My name is Jacob Drueckhammer. Welcome to my corner of the world! I'm excited to have the chance to tell you about what I do. I’d like to start by sharing that I do not bait any of the wildlife. All of the animals in these photos are wild. I’d also like to share that I rarely remove anything from my images (besides cropping) and I will never, and have never, added anything to my images. I only work with masking, cropping, light adjusting, and color adjusting.
Photography isn't just a job for me; it really is a way of life. I was first introduced to photography with my iPhone 5. Not amazing quality photos, but it was always fun to try capturing moments. I wasn't near serious about photography then, but I think that is what originally sparked my curiosity. When I was a Freshman in high school, I started watching travel videos on YouTube. These people would travel around the world shooting breathtaking videos and pictures. I was hooked. I bought a course and began to learn.
The more I learned, the more I wanted a real camera, so on May 4th, 2022, my Canon EOS R6 arrived. In my Senior year at Castro Valley High School I took a photography class to learn even more, but because of my constant learning in my online class, I was way ahead of everyone else. Around this time I got my first real estate gig taking some drone photos. It went super well and soon after I did a second house and an airbnb. Around this time I realized that wildlife was a big passion of mine. I bought a Tamron 150-600mm and fell in love with the ability to zoom so far in (20x!). Because of this I started to spend more and more time outdoors, always trying to capture better and better images.
Sometime in August 2023 I got my first “big” hit. Canon had commented on one of my posts (Instagram)! This drove me to take even more images. For a while I was just taking images for others. I wanted to see how many “likes” and “followers” I could get on Instagram, but I eventually realized that wasn’t a great motivation to keep me going. So I took a break from posting for a while and dedicated my time to learning more.
Now I share my work in hopes that it inspires others. We only have one World, and these animals won’t stick around forever if we don’t do something to save it.
Why should you contact me?
If you have looked around my site and like my pictures, let me know! I enjoy feedback from others. If we meet in person you will soon find out that I am professional, but I also love to have a good laugh. I absolutely love wildlife. It's one of the only things in life that can get me to get out of bed early in the morning.
If you are interested in buying a print from me, that's another reason to reach out. I love sharing my work with others and you buying a print will support my dream. My dream is to help conserve our natural world.
Want to see something other than wildlife? Click the button below to see portraits, weddings, and more!