Wildlife photography between brothers: “We grew bolder, walking through the woods together with just one camera for two.”

The sun is barely rising over the Vigueirat Marshes Nature Reserve, a vast, protected 1,200-hectare site in Mas-Thibert, between the Rhône delta and the Crau plain in the Bouches-du-Rhône department. In the mist, two khaki-colored silhouettes can be seen. Dressed in camouflage, from their clothes to their two cameras with enormous lenses covered in neoprene covers patterned with foliage, the " wood brothers " are striding through the damp meadows of the Camargue on this early June morning.

Behind this poetic nickname given by their loved ones, then adopted for social media, are Julien and Clément Pappalardo, 36 and 32 years old. They have the same Mediterranean physique, same beard and tanned complexion, and same passion for animals. The siblings grew up near Montpellier. As children, these sons and grandsons of fishermen caught the nature bug, then the photography bug, during holidays in Corrèze with their maternal grandparents. "Everything was an excuse for observation, at home," recalls Julien, the eldest.

The first desires for photography came naturally and as a duo. "At the beginning, we were fearful, hiding in our grandmother's car, then, little by little, we became bolder, walking through the woods together with a single camera for the two of us, before each having our own." After some twenty years of practice and thousands of shots, the brothers, still amateurs, always sign their images with their simple surname: Pappalardo. Regardless of who took the photo. "We were never in competition, there was never any jealousy between the two of us ," confirms Clément. "Even today, when Julien goes to a hide [a technique that consists of staying hidden near the place where an animal you want to photograph passes] , I am happy and eager for him to tell me about his outing. And if he manages to take a good series, I feel real pleasure, satisfaction."

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