AVS Q&A with… Zac Herr
We’re on a roll, y’all. This week’s Q&A guest is an absolute powerhouse in reptile and amphibian photography. He’s been working on a book that will be out soon, so I’m incredibly thankful to have him participate in the AVS Q&A! If you’re into herp photography, you will certainly know this guy. Zac Herr has amassed a large following on Instagram due to his amazing photos, and he’s helped out so many aspiring herp photographers hone their craft. Let’s shine a light on herp photographer extraordinaire, Zac Herr!
Zac, thanks so much for taking the time to do my little Q&A. Tell us your background, highlighting your love for reptiles, amphibians, and photography.
Hey there! I think, like many of you, I was a dinosaur kid, so reptiles have kind of always been on the brain. I didn’t really get into keeping animals until college, though, after seeing some dart frogs in a pet store (I know—don’t worry, I bought from a breeder). From then on, I was hooked and really dove into the animal-keeping hobby. Life-wise, I was in business school when that happened, and I now work as a digital product manager for my day-to-day. I think a lot of people assume I make a living doing photography, but that’s not the case.
Do you work with any reptiles and amphibians?
I don’t anymore, but that is what got me into photography in the first place. I was really into dart frogs, so I picked up a DSLR to show people my frogs. Eventually, photography became a big thing for me, and I had to make the tough decision to step back from keeping animals. I couldn’t balance a life, a day job, photography, a relationship, and give my animals the care they needed, so I chose photography. Kind of nice though—now I get to see all the cool animals I want, but without the work of keeping them.
If anyone is curious, here are the frogs I’ve kept
A. quinquevittatus
A. femoralis
B. orientalis
C. ornata
D. tinctorius ‘Cobalt’
D. tinctorius ‘Azureus’
D. leucomelas ‘Standard’
H. valerioi
P. lugubris
P. vittaus
O. pumilio ‘Salt Creek’
R. imitator ‘Chazuta’
R. imitator ‘Baja Huallaga’
R. imitator ‘Varadero’
What’s in your macro kit? I’m sure everyone would love to know what camera, lenses, and studio gear you use for shoots.
I have tried a lot of things over the years but have gotten down to a pretty slim kit. I have a Sony A7R IV for my camera body, a Sony 90mm Macro as my main lens, and a Zeiss Batis 40mm Close Focus lens for larger animals. Occasionally, I’ll use a Zeiss 85mm, but it’s rare. I will mainly use my 90mm Macro and just move myself farther back to get the whole animal in a shot if needed instead of using the 85mm. Just because it’s a macro lens doesn’t mean you have to use it close up!
Light-wise, I use two Profoto D2 strobes. They have a very short flash duration, so it helps to freeze movement better than speedlites can. I will put parabolic (round) softboxes on those to diffuse the light. There is an assortment of stands and clamps and such, but that is all I bring to a shoot these days.
I know some of the challenges of photographing flighty specimens. Do you have any tips or tricks to share with aspiring herp photographers who work with some slippery subjects?
I have joked a few times, but I do mean this: patience is what makes a great animal photographer. There isn’t really a trick beyond waiting to see if the animal calms down, and sometimes they just don’t. If an animal doesn’t calm down within about 5 minutes, I’ll just put it back in its enclosure. A good shot isn’t worth stressing the animal out even more than they already are. This is also why it's important to work with experienced handlers who can help you read the body language of animals you might be unfamiliar with.
I do have a deli cup or some sort of container on hand for the animal—to put over them if I need to adjust my setup or just stand and stretch for a second. A cover can also help calm them down and make them feel safe.
Personal photography work was always important to me to keep me interested in my craft. What are some of your favorite subjects to photograph?
One of the best things I’ve done to keep this passion (addiction?) alive is buying a Fujifilm point and shoot to carry around. To me, the act of taking a photo and just being present in the moment is so relaxing so to be able to do that while out with friends, hitting up a car show, or wherever has been so refreshing. Not to say my animal photography isn’t creative, but so much of it is muscle memory at this point that it’s fun to shoot literally anything else to work my mind a bit more in different ways. I post those photos on my @fakeyfilm Instagram account if anyone is interested.
I know your book is coming out soon, and we’re all excited. Tell us about how the book idea came to fruition. What obstacles have you faced trying to get your book to print?
I’ve talked about and started a book a few times over the years, but last July I finally committed and did the book that is coming out this summer.
To be honest, what made me really commit to the book last year was burnout. I wasn’t feeling as passionate about animal photography as I had been. I told myself I should at least create something physical that represents the last decade of my life before calling it quits, so that’s when the book came up again. This is not me saying I’m done—just what my headspace was at the time.
No shortage of obstacles to talk about, for sure! It is way harder making a book than I anticipated. I think one of the best choices I made was to bring in a friend who is very design-minded but not into animals like I am. That unbiased perspective and guidance helped create something that isn’t just a bunch of photos slapped together like I was starting to do. There should be a story and flow to the images, and he really helped me create that.
I am also very thankful I have a background in business. Creating art is sort of the easy part, but selling it is an entirely different skill set. If you’ve never tried to print a run of books, it’s very expensive. It is thousands and thousands of dollars for even a small run of hardcover books like I am doing. You’ve got to really crunch the numbers on the product, the shipping supplies, taxes, and more to make sure you’re not making a financial mistake.
My main priorities with making the book were to keep it affordable so as many people that want it can get it, and to make sure the quality was up to my standards. If I couldn’t put out a copy that made each page feel like a high-quality print, I wasn’t going to do it. I truly would have just let it sit on my computer however long it took to work it out. Thankfully, I was able to do everything I wanted, and I hope you all will agree once you see it!
Who inspires you?
This is probably going to sound borderline pretentious, but hear me out. I think that where we are now with social media and how accessible photography is, it is easy to forget it wasn’t always like that. When I first started around 2014/2015, there were barely any animal hobbyists doing photography as an art form. Joel Sartore at Nat Geo was my main inspiration—his Photo Ark project—and I can think of just a handful of hobbyists who were doing anything like what I wanted to do with their animals. We were on the iPhone 6 when I started, which had a 12MP camera, so you didn’t even have all the great phone photographers we do now.
Because of the lack of similar artists at the time, I spent most of my time looking to other artists who weren’t working with animals, and that has just stuck with me as my go-to for inspiration throughout the years.
For example, many years ago, I was looking at movie posters done by Olly Moss, which then led me to some minimalist Pokémon artwork. Those two things led me to photographing frogs on color-matched backgrounds because I liked the bold but minimal look. Lately, I have spent a lot of time studying human portrait photographers and how they pose and light people to see how I can do that with animals.
I highly encourage anyone doing any art form to look at anything other than those doing what you do for inspiration.
All of that being said, we’re now in a time where animal photography is huge in the hobby, and there are for sure other animal photographers I follow that push me to want to improve my work in different ways.
A few names that come to mind are Rayane Vuillemin (@rayanevuilleminwildlife), Achint (@monmouthfrogs), and Randal Ford (@randalford.art). Travis DeLagerheim (@travisaurusrex60) has also taken what I think is the best photo of a monkey tailed skink in existence, and I am constantly chasing that as a north star for how I find poses for animals.
Finally, tell everyone how they can find you online, including a link to preorder your book.
I am on Facebook and Instagram as I am Making Art and you can buy prints and my book at www.zthphotography.com. DMs are always open so if you have photo questions of any kind or want to ask about my work, reach out! I don’t really have secrets about how I do what I do and I’m happy to share.