David Bechtol’s love for wildlife photography was born from his career as a veterinarian. The turning point came in 1985 when David traveled to Krueger National Park in South Africa as part of a team helping to vaccinate Roan Antelope from a helicopter. The team included local park rangers and veterinarians whose concern and passion for the well-being of the various wildlife and the conservation of their natural habitat was awe-inspiring. As this was David’s first experience seeing wildlife, the view from the helicopter was both shocking and beautiful. David was hooked.

Having already published two photographic books on cattle disease (the focus of David’s still-active veterinary career), the jump to wildlife/nature photographer and conservationist was not very far. These two careers blend beautifully together each seeming an extension of the other.

Since its inception in 2001, David has participated in each Coastal Bend Photography Contest held during odd years in South Texas. The mission of Coastal Bend and its participants is to “promote the conservation and protection of wildlife and habitat”. David’s work from these contests has been published in the five Coastal Bend Photo Contest books. Additionally in 2010, David was honored to be included in the invitation-only Images for Conservation tournament in Laredo, Texas. His resulting photographs were included in Images for Conservation/Book Three.

You might say that photography is in David’s blood. His grandfather, E.V. Harris was a photographer whose equipment and photos are on display in the Panhandle Plains Museum in Canyon, Texas. These include some early and rare photos of the Pueblo Indian Corn Dance.

David’s work also hangs at the First Bank Southwest in Amarillo, Texas and the Laredo Medical Center in Lared, Texas. A native of Amarillo, David currently resides in Canyon, Texas with his wife, artist Mary Bechtol. David and Mary have three daughters.

David’s work can be viewed at his studios in Amarillo, Texas and Rockport, Texas and on his website at davidtbechtol.com.

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