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Anyone can take a photo of a moose, but not everyone can tell a story about it like Rick Libbey.

ick Libbey has his feet on the floor at 4 a.m. It’s his goal to be in the forests of Maine, or in the marshes of New Hampshire, by 5 a.m. Admittedly, he’s a morning person, but the MooseMan, as Libbey is called, wants to assess the situation (the light, the clouds) and make noise — get his kayak loaded and into the water — before the moose make their appearance. It’s Libbey’s passion, and now his full-time job as the photographer for MooseMan Nature Photos (www.moosemannaturephotos.com), to photograph wild animals in their natural habitat and share the results with others.

“I love to see someone’s eyes get twice as wide when they see one of my photos,” says Libbey. “I take pride that they are seeing something that they wouldn’t usually get to see. I get to share my world with them.”

The MooseMan’s Wildlife Adventures from a Kayak

by Laura Jean Whitcombphotography courtesy of Rick Libbey

R

Man on a mission: Photographer Rick Libbey waits for a visit from his moose friends in his Old Town kayak.

Right: Libbey crossed the river in the early morning and waited for this shot. “I never heard a sound, never heard a twig snap, then he silently appeared,” Libbey recalls. “The moment only lasted about three seconds. He did not run off; he just quietly turned away and was gone like a ghost.”

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But beyond the photos, Libbey is promoting a way of life — taking time out of a busy schedule to quietly observe and absorb nature and all its beauty. He speaks at schools, day care centers, libraries, camera clubs and boys camps, to name a few. He works with local businesses, like Children’s Dentistry of the Lakes Region, to display large canvases of MooseMan wildlife photos in the waiting area for families to enjoy.

But the growth of a part-time hobby into a full-time career is not the most exciting part of Libbey’s story. It’s his method. It’s his mission. And it’s the moose.Enjoy the experience

Anyone can take a photo of a moose. There are cell phones, iPhones, iPods and a variety of devices that turn the average

when the economy is at its lowest point, what does he do? Take the leap to running his own business, MooseMan Nature Photos, full time in 2007. “Even in this economy, it is amazing how good we are doing. People don’t have to have wildlife photos — it’s a luxury — but people are buying products both small and large,” says Libbey.

MooseMan offers note cards, coasters, key chains, magnets and stickers from his souvenir line, as well as matted or framed photos from an extensive line of wildlife photos — from moose to loons to bears. Libbey and his wife, Donna, attend 40 events — craft fairs, shows, farmers’ markets, art shows, old home days, harvest festivals and apple festivals — each year to showcase MooseMan products. › › › › ›

The birthday giftIf you read Libbey’s first book,

Ricky & the Moose: The Story of the MooseMan published in 2008, you’ll know that he spent much of his youth in the woods exploring nature. Then his father gave him the best birthday gift ever when he was 10: a camera. Libbey learned by doing, and captur-ing nature in photographs quickly became his hobby.

In 1990 Libbey moved from Massachusetts to Andover, N.H. By day, he worked at a natural foods store in New London. But he spent his pre-dawn mornings and free weekends driving on logging roads to get to the tiny New Hampshire town of Odell (population: four), kayaking on remote lakes in Maine, or scouting out marsh-es and bogs in the Kearsarge area.

After 15 years in retail, just

Libbey named this giant moose Mr. Ed.

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A mature bull in the golden late afternoon light

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transports it to a new home.Those stories are on the back of

each and every photo, and, Libbey hopes, will eventually make their way into a book. “I started a journal in 2002, one year before the MooseMan company was formed,” says Libbey. “That’s 10 years with a journal, with every single moose encounter documented. I’ve had 1,400 moose encounters as of July 2012.”A view from the lake

It’s not a simple task to get such great photos. Libbey has one hard and fast rule that has been key to his suc-cess: He explores and shoots by kayak.

“I can explore. I can cover ground. I can cover the lake. I can get where I need to be,” he explains.

Years of shooting from a kayak means that Libbey has his tricks. “I use a monopod, one post, to steady my gear,” he says. “A tripod won’t fit in the kayak.”

He lines the bottom of the kayak — the shortest, widest kayak he can find — with a beach towel to pro-tect his cameras (two Nikon D300s and one Nikon D800). He’s padded his special lightweight paddle, so he can set them down without a

bystander into an on-the-scene photojournalist.

But Libbey has stories. Stories about Bill the Bull, Big Boy, Pot Belly and her baby, Sweet Pea. And he includes those stories — which he calls “MooseMan Moments” — on the back of every photo. You might flip over a print to read a memory of Al Lareau, Libbey’s friend and busi-ness partner, who provided business advice and his backyard bear photos to Libbey’s wholesale business in the early days. Or you might see the photo through Libbey’s eyes: “June 1984. Just before dusk on a remote lake in Maine: sitting in a canoe near the outlet at the far end of the lake. In front of me in various spots from 15 feet to 100 feet away were 11 beautiful moose….All within a hundred feet of me! It was a moment I'll never forget!”

You are not just purchasing a photo; you’re purchasing an experi-ence. Hearing Libbey talk about Big Boy, a bull he has tracked for nine years, just adds to the amazingness of the photograph. He’s watched Big Boy grow up, finding him in the spring of 2003 nearly dead from winter weight loss to seeing him years later as the dominant bull in his area; from “meek to mighty” as Libbey describes. He’s documented three generations of a moose family: Pot Belly, her daughter and her grand-son. He’s held a sedated black bear as the Maine Department of Wildlife

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Milkdud is a Second Chance Wildlife cub

A loon family

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just processing a payment; I’m telling a story. Even if they don’t buy, I get excited if they had a nice time visiting my booth. I’ve changed their day.”

He pauses. “I’m very grateful to be able to do this. It wasn’t easy to get here, but I’m living the dream.”

Laura Jean Whitcomb has been proud to call Rick Libbey her friend since his days at the natural food store in New London. His smiling face and kind words have always inspired her to continue to do what she loves — which is write.

sound. And although it’s hot in June and July (when he typically shoots), Libbey still wears full camouflage: gloves, face mask, hat, shirt, even the kayak. Why? “I’m blending into the shoreline as I am searching,” he says.

Prep work completed, Libbey gets in the kayak, quietly pushes off from the shore, and waits to hear the sound of water. “Nine out of 10 moose are all doing the same thing: they are eating. And where are they eating? In the water,” he says. “I find most by sound, rather than by sight. When a bull lifts his head up out of the water, the antlers create a pouring sound, like a bucket of water pour-ing. You’ll hear a dripping sound for a cow moose with no antlers. When I hear the pouring, MooseMan is much more excited.” Moose and loons and bears (oh my)

Libbey is shooting about 10 percent of the time (100 percent of the time in May, June and July). The rest of his time is spent speaking (24 times a year); framing (he does all his own framing, at least two days a week); and selling (online and at shows from late June to the second week of December). Oh, and don’t forget looking through his photos to find “the one.”

“In two weeks, on my annual moose trek in July, I usually shoot 3,000 to 4,000 frames,” he says. “I look for 200 to begin the culling process, and end up with 10 or 12 photos.”

Moose are still the top-selling photos, but bears, including Lareau’s original bear photos, account for 40 percent of sales. It’s why Libbey donates 20 percent of his sales to Second Chance Wildlife (www.beartodream.org), a rehabilitation site for orphaned black bears run by Dawn Brown in New Sharon, Maine. “She has five-acre enclosures on 100 acres in the wild,” says Libbey. “There are seven bears there now, cubs whose mother has been killed or

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abandoned them. It’s nice to know that I’m making a difference for a tiny cub — and making a difference in Dawn’s life, who did not want to open the facility up to visitors.”

Libbey’s positive, can-do attitude and generous spirit make a differ-ence to others, from the kids in the classroom to the people in line at his booth at the annual moose festival in Canaan, Vt. “There may be a line of 10 people long, but I’ll never rush a person. I want to make them feel completely comfortable,” he says. “They’re not just buying a photo; they’re buying an experience. I’m not

Water cascades off the antlers of a feeding moose, nicknamed The Boss. Libbey used a super telephoto with 630mm lens to get this photo.

Sweet Pea, as a calf, raises her nose to catch a scent in the air. It was Libbey's first close-up encounter with a cow and calf.

A grown up Sweet Pea with her baby, Half Pint