About Don Mennig - Award-Winning Wildlife & Landscape Photographer

First, a bit about me as a photographer. I’m a nationally recognized, award-winning artist with over 15 years of professional photography experience – you may have seen a commercial featuring my photography on stations like HGTV and the Food Network. Here's what distinguishes my work:

  • I was awarded the Landscape Photographer of the Year award, hand-selected by Anne Geddes.

  • I’ve won an Emmy for outstanding production design (mid-Atlantic region).

  • I’ve won a Telly (producer / director / writer)

While my passion is landscape and wildlife photography, I keep my skills sharp by freelancing as a news photographer for several outlets, including Lancaster Online. Examples of recent work for this outlet include:

My work as a photographer also extends across the pond, so to speak. For the last 10+ years, I have also freelanced for Alamy News, based in London. Via Alamy, my photographs have appeared worldwide. Including on:

The “About Me” that seems more “real”? I’m a husband and father of two amazing young men; I play trumpet in a church quintet, and I enjoy working out, playing men’s league soccer, and Ultimate Frisbee. My primary socials are @buzzbeat (Instagram) and LinkedIn. I should also note that I’ve worked as a marketing executive for the past 25 years or so :)

Regarding photographic inspiration, my goal is to infuse humanity into every image. From humor and joy to awe and passion, I want my pictures to elicit a visceral, emotional response.

All of my unframed prints are hand-selected from various travel and studio work and are printed by the nation’s #1 printing house for professional photographers: White House Custom Color. So, what exactly does that mean? All images are printed on Kodak’s award-winning professional ENDURA paper – the gold standard for print quality. I generally recommend a luster paper – particularly for photos that will be matted and framed. The archival quality of these images is over 100 years in typical home display and over 200 years in dark storage.

If you’re really interested, these are real photographs, not inkjet prints – meaning the light-sensitive Kodak paper runs through a chemical process. Specifically, all prints 20″x 30″ and smaller are printed on a Noritsu small or medium format printer. Prints larger than 20″x 30″ will be printed on a Durst Theta 76 printer.

Fine Art America produces my framed, canvas, and specialty prints. They’ve been selling online for well over a decade, and the quality is excellent.

If you’d like to read some of the nice things folks have said about my work, you can check out some testimonials here: This is one of my favorites: I was very pleased with the crispness of the picture … Absolutely BEAUTIFUL. My dad and mom loved it, too!! And... The seller was very helpful and responded quickly to my questions. Highly recommend!!

And finally, the question I get asked by other photographers an awful lot … What’s in your bag?

  • Camera bodies: Nikon Z9 & Nikon Z8

  • Primary Lenses: 400mm Z, 70-200mm 2.8, 24-70mm 2.8

  • Secondary Lenses: 50mm, 180-600mm, 14-24mm

  • Flash setup: Godox on camera, Godox AD600, black and white muslins

  • Steady lighting: fill light, (2) Dracast 1,024 bi-color LED panel lights

Thanks for reading all the way through, and please feel free to comment on and share my work on social media. I hope you find a connection with an image, and that it will find its way into your home.