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Perhaps most electrifying among Ivan’s photographic pursuits is his “calling in” of wild felids. To this end, he has become expert at animal mimicry, often using nothing but his voice, lips, and hands. With these he can create sounds ranging from the deep-throated caterwaulings of a mountain lion, to the ultrasonic squeaks of baby mice, that he might lure either lion or bobcat to within mere feet of his lens. Note that all his subject matter is 100% wild and free-ranging; these most difficult of North American photographic trophies are the reward of many thousands of hours of effort afield. Note also that he is one of only a bare handful of purists ever to have successfully called and photographed Puma concolor while unarmed and without the use of treeing hounds (let alone to have repeated the performance!).

His sorties often mean leaving the vehicle miles behind to stalk cross-county, unhindered by the lack of well-maintained hiking trail system in the Big Sur backcountry. He frequently belly-crawls along game trails through otherwise impenetrable brush, can sit motionless for an hour or more in 110F° heat while face-flies swarm around his muzzle and land on his lips. He'll casually rock-hop across streams swollen with melt-water while balancing several thousand dollars worth of rare-earth lens and camera. He free-climbs crumbly sandstone faces, his shins are battle scarred from clambering over rocks in the intertidal zone, he wades through thick poison oak, carries a 40 lb pack, and wears out an expensive pair of mountaineering boots each year. Seasonally, Ivan relocates rattlesnakes, raises monarch butterflies from baby caterpillar to adult, rescues hypothermic baby chipmunks and road-wandering tarantulas.

Steeped in the traditional strengths of film capture and wet-chemistry, he is no less fluent in the many advantages and workflow of digital imagery. Today Eberle shoots an array of formats and cameras from 35mm DSLRs to medium format to 4x5” film.

His images have appeared in national and regional magazines, books newspapers, advertising and calendars. Articles written by Ivan and illustrated by his photography have been featured in Popular Photography,  Outdoor  Photographer, Monterey Bay, and Pacific magazines. Since 1997, his wildlife and nature work has been accessible primarily through artist tours, print exhibitions, and fine art galleries.

Opening February 2011 at the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, the Special Exhibit Living With Mountain Lions was conceived by Ivan address all-too-common but largely unnecessary fears about dwelling, hiking and recreating in mountain lion habitat. The exhibit showcases a number of his wild mountain lion images, and runs until September.