Photographing big cats isn’t easy. An image of a tiger can take months of planning, and National Geographic photographer Steve Winter knows that better than most. Drawing on decades of experience with jaguars, tigers, lions, and other big cats, he shares some techniques. 🔗 on.natgeo.com/s3Qqlw
Oct 25, 2026 · 2:00 PM UTC
Steve Winter's most famous subject never posed. P-22, the young mountain lion who crossed two of Los Angeles' busiest freeways and lived a decade alone in Griffith Park, walked past a camera trap under the Hollywood sign in 2013. That one frame made a cougar the most famous cat in America and turned an urban wildlife story into a civic love affair. When the old lion was finally put down after a car strike in 2022, Los Angeles mourned him like a neighbour. Months of planning is one way to photograph a big cat. Sometimes it takes ten years of the cat planning instead.
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Steve Winter's P-22 photo took about 15 months of camera traps in Griffith Park, with cameras stolen along the way, before the mountain lion walked under the Hollywood sign for the December 2013 issue.
Much of that time goes into learning which path the cat actually uses and keeping the gear alive, which is the planning this piece is about.
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