around wildlife photography.
The same summer that I started the YouTube channel, I went on a trip to the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem with a friend from high school. Just before leaving, I made an impulsive, last-minute decision to rent the Canon EF 100-400 f/4.5-5.6 ii lens for the full 17 days of our trip, all in hopes of getting good grizzly bear and/or wolf shots while out in the parks. Little did I know, this was a life changing decision. After a car breakdown that stranded us in the middle of South Dakota for 3 days, 4 cold mornings of watching wolves through scopes from miles away, and a good bit of practice with the 100-400, we found ourselves in a massive traffic jam in the middle of Yellowstone’s Hayden Valley. Knowing that this must mean wildlife was close by, I jumped out of the car and asked the ranger what was going on. He explained that three black wolves were about to cross the road just in front of us after an unsuccessful moose hunt on the opposite side of the valley. The moment had finally come. I was going to get my wolf shots.
After a few charged minutes of waiting, a black wolf appeared at the top of the hill in front of us, not fifty yards away. He paused for a moment, observed the crowd, then crossed the road. Once on the other side, he paused once more, this time looking back for his companions, and that was the moment at which I took the wolf shot I had been looking for. The wolf continued on deeper into the valley and I lowered my camera, feeling exhilarated. For the first time ever, I felt what it was like to get THE shot. And it was at that moment that my new goal in life was, and still is, to become a professional wildlife photographer.
After briefly reviewing my images, I turn to the man next to me and say, “That was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” He nods, still beaming from the encounter, and very fittingly says, “And thus, a wildlife photographer is born.”
