Hi there! I'm Sidra Monreal Burshteyn and I'm the woman behind the lens. I'm originally from Syracuse, NY, where I grew up on 28 beautiful acres in the countryside. I was surrounded by wildlife and developed a deep respect for nature and for animals. A family of geese that visited our pond (and multiplied exponentially every year) were my very first photography subjects with a secondhand Vivitar film camera. I quickly fell in love with capturing moments through the lens and observing the behavior of animals. My parents allowed me to attend a photography summer camp at the age of thirteen where I began to learn how to properly use a camera and develop my film in a darkroom.
While I've been taking photos throughout my life, I found my true passion when I began traveling extensively after university. I found such wonder in seeing different places and cultures. I was inspired by everything from stray cats to ancient buildings to exotic landscapes. I sought to share with others the feeling of a place and the beauty that I saw. Life got even better when I discovered my love of wildlife photography upon traveling to Africa and going on my first safari. My love of photography was instantly amplified by my lifelong love of animals and the opportunity to combine my two passions. I discovered the thrill of capturing a bird in flight and the great reward of photographing something unpredictable and wild. Wildlife photography requires incredible patience, perseverance, knowledge, and a bit of luck. The reward of finding an animal and capturing animal behavior is an incredible rush of happiness, akin to the thrill of a rollercoaster or completing a performance on stage (especially the time the rhino charged at me!). The greatest thing about photography is that I can relive the thrill of the moment over and over again through my work.
After several years of living in NYC, I now reside in beautiful Boulder, Colorado with my husband, two young children, basset hound and cat. I feel incredibly fortunate to live in nature's playground with my camera to capture its beauty. My work has been featured by Condé Nast Traveler, The Audubon, the Nature Conservancy, and several other digital publications. I aim to inspire a love of animals to help promote conservation efforts and animal rights legislation through my work.
What terrifies and saddens me is that the wilderness, home to so many of the wonderful animals of this earth, continues to disappear. The balance has been tipped and we are in great danger of never being able to reverse the damage. I hope that my work inspires you to take action to protect our planet and our wildlife. I encourage you to stay informed on legislation and be a voice for change so that future generations can experience these incredible animals coexisting in their world. They deserve our respect and desperately need our protection.
If my work has inspired you, please consider donating to one of the following wonderful organizations working to protect our planet and its inhabitants: