Students gathered in the auditorium during an extended first period Tuesday, Oct. 21 for “On the Trail of Big Cats,” the first of four National Geographic presentations this school year.

Steve Winter, award winning National Geographic photojournalist and Indiana native, talked about his adventures from the tops of the Himalaya Mountains to the jungles of Central America to the wetlands of the Bay of Bengal. His message: Save the Big Cats.

On one adventure to a  Central American mountain, his assignment was to take pictures of birds. One night, he heard scratching on the door of his shelter.

Winter brought the terrifying experience to life for the audience by playing scratching, clawing, and growling sound effects during his slide show.

“I didn’t choose the big cats — big cats chose me,” he said.

After that assignment, he started to focus on big cats.

Winter used different techniques to get pictures of the animals in his stories. In the Himalaya Mountains, he used a camera trap to get the pictures he needed. In the Bay of Bengal, India, he used a remote control car with a camera attached to get the close-up pictures of tigers.

After the presentation, Winter advised aspiring photojournalists to to be “visual storytellers” and aim to capture “images that start a conversation.”