Through the Traveler’s Lens
Samuel Tippetts and his camera. Photo by Hogan Petire.
At age 10, Samuel Tippetts received one of his all-time favorite presents: a point-and-shoot camera. Being a little kid who ran around with a bug net and looked for creatures under rocks, Tippetts first used the camera to snap photos of the bugs he would find. Displeased by the live snakes, bugs and turtles that Tippetts found, his friends and family appreciated the camera because they could view the animals digitally.
His photography grew with practice, and he always had his camera with him. After Tippetts grew bored of the bugs, he began to focus his photography on the larger wildlife he would stumble upon over the course of his adolescence.
When he arrived at Texas Christian University, Tippetts’ friends introduced him to rock climbing, and his photography shifted to his newfound pastime. While climbing in college, he discovered his ability to “bring photography into (his) everyday life.”
Tippetts thought he wanted to be a scientist, but he realized as he grew older that he was more interested in learning about conservation. Tippetts had the opportunity to spend the summer of his junior year of college in South Africa photographing and documenting wildlife veterinarians as they saved wild rhinoceroses. He witnessed and captured the relocation, tracking, and treatment of the large animals, and he said he felt his eyes open to both the horror and hope of the fight for conservation.
Rhinoceros relocation by the Chipembere Rhino Foundation.
Tippetts’ photography of the veterinarians was his way to contribute to the conservation effort and gain valuable firsthand experience. It was also the first time that Tippetts said he felt his photography was making an impact.
“When I got there, my photography clicked perfectly,” Tippetts said.
This experience molded Tippetts’ photography, transforming him into a documentary-focused photographer passionate about wildlife and conservation efforts. The experience also taught him what it really looks like to make a difference.
“With conservation, you have this idea that someone else will fix that problem,” Tippetts said. “Rhino conservation wasn’t what these people were getting paid to do, it was just their stuff on the side. (The experience) really painted this picture that it was just people doing their best.”
Rhinoceros relocation by the Chipembere Rhino Foundation.
His time in South Africa inspired him to embark on a longer adventure after he graduated with a dual degree and no idea what to do with it.
“Whenever people asked me what I was going to do after I graduated, I would just tell them that I was going to go live on a sailboat,” Tippetts said. “Most people thought I was joking, my family included.”
Then about two months after graduation, Tippetts’ friends booked a two-and-a-half week trip to Thailand and he joined them. But he bought a one-way ticket.
Tippetts travelled for a little over a year after his friends left. With a small backpack containing his camera, one lens, a laptop, a climbing harness, shoes and minimal clothing, Tippetts began his solo journey in Thailand destined to hitchhike on a sailboat.
“(Having just a backpack) was freeing.” Tippetts said. “If I wanted to go somewhere, then I would just go.”
Walking onto the local piers, Tippetts asked different sailors for a ride on their boats. Whenever the sailors asked where he wanted to go, Tippetts told them he didn't care. Eventually, he found a man named Captain Steve, whom Tippetts sailed with to Malaysia.
Captain Steve smoking a cigarette off the coast of Malaysia.
“Getting on that first sailboat was pretty nerve-wracking because I didn't know that guy at all,” Tippetts said. “I felt a lot of excitement, but there was also a feeling of how bad of an idea this was. This wasn't the safest thing.”
Tippetts' nerves calmed by the second night. They spent the days catching and eating fish and enjoying the open ocean. After making his way down to the southern coast of Malaysia over three weeks, Tippetts leveraged his photography to gain passage on another boat sailing to Singapore and Indonesia.
The boat Tippetts traveled on from Malaysia to Singapore and Indonesia.
“(Photography) has given me the opportunity to connect with people I normally wouldn’t be around,” Tippetts said. “I get to hangout with sailors or rock climbers or cowboys.”
He ended up on the small island of Tarempa, where nobody spoke English. Tippetts said he was like a celebrity.
“There were never really tourists there,” Tippetts said. “People would come out and take pictures of me. Everywhere I went people were just staring at me.”
After waiting 11 days for a ferry, Tippetts went to the west side of Borneo where he did two months of photography work for an orangutan conservatory and sun bear conservatory.
Tippetts said he felt most at home at the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center while on the year-long adventure. The staff treated him like family. He was also fascinated by the orangutans, as they were so human-like that Tippetts photographed them in a classic portraiture style.
Rosa is one of the many orangutans that has been rescued, rehabilitated and released into the wild by the Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Center.
“It was never really my job to touch (the orangutans), but every once in a while, one would get curious and come grab my hand,” Tippetts said. “Until then, I had never even thought about the idea of holding hands with something that isn’t a person.”
The bond between an orangutan and his keeper.
Next, Tippetts traveled to Vietnam to use his photography at other conservation centers, where he worked with pangolins, turtles, redshank doucs and gibbons.
“One thing I loved about the photography is that I (saw) little slices of different worlds,” Tippetts said. “I shot a lot of people’s jobs, and I learned what they do. It’s constant learning.”
He then backtracked to Thailand and spent a month living in a climbing community. He woke up on the beach and spent mornings and evenings climbing on the cliffs that overlooked the Andaman Sea. It was the longest time he had ever spent climbing in one place.
Climbers overlooking the water at Ton Sai Beach in Thailand.
Tippetts finished the trip backpacking through the Himalayas with two other people. He said he felt extremely thankful for his camera on this section of the trip, as it allowed him to have the potential to connect with everyone he encountered.
“The other hikers didn't have the excuse that I did to interact with the locals,” Tippetts said. “I would just gesture to my camera and have an instant reason to talk to someone.”
A local that Tippetts encountered while backpacking in the Himalayas.
“Photography is all about connections, either capturing connections or creating a connection with someone else,” Tippetts said.
To create this type of connection, Tippetts said he tries to capture the eye contact of the subject in the lens, allowing a viewer to feel a strong bond with the subject.
An example of the eye contact Tippetts employs in his photography.
After his backpacking section, he spent two nights visiting a park in Nepal with a bunch of wild rhinoceroses. Before going out into the park one morning, he told his guide Hasis that he didn't want to be treated like other tourists and could handle a more challenging hike.
“I regret that so much,” Tippetts said.
Tippetts and Hasis.
Hasis granted Tippetts request and led Tippetts through tall elephant grass in the blazing midday heat. For the first time on the entire trip, Tippetts asked to slow down. Once they had taken a break and started hiking again, they stumbled upon what Hasis described as a “good rhinoceros,” Tippetts tiptoed closer to get a more personal shot. He stepped on a twig, and the rhinoceros stared him down.
“Brother, you have upset the rhino,” Hasis whispered.
In situations like this, Tippetts remembers a Stephen McCraine quote: “The master failed more times than the beginner has even tried.” He believes you have to be willing to fail.
“When I look at the people that I aspire to be like, I see someone who has just shot more photos,” Tippetts said.
Tippetts snapped photo after photo, using his lens to make direct eye contact with the rhinoceros. Eventually, the animal went back to grazing, leaving Tippetts stunned and with stellar photos of the frightening moment.
The shot Tippetts captured right after he stepped on a twig, alerting the rhinoceros.
Tippetts created his own version of fun on this trip by challenging himself to see how long he could go traveling alone.
“I was alone for a long time,” Tippetts said. “At the beginning, I would try to make friends, but the more comfortable I got, the more I enjoyed going out by myself. I tell people that I was alone, but it was in a healthy way.”
By the time Tippetts reached Nepal, he felt the challenge was over and was tired of introducing himself. With an eternal confidence in being alone, he knew it was time to go back to Texas.
A map of Tippetts year-long journey.
A monk at Praken Gompa, a holy place near the town of Manang, Nepal.
Tippetts said the whole experience allowed him to truly step out of his world, experience the world of others, and reflect back on his own life.
“I got to look at my relationships and my values,” Tippetts said. “For my photography, (the trip) gave me a fresh lens to look at my home.”
Daniel Wacker and Tippetts’ dog Rojo waterlining near Tippetts house. This photo was featured on @natgeoyourshot.
“The passion is what gets you the hours of practice, but you learn a lot from shooting things you are not necessarily passionate about,” Tippetts said. “There are things I will go out to shoot regardless of whether I am getting paid or not.”
From a little boy with a bug net to a well-traveled man, Tippetts’ curly locks can still be found poking out behind his camera lens. He has since transformed his love for capturing moments, animals and conservation into his dream career.
To see more of Samuel Tippetts’ work, visit his instagram @samtippetts.
With the exception of the first photo, all photos by Samuel Tippetts
Art by Anna Riedlinger