Bill Marchel of Fort Ripley, Minnesota is a full-time wildlife and outdoor
photographer/writer. His slide files contain over
80,000 images. During the past 5 years, Marchel has sold thousands of images, including over 100 magazine cover photos to such prestigious magazines as
 Audubon, Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and Ducks Unlimited. He is a self-taught photographer and stresses that, "I'm an equipment freak and I'm constantly updating my photography gear, but I feel a knowledge of one’s subjects is more important in producing good wildlife photos than camera know-how. The basics of photography can be learned rather quickly, but one can never know enough about the outdoors."
Bill's striking image of a great gray owl in
flight, one of eleven of his photos that appeared in the Nov./Dec. 1997 issue of Audubon magazine, was a nature nominee for an Eisie Award, Life Magazine’s The Best Magazine Photography of the Year. In 1998 and again in 2000, Marchel was awarded the People’s Choice Award, Best of the Best Photography by the Outdoor Writers Association of America.
 Bill lives on 70 acres of land, which he has extensively landscaped for wildlife. Some of his best images were taken
literally in his backyard. He chooses not to photograph captive animals, and in fact, relishes "the pursuit" more than any other aspect of his nature photography business. "I'd rather photograph a colorful male wood duck on a remote pond, or a even hummingbird at a
flower, than a grizzly bear or wolf that is behind a fence," said Bill. But, he is also highly considerate of his subjects, and goes to the extreme to minimize stress on the wild subjects he photographs.
Bill's knowledge of nature and its ways shows in his precious images.
"I bought my first camera when I was in my twenties because I wanted to spend more time outdoors," said Bill. "As a youngster, I spent most of my free time studying nature, especially birds and mammals, and photographing what was dear to me seemed like the next step. I love being outdoors, and my
nature photography business has allowed me to do just that."
You won't find computer manipulated wildlife fantasy images in Bill's image files. "Nature is grand,"
says Bill. "Why would I want to change it." With that thought in mind, Bill photographs what we
humans inaccurately perceive as the good, the bad and the ugly in nature. For example, his extensive
files of white-tailed deer images includes not only intimate shots of does with their fawns, but also giant
rut-crazed bucks fighting for the right to breed, and fallen deer that met their fate at the fangs of coyotes and wolves.
"The outdoors is not a fantasy land where Bambi and friends live happily ever after," said Bill. "Plants
and animals must die so others can live. That's reality whether we like it or not."
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