Bobby Haas: High Flyer
Most people would be proud to know they had achieved real success in just one profession. National Geographic photographer Bobby Haas of Dallas, Texas, stands at the pinnacle of two very different worlds: photography and investment banking. CPN’s John McDermott spoke to him about his amazing ‘second career’ hanging out of helicopters shooting the continents of the world from the skies.
Before becoming one of the world’s very best aerial photographers the Harvard-trained lawyer, known to the business world as Robert B. Haas, was one of a small group of Wall Street innovators who defined the concept of the leveraged buyout in the 1980s and early 1990s. He and his then partner Tom Hicks specialised in shrewdly buying and selling companies like Dr. Pepper, 7-Up and A&W for big profits.
Today, at 61, Bobby Haas puts in long hours pursuing both his careers with equal passion. He continues to oversee his investment firm - Haas, Wheat & Partners - while executing another demanding three-year photo book project for National Geographic: documenting the Arctic regions of the earth from the air.
“If you are very successful in the investment world” Bobby explains, “you share that success with a very, very small audience, basically your family and whatever charities you might support. But in any form of art you’re trying to share it with as broad an audience as possible.” Bobby Haas’ strong relationship with the National Geographic Society has given him that audience.
A herd of Zebras and a sole Wildebeest crossing Makgadikgadi Salt Pan, Botswana.
His first book for National Geographic, ‘Through the Eyes of the Gods’, an aerial tour of the African continent, has sold more than 115,000 copies and been translated into 17 languages. His second book for the Society, ‘Through the Eyes of the Condor’, was released in late 2007 and offers a stunning and comprehensive portrait of the land, people and wildlife of Latin America from the air. They are two of the most successful and widely distributed single-photographer books ever published by National Geographic. Bobby’s success as an investor has allowed him to donate all the royalties he earns from his photography to schools, libraries and wildlife organizations as well as to the research, exploration and educational programs of the National Geographic Society.
Bobby Haas’ unlikely career turn evolved out of a love affair with Africa that began in 1994 when he and his wife, Candice, decided to go on a photo safari. For Bobby, going to Africa for the first time felt, he says: “like coming home.” And Africa remains his favorite place to shoot: “If I could only ever go back to one place it would be Africa. I love the animals. I love being around those magnificent creatures and shooting in a place where in many ways time has stood still.”
Boat piled high with salt deposits, Lake Retba, Senegal.
Bobby didn’t even own a camera when he booked the Africa trip but, on the recommendation of the local camera shop, he bought a Canon Rebel. “I told them I wanted the simplest, most user-friendly camera that would produce a nice image,” Bobby recalls. “They recommended the Rebel and I’ve stayed in the Canon family ever since. I’ve gone from the EOS-1N to the EOS-1V and now I use the EOS-1Ds Mark II, though I’ve got my eye on the EOS-1Ds Mark III. I’m living testimony that someone can come to photography with no skill base or formal training and, with Canon, work their way through increasingly technical and sophisticated equipment and not get lost along the way.”
He adds: “The cameras and the instruction manuals are very, very user-friendly. I was concerned about making the transition from film to digital. There are so many advantages to digital for an aerial photographer, but I hesitated. Then, on my very first shoot with the EOS-1Ds I felt just as comfortable as I had been with the EOS-1V.”
Coming to photography relatively late in life gave Bobby a new perspective. After achieving so much in the business world he was ready for a new kind of challenge and a different way of working and measuring success and failure. “The transition was good for me at the time it came,” he explains, “because, hopefully, it softened my spirit a bit and altered the way I think about the world. I know it has. You can become too self-centered, a bit jaded even, when you measure everything in terms of dollars and cents.”
He adds: “Photography is just the opposite. Instead of being secretive about what you’re doing, you’re trying to show your work to as many people as possible. You place the scorecard in the hands of other people and your judges are external. That gives you a sense of humility, because suddenly it’s not all about you anymore. And there has been a washing-over of some traits from the one career to the other. Now I can go from a meeting where we’ve been talking about a healthcare investment to talking about a photography project. I didn’t used to be able to do that because I was so totally focused on the one task at hand. Now, doing both jobs, your day can have enormous changes and so you learn to shift gears a lot.”
Early morning mist settles over a riverbed in the foothills of the Andes Mountains, southern Peru.
Gemsbok in late afternoon, Namib Desert, Namibia.
Not needing to be concerned about making a living from photography has given Bobby Haas the freedom to choose only projects that matter to him and to do them in the way he wants. After initially concentrating on shooting wildlife from the ground, and producing several books, including ‘Critters’, which has had wide distribution in the children’s market, he realized that the aerial perspective offered him the best approach to realize his photographic aspirations.
He explains how he found his niche: “I never felt that I was doing anything particularly noteworthy on the ground. There were dozens of other photographers in Africa who were producing equal or superior work. But when I lifted off on my first helicopter ride I really felt at home. I immediately felt my hands and my eyes were working differently. It just felt very natural to me. On the ground I felt hemmed in by preconceived notions of how you should shoot a particular shot, for example a leopard stalking an antelope. Aerial photography is not a crowded field and I just felt I was really free to push the limits. It’s not an art form where the work of past masters dominates your view of what is great work. You can fashion the notion of what is superior work yourself, much as it is in the case of underwater photography. The standards, and the standard bearers, in the world of aerial photography are evolving as we speak.”
Aerial photography is inherently risky, particularly so when you are working in small, single-engine helicopters in remote areas, a fact of his professional life to which Bobby is reconciled. “I am not a thrill-seeker. I would never go bungee jumping. But aerial photography allows you to access the inaccessible. You can get over terrain you could never navigate on the ground, to a marsh in Botswana, for example, to photograph animals you otherwise wouldn’t see. So when there’s a higher purpose, when there is no other way to get the picture and do a meaningful piece of work, then you do it. But you always tell the pilot that it’s much more important that we land at home tonight than it is that I capture an image. I never ask a pilot to do anything he’s not comfortable with.”
Northern Chile - ploughing lithium mine fields at the edge of the Salar de Atacama.
Caution notwithstanding, Bobby has had his share of close calls and unscheduled landings, though fortunately no serious accidents. “We got caught in a storm in the mountains of Panama” he recalls, “where we couldn’t see anything and ended up in a blind canyon. The pilot put the chopper down in what turned out to be a swamp and we ended up wading out with the gear and hitchhiking across Panama to get home.” There was once an incident over the Andes where his helicopter’s engine developed a severe knock whenever it flew above 17,000 feet. Unfortunately, the lowest pass to return to base was at 20,000 feet. After a long, tense search for an alternate field Bobby and his pilot landed with little fuel to spare. “And then,” he adds, “there was the time in Kenya where we were arrested after we made an emergency landing in a farmer’s field!”
Bobby depends on a couple of important Canon technologies that make his work easier in the fast moving environment in which he operates. Image Stabilization technology is something he considers essential: “Particularly for aerial photography the IS feature is wonderful. I use it whenever I can and between the buffeting of the wind and the vibration of the helicopter I am always surprised at how relatively few un-sharp pictures I get. I normally take four lenses with me and all but the EF24-70mm f/2.8 are IS-equipped.”
Another feature that is important to him is Automatic Exposure Bracketing. He normally shoots in Aperture Priority mode, making three exposures of each scene at 0, -.5 and –1.0, shooting everything in RAW format. When he’s finished shooting for the day he makes three copies of every memory card for security, sending one to his editor and storing the others in two different safe locations.
Contrasting rock and sand formation, Sossusvlei, Namibia.
The high costs associated with helicopters are always a concern. Bobby prefers to use the ultra-modern Eurocopter EC120 whenever he can because it has a sliding door and a good safety record. “Aerial photography is very expensive,” he acknowledges, “and in order to justify it you must earn your keep.” Because of the cost, scope and long time line of his projects Haas voluntarily shares the cost of production with the National Geographic. “Our budgets are generous, for sure,” he points out, “but we are nevertheless cost-conscious. Having said that, the fact that I’m not in this for the money provides me a great deal of flexibility. It’s allowed me to dream big in terms of who my publisher would be. And it’s allowed me to think big in terms of what our projects would be. But ultimately we still go in front of the same judges with our work.”
He adds: “The audience couldn’t care less who does or does not receive royalties. The work has to strike a nerve with the public, particularly with such large scale and big budget projects. You have to deliver work that resonates with a large and diverse group of readers who are used to seeing good images. If we had not done well with the Africa book there never would have been a Latin America book. And if the Latin America book had not done well then there wouldn’t be the Arctic project I’m working on now. In the final analysis you still must produce, whether you pocket the royalties or plough them back into a charity for a higher purpose.”
National Geographic has inspired many people to pursue photography and even aspire to shoot for the magazine but very, very few actually realise that dream. The difficulties of getting a National Geographic photo assignment are legendary; the competition intense. In that context Bobby Haas’ entrée was, in his words, “extremely serendipitous.” In 2003, a year after his decision to concentrate on aerial work, the Head of Mission Programs for the National Geographic Society, Terry Garcia, was making a presentation to a business group in Dallas.
Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico – flamingoes align in a bird-like formation in a lagoon along the Gulf of Mexico.
Volcano Pacaya in eruption in very early morning light with nearby smoking mountainsides (south of Guatemala City), Guatemala. Pacaya is one of the most active volcanoes in Central America, in a state of virtually non-stop eruption since 1965.
Bobby recalls: “A friend in Dallas suggested to Terry that he take a look at my aerial work, so he came by. It’s not really his job to look for new photographers. But after I showed him about 100 images he said to me, ‘I think you have something here we might be interested in. Would you like to come to Washington and make a presentation to Chris Johns?’”
Johns, now the magazine’s Editor, was then the Director of Photography. Bobby went to see him. The work of the middle-aged newcomer must have been impressive. When he finished showing his pictures Chris Johns simply said, “Yeah, I think we ought to do something together. What would you like to do?” Bobby answered, “I want to shoot Africa from the air.”
Now Bobby has an insider’s perspective on working for one of the world’s best visual magazines. “Being a photographer, particularly with a group as great as National Geographic,” he reveals, “is a little bit more glamorous from the outside than it is from the inside. I hear from many people that I have the greatest job in the world and in many respects I do. But there are long absences from family and lots of emotional highs and lows. You tend to be very jaundiced about your own work, often focusing on the shortfalls of a particular day as opposed to the ‘gonzo’ shots you may have done that somebody else would see.”
He continues: “One of the great advantages of working with National Geographic is that you take your images back and work with the editors. Sometimes they will say that a series of images hit the mark and other times that they miss completely. I would focus on why they would say each of those things. So my instincts were helped along and honed over time with the help of some very talented people at the Geographic.”
Bobby says: “I do think photography is a tough way to earn a living. And it’s gotten tougher and tougher with the proliferation of images that are now literally at people’s fingertips. I know I’ve been very fortunate and very privileged in that respect. I have great respect for those who rely on their photography to feed their families and to have the kind of lifestyle they want. I only entered photography after several decades of an investment career without any preconceived notions. I was not a professional photographer until rather recently. Sometimes I feel, at 61 years of age, like the rookie pitcher who got handed the ball in the seventh game of the World Series!”
Mexico City, Mexico – brightly coloured tents of a weekend street market converge in central Mexico City.
Bobby is candid about his lack of formal training and his inexperience when he embarked on his photo career. “I know I’ve had a rather short and somewhat strange path to doing what I do in photography. I came without any skills. I never studied photography and I never had a formal mentor. So technically I’m very raw and, in terms of knowledge, not very polished. I needed to rely more on instinct.
Instinct is vital in aerial photography, as Bobby explains: “You are literally shooting on the fly. At any given moment there are hundreds of images you can take, there is a ton of activity inside the aircraft. You really just need to recede into your own zone and figure out what you want to do. The one thing that I hope aerial photography can do is to remind us what a beautiful home we have. If I have a ‘higher purpose’ it’s to bring back images of the magnificence and sheer physical beauty of this home and put them in front of people, at a time when our way of life is at serious risk, and say to them, ‘Look at this! We’ve got to preserve this place, it’s gorgeous!’”
When it comes to naming photographers whose work has influenced him Bobby doesn’t hesitate. French aerial specialist Yann Arthus-Bertrand is, according to Haas, “Truly a master. I’ve studied his work often and it is absolutely superlative. I would look at an image of his that was particularly attractive to me and ask myself why that was.” Another important influence is German geologist-turned-aerial photographer Bernhard Edmaier for his work with colour and abstracts.
But Bobby Haas’ biggest heroes in photography are three fellow National Geographic shooters. Wildlife specialist Frans Lanting, according to Bobby: “combines technical skill and savvy with artistic genius as well as anyone out there. I simply love to stare at this images and I love to read his articles.” Another favourite is underwater specialist David Doubilet, of whom he says: “I’ve always admired how he took on the world from below and made it his province. He succeeded in showing us an Earth we’ve inhabited for so many years from a perspective we cannot see without his lens. To the extent I want to emulate someone else’s path with my aerial work it comes back to David: ‘Show the world to the world from a completely different angle’.”
Longtime Geographic photographer, and now Editor, Chris Johns, is a shooter Bobby admires for his versatility: “The most remarkable thing about Chris’ work is how well he succeeds in such a broad range of subjects. He is one of those rare crossover talents. Whatever the subject, you are going to get your images.”
Remnants of a recent kill clenched in crocodile’s jaw, Botswana.
The admiration is reciprocal. “Bobby has a passion for growth and a hunger for photography that is contagious,” says Johns. “He brings a high degree of professionalism, intense curiosity and discipline. It’s been pretty neat to see what he’s brought to the table and to watch him grow. Different things motivate different people. At this point in his life, with all his other experiences, Bobby doesn’t need that economic motivation that many of the rest of us have. He’s free to pursue his passions exactly as he wants. He’s just driven by nature and is a perfectionist in all the right ways. One of the beauties of our relationship is that, as I’ve moved into a new passage in my career, I can talk with Bobby about management or about leadership and we can also have a great discussion about photography and about how, for both of us, what we’ve done in the past is a very enriching thing for what we are doing today. I value our relationship tremendously.”
African-shaped sand dune, Sossuvlei, Namibia.
Listen to Bobby Haas talk about his own work and it’s clear he is his own toughest critic: “I feel very, very passionate about my work as a photographer and I feel a great sense of commitment to be constantly raising the bar in my own eyes. It’s wonderful when hundreds of thousands of people buy your books or millions of people come to an exhibition of your work. But if you don’t think you’ve hit the mark it’s not much consolation. For most artists the ‘Supreme Court’ is still yourself.”
Whatever Bobby Haas’ personal ‘Supreme Court’ may decide, the court of public opinion and the editors of the National Geographic have already rendered a verdict: the work he does as an aerial photographer is not only artistically exceptional. It’s important.
- Technical
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Bobby Haas’ equipment:
Cameras:
3x EOS-1Ds Mark II
Lenses:
EF24-70mm f/2.8L
EF70-200mm f/2.8L IS
EF70-300mm f/4.5-5.6 IS
EF300mm f/2.8L IS
Accessories:
Spare battery packs and battery chargers
SanDisk 4GB Memory Cards
Mountaineer’s safety harness with carabineers
