Awww inspiring

More than 50 years later, Grand Ledge photographer Ron St. Germain hopes to strike similar gold with his latest project, a children’s picture book series also based on the ground-scampering rodents. The difference is that he’s doing it with actual chipmunks — and without any chicanery.

“I got into photography to show one moment in time and make you drop your jaw,” St. Germain said. “I wanted to bring that aspect of photography back, to make people believe an image again. Because of (the prevalence of) Photoshop, we’ve gone from believing a photograph to questioning if it was reality.”

He self-published his first book, “Why Is Everyone Coming to My House?,” earlier this year. It features chipmunks simulating a wide range of human-like activities — playing a video game, riding a skateboard, looking through a magnifying lens — set to a series of rhyming couplets as they observe human activity. Sample line: “I watch them playing on the beach, and swimming in the lake/They’re always having too much fun, to stop and take a break.” (Through watching the people and copying the fun things he sees them doing, he eventually finds a new appreciation for where he lives.)

And lest you start to think otherwise, St. Germain is adamant that nothing was “fixed in post-digital processing.”

“I’ve had people walk into my booth and argue with me that my images aren’t real,” he says. “I don’t know how else to say it. They are real.”

But what about the shot of him smirking as a chipmunk peeps at him through the viewfinder of an SLR? Certainly that’s a combination of two photos.

“Read my lips,” St. Germain patiently explains. “No. Digital. Manipulation. My son took that shot. We just had to be very patient and very persistent.” *But he wasn’t lucky enough to get a chipmunk with reindeer antlers and a Santa hat — this week’s cover image was, indeed, “fixed.” “I don’t have any problem admitting when a photograph has been altered,” he said. “That’s our problem now — too many want you to believe something that isn’t real and won’t admit when it’s not.”)

St. Germain, 53, was raised in Lansing and graduated from Waverly High School. He has been a wildlife photographer for 33 years, but he started his company, Bearwave Publications, this year to launch the series. He chose one of his old photos — a grizzly bear with one arm raised — to serve as his company’s symbol “as a reminder that I haven’t always shot cute little critters.”

“For years I focused on big animals and big predators,” he said. “Being one on one less than 100 feet from a bear, armed with nothing but a camera, was better than any thrill ride at an amusement park.”

Since “My House” was published in May, St. Germain has been to 10 or so book events, including one earlier this month at the MSU Union. Ten stores in Michigan stock the book, including three in mid-Michigan: Both Schuler Books & Music locations and the gift shop at Sparrow Hospital. He’s sold about 500 so far, and said he can tell things are catching on because people have started calling him the “Chipmunk Whisperer.”

“I´m not sure I really like (that) tag, because every time someone mentions it, my first thought is, ‘Hey, I was a badass once,’” he says. “I wonder why nobody ever called me the Big Buck Whisperer or the Bear Whisperer.”

He said the book started with the image of him “posing” for the chipmunk, a shot that took four days to get right.

“Once I got that photo, then I put the story together,” he said. “Then I challenged myself to go through page by page to match the story and what it was saying.”

He spent the next three years setting up the individual shots he needed for the book, some of which took two to three weeks to perfect. His mantra was “One scene at a time.”

“I wanted everything to be fresh — I didn’t want to go in (to my) archives and wonder how to turn photos into a story,” he said. “As I evolved as a photographer, I’d been looking for unique shots. I didn’t just want any (photo of) big game wildlife. There had to be an element I hadn’t seen before. That carried over to the chipmunks. And when I saw how much fun my kids were having, I realized how special this project had become.”

His son 17, was a freshman in high school when St. Germain started the book; his daughter, 21, was just graduating high school. He said he had “awesome opportunities” to work at major publications as a paid photographer, but he turned them down so he could spend time with his family.

“I made a decision I wanted to be a dad instead of a traveling journalist,” he says. “I wanted to watch my children grow up. Now my son’s a big bad varsity football player helping his dad with his silly books. And it’s good, quality fun. We go fishing then come back and shoot pictures of chipmunks.”

Although the images are all real, he does cop to baiting the chipmunks. Offerings included peanuts, sunflower seeds and jelly. The photos were taken either on his property in Grand Ledge or at a location in the Upper Peninsula. And all the wildlife was, indeed, wild.

For more information on St. Germain’s book series, including “Why Is Everyone Coming to My House,” go to the Bearwave Publications Facebook page.

“They were shot on their terms, on their land,” St. Germain said. “And they were paid well, whatever their little preferences were. It took time to get to know them, but once I found what they liked, I was in. Then it was just a matter of waiting for them get into position, whether it was on the back of a (plastic) horse or roasting a marshmallow.”

Although the books are inherently for kids, St. Germain knows which side his bread is (peanut) buttered on.

“I knew that if I could make adults fall in love with it, they’d take it home for their kids,” St. Germain said. “Kids don’t typically go to the book aisle, they want toys. Books are parent-driven. And it’s worked. Kids are responding.”

He shot the photos for Book 2, “I Love You More Than ... ,” last summer. St. Germain said it should be out in May. He anticipates this being a six-book series, and plans to continuously challenge himself as he progresses.

“I’m not going to just slap something together just to say I’ve got a children’s book,” he said. “This has got to continue to be different from anything I’ve ever seen, and something someone else would have to work hard to duplicate.”

Of course, if it really takes off he may have to start thinking about merchandising. Animals posing au naturel are hot right now: Grumpy Cat just got a Christmas special. How far off are we from another wave of chipmunk-mania?

“I never was a fan of ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ growing up,” he said. “Chipmunks (as a subject matter) just fell into my lap. I don’t see this as anything but a book series for now, but the options are out there. I think the success of the books will dictate where I go. The more experience and exposure I get, that will motivate me to want to continue.

“But for now, I’m just doing something unique that very few photographers and writers would even think to attempt, especially in this era of digital manipulation.”

He’ll leave that for the CGI-smiths looping the loops on the fourth “Alvin” movie.