Shooting the big cats

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A camera trap captures 14-month-old sibling cubs cooling off in a watering hole in Bandhavgarh National Park, India.

National Geographic photographer Steve Winter has spent most of his adult life shooting wild cats.

Watch more: Nature photographer captures big cats in the wild, and heartbreak of their disappearance

Snow leopards

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Snow leopards were Winter's ticket to fame. In 2008, he captured the first intimate portraits of the world's most elusive cats -- in the brutal, 15,000-foot cold of the Himalayas.

Snow leopards

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Winter used elaborate and creative lighting designs to photograph the elusive snow leopards.

Tiger

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Though he shoots all kinds of cats, tigers are special to Winter, and he has become an advocate for their cause.

Jaguar

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Winter has photographed just about every kind of wild cat on the planet.

Tiger

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"I set up the lighting for a stage, and I just wait for the actor to walk on," Winter says of how he creates a photo studio in the middle of nowhere.

Tiger

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Winter uses every trick in the book to capture his photos.

Tiger

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A 14-month-old cub, cooling off in a pond, is riveted by a deer that appeared near the shore. Tigers are powerful swimmers; they can easily cross rivers four to five miles wide and have been known to swim distances of up to 18 miles.

Cougar

A hidden camera recorded Hollywood's most reclusive star. This male cougar was first seen in Griffith Park in Los Angeles almost two years ago.

Cougar

A male cougar, labeled P22, makes his way home from the Santa Monica Mountains to Griffith Park -- an island habitat surrounded by homes and highways.

National Geographic

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Winter's cougar photos will appear in the December issue of National Geographic.

For more info on the Tigers Forever project, visit the website.