CameraPro On The Couch with Julia Wheeler

Photographer, documentary filmmaker and freediving champion Julia Wheeler is a conservation advocate seizing one extraordinary experience after another with camera in hand. We caught up with the intrepid adventurer to chat about how she built her photography and documentary career, the gear she travels with, and why she’s driven to raise awareness of nature issues and give a voice to wildlife.  

The oldest of 4 siblings, Julia was immersed in nature from a young age. Growing up in Western Australia and regularly holidaying with her adventurous father, Julia was exposed to all of the west’s incredible wildlife and landscapes - pristine beaches, red desert and lush karri forests. Her strong affinity for the natural world and outdoor adventure-seeking developed early on and marked the beginning of a venturous life path. 

“I've never known anything other than wanting to work with wildlife and everything around wildlife.”

After taking a gap year at the end of high school, Julia made her way east to Sydney. She attended the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), where she studied television, followed by a Diploma in Journalism and then a double Bachelor in Media and Communications majoring in Cultural Studies and Philosophy. During her dual degree, Julia learned about the media world, governmentality, and human behaviour targeting. She found the sociology of this fascinating and planned to continue her studies with a degree in psychology to become a criminal psychologist. But the pressure became too much after five years of higher education, living in a major city and working three jobs to pay for all that study. A few days before she was supposed to go and start the psychology degree, Julia sold everything in her apartment and purchased a one-way ticket to Thailand.

Photo taken from Instagram: @iamjuliawheeler

Julia’s decision took her to the tiny island of Ko Tao in the Gulf of Thailand, where she completed a divemaster course and a freediving course. With a new skill under her belt, she picked up work filming underwater videos for dive tourists who wanted to capture their experience beneath the surface.

She expanded her horizon to Europe and travelled around working on boats, but eventually returned to Australia and landed a job as a business development manager at a photography studio. While working for the studio, Julia began experimenting with the photography equipment and creating her own images after hours under the guidance of a colleague.  

Restless and ready to travel again, Julia left her job at the studio. She sold her car, purchased her first ‘real’ camera, and grabbed a one-way ticket to Spain, where she completed the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage across the country. Julia has travelled the world over in the decade since, journeying from one adventure to the next.

“When I went to Spain and sold my car, I bought the 5D II and a 50mm lens. I shot on that for a year because I didn't have the cash to buy other lenses, and I just wanted to keep travelling. So it was almost like a challenge - what can I shoot on this 50mm lens?”

Photo taken from Instagram: @iamjuliawheeler

Building a conservation photographer and filmmaker career has taken a lot of persistence and tenacity. Julia spent six years working as a family photographer to fund her travels while she worked tirelessly to build connections with researchers and conservationists worldwide.

“You’ve got to be prepared to work your ass off and not make excuses. Just choose to do it. Make that choice, and then you can do anything you put your mind to.”

Much of the past seven years have been spent developing a documentary titled WildShots. The four-part series explores conservation efforts and the lives of the people working behind the scenes, such as veterinarians and anti-poaching patrols, to protect and rehabilitate endangered wildlife. 

In making her series, Julia has travelled to the African continent several times and had more than a few bizarre and tense encounters along the way. She recalls an amusing story of a full-grown hippopotamus who decided to take a dip in the pool at a luxurious tented lodge in South Africa. But probably even more memorable was her brush with Tofu, a large male lion who was injured and less than happy about it. Being on foot and coming face to face with a lion in the wild who decides to charge is not a story many people live to tell. 

“When a 250kg lion growls, and you can't see him, but you can hear him, you really know what it feels like to be hunted.”

Photo taken from Instagram: @iamjuliawheeler

More recently, Julia worked as part of a production and research team on a recent episode of Shark Week for the Discovery Channel. The episode looked at a peculiar group of mako sharks off the Gulf of Mexico who migrate from Florida to Rhode Island. The team investigated what distinguishes this particular group from other mako sharks.

Julia began her photography and filmmaking career with a very modest set-up, the Canon PowerShot G9 compact camera and Ikelite underwater housing. Her kit evolved over the years as she purchased her first DSLR, the Canon 5D II, and started accruing lenses.

While shooting her series in Africa, Julia used a Canon EOS 1Dx II, EOS 5D IV, EOS 5Ds, and the Canon C300. She has now moved across to mirrorless with the Canon EOS R5 paired with the RF adapter to utilise all of her existing Canon EF lenses. Transitioning to mirrorless from DSLR was not an instant love story for Julia. She found the different layout and feel of the body jarring at first, and it took her about six months of moderate use to get onboard. But now she has befriended the R5; Julia says she’d never go back. She especially loves the Touch Shutter function, where you tap a spot on the screen, and the camera will focus at that point and take a picture.

Photo taken from Instagram: @iamjuliawheeler

For lenses, Julia prefers to work with primes, the EF 35mm f/1.4L being her favourite focal length to shoot with. The EF 14mm f/2.8L is a go-to for photographing large subjects like whales without the distortion that occurs at wider focal lengths. The EF 16-35mm f/2.8L lens is a great all-rounder for land and underwater photography, as the versatility of the zoom allows her to be diverse with what she’s shooting above and beneath the surface. Another favoured all-rounder for its flexibility is the ever-popular EF 70-200mm f/2.8L.

Julia shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon. She plans to work with Discovery again, make more films, do further work with conservationists, more seasons of her documentary series and continue building her Yotchi luxury van business with her partner.

“Throughout the process of evolving your career, you're also evolving yourself. You're learning about yourself, and you're learning about what makes you happy.”

To learn more about Julia and her epic adventures, check out the full conversation here.

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