Mike Dembeck

Volunteer

Mike Dembeck, the man behind the camera, has volunteered with the Nature Conservancy of Canada (NCC) since 2007. He takes beautiful pictures and videos of NCC projects throughout the Atlantic provinces and across Canada. His work is beyond phenomenal.

Mike’s charisma, happiness and great sense of humour make it a pleasure to work with him.

What is your involvement with the Nature Conservancy of Canada?

MD: My involvement with NCC is pretty varied, but in general it usually involves some kind of a camera — either taking photos or recording video. Sometimes it means shooting wildlife and scenic landscapes, other times its aerial work, news conferences, portraits and map making.

Most of that shooting involves some kind of field work (the best part!) but the other part is editing and converting all that material into a variety of different formats or mediums, for example, television, newspapers or social media so it can be shared.

Why did you choose to get involved with NCC?

MD: I first heard of NCC when they acquired a property near a cottage I have in southwest Nova Scotia. I shared their belief in the importance of a science-based approach to conservation and became interested in their work. I always enjoyed nature and the outdoors. NCC wanted to help conserve a natural area that I knew well and loved. I had spent lots of time there and built many great memories here.

I knew right away that I wanted to help. I was able to meet them at a news conference they did in Halifax that year and started getting involved.

How long have you been collaborating with NCC?

MD: I started volunteering for NCC in 2007. It's given me the ability to see some of the land assemblies come together. How many of them starting as single properties and grew over time. The Tusket and Musquodoboit River watersheds in Nova Scotia in particular.

What is your regular employment?

MD: The bulk of my experience is as a photojournalist, but the majority of my time goes toward a multimedia production company I own — so I'm self employed. I also teach photojournalism at King's College.

While the camera work is always fun and unpredictable, a lot of what I do is working at a computer and is very repetitive. Being involved with NCC is so much like therapy for me. It gets me outside with the sun on my face, and gets me moving. It helps so much to stimulate the creative energy I need to do visually interesting work.

What do you like about nature?

MD: What I like most about nature is that it's so easy to immerse yourself in it and the experience is always unexpected and unpredictable. You never know what you’re going to find or experience. It`s like unwrapping a gift.

What will that sunset look like? What animals will I see? Will I find any interesting plants? If I set my camera up here will I get the shot I want?

Most times things are familiar and expected, but when it's not — and you see the unexpected or experience a rare event — those are the memories I enjoy and try to capture and share with others through my work. That's what nature gives me most.

How do you capture such great images and videos of species? It's a great talent!

MD: Thanks. With photography, luck is a huge factor in success. It's a combination of knowing the environment you're in and how it works and being lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time. It's a lot of planning and scouting too. It's about knowing your subjects; animals are creatures of habit and their behaviour follows a pattern. Learn the pattern, and you can predict where they will be and when.

What's your favourite species?

MD: My favourite species of animal is the one I managed to capture on film in a particular day. They are all different and unique in some way. It's hard to choose.

It's mostly little things, like how carefree and playful a fox can be, or how an owl can fly so fast without making a sound. What I find most interesting is witnessing when two animals (the same species or not) interact and are totally unaware of your presence.

Having spent a lot of time in the woods and in damp environments, I'm not particularly crazy about insects.

What is your favourite vacation destination within Canada?

MD: In terms of raw beauty, Newfoundland would be the place. The scenery is unbelievable. As an island, it hosts some really unique and diverse species found nowhere else, including the people and the culture! It's so large and has so much to see.

What is your favourite NCC property?

Hard question (like trying to pick a favourite species!). What I find is when planning to visit these places for the first time, I'll research maps and begin to develop an idea of what I think these places are like. Every time, they prove themselves to be totally different then I expected. That whole unveiling and learning process creates a pretty special bond to all the areas I've spent time in and shot — you can't help it.

If I had to say, I would pick the Tusket River area in southwest Nova Scotia because of my personal history to the area, and having shot some of my favourite work there.