@paulnicklen

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Paul Nicklen

@SeaLegacy co-founder @NatGeo contributor. @SonyAlpha Artisan @overlai.app co-founder The official account for Paul Nicklen Please report imposters 🙏💙

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Paul Nicklen is a verified business account on Instagram with 7M followers and 3,855 posts.

Posts: 3,855
Posts
Followers: 7M
Followers
Following: 1,552
Following

Account performance

Engagement rate: 0.37%
Avg. likes per post: 25.5K
Avg. comments per post: 268
Avg. engagement per post: 25.8K
Posts analyzed: 12
Avg. video views: 72.4K

Account overview

Account type: Business · Professional · Public · Verified
Business category: Creators & Celebrities
IGTV videos: 60
Highlight reels: 8

Post details (12)

Likes: 13.5K
Comments: 679
Views: 72.4K
Posted: Oct 17, 2025, 5:27 PM
Caption: After three decades behind the lens, countless expeditions, and over two million images captured, Reverence is a curated collection of my best and most meaningful photographs. These are the images that forever shaped my understanding of our fellow wildlife and set in motion a lifetime devoted to following nature’s wisdom. Created with @hemeriaphoto

Likes: 9,578
Comments: 53
Posted: Jun 6, 2026, 6:17 PM
Caption: I was one of the first photographers at National Geographic to pick up a digital camera in 2003. By 2004, almost everyone I knew was shooting digitally. I remember photographing narwhals for Nat Geo back then. My camera could shoot one or two 8-megapixel frames per second before buffering out. I’d stand there waiting while incredible things unfolded in front of my eyes. It was torturous. The autofocus was slow, the cameras full of glitches. Editing was easy, though, because I rarely had a keeper. Fast forward twenty years, and my biggest problem is having too many images to edit. The Sony A1 II and the new Sony a7R VI shoot at 20 and 30 frames per second with 50- to 67-megapixel files, never buffering. I can put a camera on a pole and when a lion charges it at 20 miles an hour, the eye-tracking autofocus locks on and keeps every frame sharp. On @sonyalpha’s 20th anniversary, I just want to say thank you for creating technology that makes our work more enjoyable and opens creative possibilities I once thought were impossible. And to my family at Sony, you are the most supportive group of people I’ve ever had the privilege to work with. Thank you, Sony.

Likes: 13.8K
Comments: 106
Posted: Jun 5, 2026, 7:14 PM
Caption: The Arctic town of Qaanaaq exists at the very edge of the habitable world on Greenland’s northwest coast. During winter, the sun disappears entirely for weeks on end. When daylight finally returns, the town comes alive as Inuit hunters prepare for the seasonal journey to the floe edge. With sea ice thinning more every year, the route to secure food has grown more perilous. However, when @Mitty and I joined a small group of hunters, riding on their kamutiks and camping on the ice, our spirits remained high. We were instantly captivated by the wiry, unruly sled dogs whose attention belonged solely to their mushers. Even more inspiring was traveling alongside people whose knowledge of ice, weather patterns, and wildlife comes from generations navigating one of the most challenging environments on Earth. With gratitude to Naimanngitsoq Kristiansen, Aleqatsiaq Peary, Avigaiaq Petersen, Gedion Kristiansen, Qillian Danielson, Rasmus Aviki and the wonderful community of Qaanaaq for your knowledge, guidance, and endless generosity.

Likes: 11K
Comments: 55
Posted: Jun 4, 2026, 5:28 PM
Caption: Growing up on Baffin Island, the sled dog teams crossing the sea ice were as familiar to me as the cold. So when I arrived in Greenland, the snow-covered settlement of Qaanaaq felt almost like home. The biggest difference was the noticeable lack of snowmobile engines humming across the stark terrain. In their place were only the sound of paws on ice and the low commands of a musher whose ancestors have crossed this same frozen expanse by kamutik for millennia. The dogs themselves were a little different, too: stronger and more compact, built like tiny polar bears and born for distance.

Likes: 29.3K
Comments: 290
Posted: May 30, 2026, 6:44 PM
Caption: Tabular II “Fire and Ice” / In most cases, a tripod is the most reliable method for taking a panoramic. It keeps the camera level so you can overlap your frames and let the software do the rest. But we were boarding our boat just past midnight on New Year’s Eve when we noticed this tabular iceberg drifting by, lit red and purple by an Antarctic summer sky. I braced against the railing, timed my frames, and worked as fast as I could as we slipped past. Below deck, I pulled up the frames and held my breath. When I found that every one lined up perfectly, I almost cheered. Sometimes the conditions that should defeat you are exactly the ones that produce the best work.

Likes: 25.5K
Comments: 281
Posted: May 29, 2026, 5:58 PM
Caption: Stand near a king penguin colony and the edges that define individuality start to dissolve. Some biologists have likened the structure of the colony to something of a liquid state, with tens of thousands of birds all pressed together in slow, continuous motion. The sheer mass of bodies helps insulate chicks against both the cold and predation by skuas. It is almost dizzying to take in and a panoramic was really the only way to convey the scale, sense of place, and the fluidity of the colony’s movements. I love the look of a landscape overflowing with life, and South Georgia is the perfect canvas for such a spectacle. At a time when so much of our natural world is growing thinner, the island remains defiantly, overwhelmingly full.

Likes: 22.5K
Comments: 262
Posted: May 28, 2026, 6:12 PM
Caption: From above, the Colorado River delta reveals the full scale of the system, with every channel branching and fanning toward the sea like veins mapped across skin. This is the same geometry written into the tributaries of a leaf, the bronchioles in our lungs, the cracks in Arctic sea ice I learned to read as a child. What was once one of North America’s most vital wetland ecosystems was gutted by a century of diversion and demand. But restoration efforts are slowly coaxing green back into its waters. The currents of change, however slow, can still move forward with persistence, patience, and trust that there are more kind-hearted people in this world than the headlines let on.

Likes: 22K
Comments: 201
Posted: May 23, 2026, 6:49 PM
Caption: Wolves are exceptional at using the terrain to their advantage, fading seamlessly into whatever landscape they travel through. But British Columbia’s coastal wolves have taken that skill to new levels. Over generations, they have carved out a unique ecological niche within the intertidal zone, swimming between islands as effortlessly as they slink between trees. In order to photograph an animal evolved to occupy liminal space, you have to be willing to disappear. So that is exactly what I did. Day after day I hunkered down in a blind for hours on end, slowly building the trust that would eventually give me the images I was after.

Likes: 15.8K
Comments: 197
Posted: May 20, 2026, 6:00 PM
Caption: When the SeaLegacy 1 finally pulled up to the shores of Komodo Island, I was more than ready to meet the reptile of my childhood fantasies. But nothing truly prepares you for the reality of facing a real-life dragon. Here was an animal from an ancient lineage that survived the age of dinosaurs: 200 pounds of venomous, prehistoric muscle staring into my lens with complete disinterest. Averaging eight feet long, the Komodo dragon is the world’s largest living lizard, a relic of the giant monitor lizards that once dominated this region. The local Ata Modo people, who have lived alongside these sacred animals for more than 2,000 years, call them sebae, siblings born of the same spiritual mother. That belief, passed down through generations, protected the dragons long before modern conservation laws existed.

Likes: 40.8K
Comments: 460
Posted: May 15, 2026, 5:38 PM
Caption: Looking down on the Earth from above can offer some much-needed perspective. The idea that all life is connected becomes impossible to ignore when you observe the same geometry repeating across our planet’s surface. The river delta mirroring the branches of trees, the cracks in the sea ice, and the bronchioles in our own lungs all show energy, water, oxygen, and nutrients in constant motion. Everything on Earth is downstream of everything else. That is what makes life possible, but also what makes it fragile and so easily eroded if we are not careful.

Likes: 26.2K
Comments: 215
Posted: May 14, 2026, 5:53 PM
Caption: In my attempts over the years to photograph the coastal wolves of British Columbia, a rare subspecies that survives largely on marine life, I have failed 98% of the time. On my last shoot, weeks passed with my team hunkered in a soaked blind and we had little to show for our efforts. In the wild, patience is the only currency that gets you anywhere, but it is never a guarantee. Still, we waited and waited, until the images I had dreamed of finally came together. Grateful to @SonyAlpha for giving me the tools to capture those brief windows. #sonyambassador

Likes: 76.5K
Comments: 420
Posted: May 10, 2026, 5:26 PM
Caption: It is an honor to have spent my life in the presence of mother bears, wolves, and whales who trusted me to be near their young. To witness them protect, nurture, and carry life forward against all odds is one of the greatest privileges photography has given me. Today I am thinking of my mother, Louise, who raised two boys above the Arctic Circle and gave me the wild world as my classroom. I am thinking of my fearless partner @Mitty, who raised her kids while she forged her own path as a photographer. And I am thinking of all the mothers out there, human and wild alike, and the great blue planet that sustains us all. Happy Mother’s Day.

Likes: 13.5K
Comments: 679
Views: 72.4K
Posted: Oct 17, 2025, 5:27 PM
Caption: After three decades behind the lens, countless expeditions, and over two million images captured, Reverence is a curated collection of my best and most meaningful photographs. These are the images that forever shaped my understanding of our fellow wildlife and set in motion a lifetime devoted to following nature’s wisdom. Created with @hemeriaphoto

Likes: 9,578
Comments: 53
Posted: Jun 6, 2026, 6:17 PM
Caption: I was one of the first photographers at National Geographic to pick up a digital camera in 2003. By 2004, almost everyone I knew was shooting digitally. I remember photographing narwhals for Nat Geo back then. My camera could shoot one or two 8-megapixel frames per second before buffering out. I’d stand there waiting while incredible things unfolded in front of my eyes. It was torturous. The autofocus was slow, the cameras full of glitches. Editing was easy, though, because I rarely had a keeper. Fast forward twenty years, and my biggest problem is having too many images to edit. The Sony A1 II and the new Sony a7R VI shoot at 20 and 30 frames per second with 50- to 67-megapixel files, never buffering. I can put a camera on a pole and when a lion charges it at 20 miles an hour, the eye-tracking autofocus locks on and keeps every frame sharp. On @sonyalpha’s 20th anniversary, I just want to say thank you for creating technology that makes our work more enjoyable and opens creative possibilities I once thought were impossible. And to my family at Sony, you are the most supportive group of people I’ve ever had the privilege to work with. Thank you, Sony.

Likes: 13.8K
Comments: 106
Posted: Jun 5, 2026, 7:14 PM
Caption: The Arctic town of Qaanaaq exists at the very edge of the habitable world on Greenland’s northwest coast. During winter, the sun disappears entirely for weeks on end. When daylight finally returns, the town comes alive as Inuit hunters prepare for the seasonal journey to the floe edge. With sea ice thinning more every year, the route to secure food has grown more perilous. However, when @Mitty and I joined a small group of hunters, riding on their kamutiks and camping on the ice, our spirits remained high. We were instantly captivated by the wiry, unruly sled dogs whose attention belonged solely to their mushers. Even more inspiring was traveling alongside people whose knowledge of ice, weather patterns, and wildlife comes from generations navigating one of the most challenging environments on Earth. With gratitude to Naimanngitsoq Kristiansen, Aleqatsiaq Peary, Avigaiaq Petersen, Gedion Kristiansen, Qillian Danielson, Rasmus Aviki and the wonderful community of Qaanaaq for your knowledge, guidance, and endless generosity.

Likes: 11K
Comments: 55
Posted: Jun 4, 2026, 5:28 PM
Caption: Growing up on Baffin Island, the sled dog teams crossing the sea ice were as familiar to me as the cold. So when I arrived in Greenland, the snow-covered settlement of Qaanaaq felt almost like home. The biggest difference was the noticeable lack of snowmobile engines humming across the stark terrain. In their place were only the sound of paws on ice and the low commands of a musher whose ancestors have crossed this same frozen expanse by kamutik for millennia. The dogs themselves were a little different, too: stronger and more compact, built like tiny polar bears and born for distance.

Likes: 29.3K
Comments: 290
Posted: May 30, 2026, 6:44 PM
Caption: Tabular II “Fire and Ice” / In most cases, a tripod is the most reliable method for taking a panoramic. It keeps the camera level so you can overlap your frames and let the software do the rest. But we were boarding our boat just past midnight on New Year’s Eve when we noticed this tabular iceberg drifting by, lit red and purple by an Antarctic summer sky. I braced against the railing, timed my frames, and worked as fast as I could as we slipped past. Below deck, I pulled up the frames and held my breath. When I found that every one lined up perfectly, I almost cheered. Sometimes the conditions that should defeat you are exactly the ones that produce the best work.

Likes: 25.5K
Comments: 281
Posted: May 29, 2026, 5:58 PM
Caption: Stand near a king penguin colony and the edges that define individuality start to dissolve. Some biologists have likened the structure of the colony to something of a liquid state, with tens of thousands of birds all pressed together in slow, continuous motion. The sheer mass of bodies helps insulate chicks against both the cold and predation by skuas. It is almost dizzying to take in and a panoramic was really the only way to convey the scale, sense of place, and the fluidity of the colony’s movements. I love the look of a landscape overflowing with life, and South Georgia is the perfect canvas for such a spectacle. At a time when so much of our natural world is growing thinner, the island remains defiantly, overwhelmingly full.

Likes: 22.5K
Comments: 262
Posted: May 28, 2026, 6:12 PM
Caption: From above, the Colorado River delta reveals the full scale of the system, with every channel branching and fanning toward the sea like veins mapped across skin. This is the same geometry written into the tributaries of a leaf, the bronchioles in our lungs, the cracks in Arctic sea ice I learned to read as a child. What was once one of North America’s most vital wetland ecosystems was gutted by a century of diversion and demand. But restoration efforts are slowly coaxing green back into its waters. The currents of change, however slow, can still move forward with persistence, patience, and trust that there are more kind-hearted people in this world than the headlines let on.

Likes: 22K
Comments: 201
Posted: May 23, 2026, 6:49 PM
Caption: Wolves are exceptional at using the terrain to their advantage, fading seamlessly into whatever landscape they travel through. But British Columbia’s coastal wolves have taken that skill to new levels. Over generations, they have carved out a unique ecological niche within the intertidal zone, swimming between islands as effortlessly as they slink between trees. In order to photograph an animal evolved to occupy liminal space, you have to be willing to disappear. So that is exactly what I did. Day after day I hunkered down in a blind for hours on end, slowly building the trust that would eventually give me the images I was after.

Likes: 15.8K
Comments: 197
Posted: May 20, 2026, 6:00 PM
Caption: When the SeaLegacy 1 finally pulled up to the shores of Komodo Island, I was more than ready to meet the reptile of my childhood fantasies. But nothing truly prepares you for the reality of facing a real-life dragon. Here was an animal from an ancient lineage that survived the age of dinosaurs: 200 pounds of venomous, prehistoric muscle staring into my lens with complete disinterest. Averaging eight feet long, the Komodo dragon is the world’s largest living lizard, a relic of the giant monitor lizards that once dominated this region. The local Ata Modo people, who have lived alongside these sacred animals for more than 2,000 years, call them sebae, siblings born of the same spiritual mother. That belief, passed down through generations, protected the dragons long before modern conservation laws existed.

Likes: 40.8K
Comments: 460
Posted: May 15, 2026, 5:38 PM
Caption: Looking down on the Earth from above can offer some much-needed perspective. The idea that all life is connected becomes impossible to ignore when you observe the same geometry repeating across our planet’s surface. The river delta mirroring the branches of trees, the cracks in the sea ice, and the bronchioles in our own lungs all show energy, water, oxygen, and nutrients in constant motion. Everything on Earth is downstream of everything else. That is what makes life possible, but also what makes it fragile and so easily eroded if we are not careful.

Likes: 26.2K
Comments: 215
Posted: May 14, 2026, 5:53 PM
Caption: In my attempts over the years to photograph the coastal wolves of British Columbia, a rare subspecies that survives largely on marine life, I have failed 98% of the time. On my last shoot, weeks passed with my team hunkered in a soaked blind and we had little to show for our efforts. In the wild, patience is the only currency that gets you anywhere, but it is never a guarantee. Still, we waited and waited, until the images I had dreamed of finally came together. Grateful to @SonyAlpha for giving me the tools to capture those brief windows. #sonyambassador

Likes: 76.5K
Comments: 420
Posted: May 10, 2026, 5:26 PM
Caption: It is an honor to have spent my life in the presence of mother bears, wolves, and whales who trusted me to be near their young. To witness them protect, nurture, and carry life forward against all odds is one of the greatest privileges photography has given me. Today I am thinking of my mother, Louise, who raised two boys above the Arctic Circle and gave me the wild world as my classroom. I am thinking of my fearless partner @Mitty, who raised her kids while she forged her own path as a photographer. And I am thinking of all the mothers out there, human and wild alike, and the great blue planet that sustains us all. Happy Mother’s Day.

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