Following a successful career as a health-care executive at Erlanger Health System in Chattanooga, Donna Bourdon is spending her retirement traveling the world and teaching others to photograph wildlife. Her subjects range from sandhill cranes in nearby Birchwood to cheetahs in Africa, bald eagles in Alaska and wild horses in France.
Bourdon has always had an interest in photography, which she’s been doing since she was a teenager and dreamed of becoming a photographer for National Geographic. She started photographing at a high level about a decade ago, when she began studying under some of the world’s top wildlife photographers, including Denise Ippolito.
Bourdon met Ippolito when she spoke to the Photographic Society of Chattanooga in 2013. Bourdon then became a “groupie,” traveling to Ippolito’s workshops and honing her skills under her mentorship, she explains. When Ippolito decided to expand her business, she asked Bourdon to join her in leading workshops around the world.
Bourdon stresses that good wildlife photography requires not only specialized equipment, but also specialized skills.
“I don’t want it to sound like it’s all about equipment, but you certainly have to have some basic gear to be able to successfully shoot wildlife,” she says. “But then, it’s also the skill and the patience to do it. I have a lot of patience, so it’s not unusual for me to sit out in the woods or on the lake or at a nest for hours upon hours, waiting for some action to happen.”