‘Explorers’ Shows Reality Of Photographers’ Lives

How sexy would Clint Eastwood be to Meryl Streep if, when he asked for directions to that Madison County covered bridge, insects swarmed all over him and worms infested his feet and legs?

Insects and worms are just two of the realities that Michael “Nick” Nichols has faced as a wildlife photographer for National Geographic magazine. Nichols and several of his fellow Geographic shooters are highlighted in “The Photographers,” a National Geographic “Explorers” segment airing at 6 p.m. Sunday on TBS.

The show takes great pains to realistically portray the work Geographic shooters do - a portrayal light-years away from Eastwood’s Robert Kincaid, a fictional Geographic photographer who woos Streep’s Iowa housewife character in the current hit tear-jerker film “The Bridges of Madison County.”

“The toughest part of my job is oftentimes not taking the photographs, but surviving in the environment where I’ve gone to photograph,” Nichols says.

He has taken shots of a charging bull elephant and has spent 21 days in a tree waiting for just the right moment to capture on film gorillas’ behavior in their natural habitat.