Not all photojournalistic story has to be about war and destruction. Nor does it has to show decay, decadence and desolation. Some can be about life and it's celebration, about growth and awakening, about rebirth and fulfilled promises.

Minden Pictures is probably the best known nature photo agency. Based on the West coast of the United States, it has served the nature photography community for many years and shows no intention of changing. Because founder Larry Minden, photographer himself, has carefully vetted and curated the photography and photographers available in his agency with extremely high standards, the result is nothing short spectacular. From National Geographic to Geo Magazine, needless to say that Minden Pictures is the top destination for high end nature photography magazine worldwide.

Photographers Yva Momatiuk and John Eastcott covered one the most surprising ecological events of the last decade. After years of decline and predicted endangerment, the wild salmon of Canada made a completely unsuspected mass return in late 2010. After dropping to their lowest levels on 2009, estimated a 1.5 million individuals, the sockeye salmon made a return to their breading grounds in numbers not seen in more than a century. At 35 million, their numbers not only stupefied observers and researchers, but also completely caught off guard the fishing community. Expected to continue to decline due to pollution, global warming, overfishing, viruses, food shortage, the salmons instead jumped to becoming the largest migration of any aquatic vertebrae on earth.

Both photographers spent weeks on the banks of the Adams river in British Columbia to document the wild struggles of the resilient salmons as they combat tortuous opposite currents to reach their breading grounds, only to die after giving birth to a new generation.

You can see more of this story on www.mindenpictures.com as well a many other amazing photo essay on our natural world.

You can contact Minden Pictures at : info@mindenpictures.com

Paul Melcher