Tim Laman

| Wildlife Photojournalist

Wildlife Diaries

The Wildlife Diaries newsletter is the best way to keep up to date with Tim Laman’s latest work and travels, and to learn about photography and natural history as well. Read through his recent posts here or sign up to receive the posts via email using the form on the right.

Raja Ampat

Raja Ampat

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Dear Friends,  

One of the highlights of recent months has been a chance to dive and photograph in the Raja Ampat Islands.  If you are not familiar with Raja Ampat, they are the group of islands off the western tip of New Guinea, in the Indonesian province of West Papua.  I have been diving there since 2006, and documenting the incredible biodiversity of the marine environment in the Raja Ampat is one of my long-term projects.  It is a very special place, not only because it is the epicenter of marine biodiversity in the world, but also because it is a place where the rain forest meets the sea.  The marine and terrestrial landscape are part of the ambitious “Conservation Province” initiative by the West Papuan government, and I am working to promote this cause through my visual storytelling.

A magical place called Hidden Bay, Gam Island, in the Raja Ampat Islands.

Featured Photos:

The Raja Ampat Islands are mostly uplifted limestone.  This means little runoff and siltation from land, and thus corals that can grow right up to the edge of the forest.  This makes for really unique photographic opportunities.

Soft corals grow along the edge of mangrove forest in this split level view.
[Read more…] about Raja Ampat

Back from Indonesia

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Dear Friends,

I’m finally back home after an exciting two months of photography and filming in Indonesia. Its time to share a few highlights with you, and I’m going to start with some exciting news from Gunung Palung in Borneo, where I’ve been documenting my wife Cheryl Knott’s orangutan research for 25 years. Her project studies the entire population of wild orangutans in “GP” as we call it, but we get to know some individuals especially well, and none is more familiar to our team than a female named Walimah.

Featured Photos: Walimah – Then and Now

The first image was taken twenty years ago in 1999, when Walimah was a newborn infant. Walimah’s mother had a home range close to the research camp, and so we encountered her often and Walimah grew up seeing researchers on the ground below her as a normal part of her environment. So she has never been afraid of humans, and has been a great subject for my photography.

Baby Walimah – 1999

Some of you may be familiar, however, with the tragic turn of events in Walimah’s life in 2015. After the highlight of having her first baby in April that year, she was the apparent victim of an infanticidal attack by a rogue male orangutan (our best guess of what happened), and her first baby was lost. This story is documented in our 2016 film on NatGeo Wild Channel called “Mission Critical: Orangutan on the Edge” (and in a scientific paper by Cheryl and her team: Possible Male Infanticide in Wild Orangutans and a Re-evaluation of Infanticide Risk).

[Read more…] about Back from Indonesia

Thanks-A-Milllion Update

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Dear Friends,

In case you haven’t heard, I’ve been running a massive print sale in honor of hitting 1 million followers on Instagram!

And today I’m making it even bigger with two announcements:

  • New size! I’ve heard your emails asking for larger sizes, and have added a new 18×18″ option to my store – available for the first time ever. 
  • Collector discount! Use code WALLART at checkout for an additional 10% off any 4 prints from my Instagram sale, or an additional 20% off any 6 prints. Applies only to 15×15″ and 18×18″ sizes. 
[Read more…] about Thanks-A-Milllion Update

Thanks a Million Teaser

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Thanks to your interest in my photos and stories, I recently hit 1,000,000 followers on Instagram!

It’s been a busy few days here in Indonesia, but I’ve had a little bit of downtime to think about how to properly celebrate the occasion, and I think I came up with the perfect idea…

I’ll fill you in tomorrow – stay tuned, and thanks so much to everyone who helped me reach this incredible milestone. 

All the best, Tim

Newsletter #6

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Dear Friends,

It’s been an eventful spring and I feel like I’ve barely had my feet on the ground.  As I write this I’m on a plane headed back toward one of my favorite parts of the world – the mega-diversity country of Indonesia for two full months of filming and photography.  I’ll be pursuing birds-of-paradise once again in Papua, working on underwater coverage in Raja Ampat, and then heading to Borneo to continue documenting orangutans at Gunung Palung, especially the female Walimah, who has just had a baby.  So exciting times ahead, and I’ll share images and stories as I can here and on social media.

Back in May I had the opportunity to co-lead another wildlife safari to Tanzania with my good friend and former professor Eldon Greij, for the Hope College Alumni Global Travel Program.  Every safari leads to amazing wildlife encounters, but I’d like to share a few images from a truly extraordinary day that we experienced.

Featured Image: Mortal Enemies – Lions and Buffalo

May 20, 2019 – Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania.  It seemed that everywhere we looked, we saw lions hunting.  Out of five prides of lions known to reside in this 15 kilometer wide caldera, we saw four of them feeding on fresh kills that day, and in one case, we saw the hunt from start to finish.  The attack began with two lionesses.  The first grabbed the buffalo by the neck while the second tried to attack from behind.  It seemed to be a stalemate for six minutes.  Then reinforcements showed up in the form of the two males and other females from the pride.  I captured this image of the first male to arrive leaping onto the buffalo’s back.  It didn’t take long after that for the buffalo to fall.  Lions have to eat.
[Read more…] about Newsletter #6