Photography from 7 Continents and Utah’s Wasatch Range: Presentation and Book Signing by Howie Garber

In a lively digital presentation, award-winning photographer Howie Garber will discuss events leading up to his first book, Utah’s Wasatch Range: Four Season Refuge. Garber photographed on 7 continents before deciding to do a book on his home mountains. Howie’s adventures have included 60 days of photographing Alaskan Brown Bears and Polar Bears in the wild. He has trekked in the Cordillera Blanca of Peru and the Himalayas of Nepal and Bhutan. He has also photographed in the Arctic, Antarctic, and Amazon Rainforest.

In Utah’s Wasatch Range, Howie provided 160 photographs and collaborated with 22 well known authors, scientists and elected officials. These include Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker, Congressman Jim Matheson, Stephen Trimble, Peter Metcalf, and Andrew McLean. The spirit of this collaboration is to protect the remaining natural areas and watershed of the Wasatch Mountains. Howie chose to self-publish this book, which has sold over 900 copies in first month of release. Howie will talk about how his recent success with this book has been achieved by working with acclaimed authors and having a conservation motive. Garber has stated that “Capturing pure beauty seems hedonistic and socially irresponsible at times.” Howie’s presentation will be of value to nature and wildlife photographers and to those planning photography adventures to remote locations.

Garber graduated from the University of Utah School of Medicine in 1980 and has worked as an emergency physician in 7 western States and Alaska. He began his involvement in Wasatch affairs when City Creek Canyon flooded in May 1983. Garber was one of several citizens who met with Salt Lake City planners and established the current system of pedestrian and bicycling use. He has since been involved in Wasatch Mountain planning and conservation issues.

Howie’s serious photography began at age 39. A trip to the Himalayas in 1989 and meeting a jaguar biologist in Brazil in 1990 stirred some smoldering creative energy. Photography became a full-time passion of equal importance as his “day job.” He has since won national and international awards for photography, including two first place awards in the BBC Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest. His photos have been exhibited in the Smithsonian Museum and the Museum of Natural History in London. Other clients have included Newsweek, Nikon, National Geographic and Patagonia. One of his polar bear images was added to the Smithsonian permanent collection.

Garber photographed landscape and wildlife on seven continents before deciding to do a book on his home mountains. He finds that there are many similarities in his two professions. Success in the ER and in nature depends on being a team player and accepting that many factors are out of his control.

When he isn’t doctoring or photographing, Howie is on the Board of Directors of Utah Physicians for a Healthy Environment, a group attempting to clean up air quality along Wasatch. He has also worked with Save our Canyons to protect the Wasatch Mountains.