Alfred and Elma Milotte; Cinematographers

Alfred and Elma Milotte, Academy Award-winning cinematographers and wildlife photographers who created the “True-Life Adventure” series for Walt Disney, have died within a week of each other, the Disney studio announced this week.

Elma Milotte was 81 when she died April 19 in Sumner, Wash.; her husband died five days later at age 84.

Alaskan Photo Studio

Alfred Milotte married Elma Moore in 1934 in Ketchikan, Alaska, where they operated a photo studio.

They lectured and showed films on Alaska for many years until Disney happened to see some of their work. Without any specific projects in mind, Disney hired them to film the Alaska wilderness.

Their first success was “Seal Island,” followed by “Alaskan Eskimo” and “Beaver Valley.” During the career that followed, they won six Academy Awards for two-reel films, both documentary and short subject: “Alaskan Eskimo,” “Beaver Valley,” “Bear Country,” “Nature’s Half Acre,” “Water Birds” and “Seal Island.”

In Florida, they filmed all the footage for “Prowlers of the Everglades.” Disney sent them to Africa for three years and to Australia for two. In those countries they filmed “The African Lion” and “Nature’s Strangest Creatures,” as well as several television productions.

“Cameras in Africa” was the personal story of the Milottes and featured an introduction by Disney.

After retiring from the Disney studios, the couple published three books: “The Toklat Grizzly,” “The Story of the Platypus” and “The Story of a Hippopotamus.”

In recent years the childless couple had become tree farmers.