Tag Archives: nature photography

Meet Your Neighbors

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Thanks to Mark Godfrey (The Nature Conservancy) for alerting me to this project.

One of the things I try to do with my photography is show people creatures and plants that they might otherwise never notice.  I love hearing people say things like, “I had NO IDEA something like that lived near me!” when I’m giving presentations.  Of course, real success comes when I can inspire those same people to go out and make their own discoveries.  It’s hard to dismiss conservation as unimportant when you’ve actually met the species that hang in the balance. 

The “Meet Your Neighbors” project looks like a kindred spirit.  The project celebrates common species from around the world through portrait-style photographs.  They’re working with numerous photographers to capture images of these species in front of a plain white background that causes the viewer to really examine and appreciate the physical attributes of each species. 

Tree Hopper - Aurora, Nebraska. Although I normally like to photograph insects in their natural environment, I've played around with the kind of studio/white background format used by the "Meet Your Neighbors" project. The power of the format is that it forces the viewer to really pay attention to the creature itself - which is plenty beautiful.

You might wonder why the project doesn’t highlight rare species instead of common species.  There’s obvious value in showcasing rare species to get people tuned in to their plight.  But I also think it’s powerful to show people the species that are (literally) right in their backyard.  Those are the species most of us will actually be able to meet in person, and which can catalyze an interest in nature and conservation.  I think it’s a fantastic idea and a well-organized effort.  I wish them all success.

Please visit their website to learn more about the project.

http://www.meetyourneighbours.org/project.html

Larva of a Green June Beetle. This big white grub crawls around on its back with its legs sticking up in the air - which is not only very cool, but also the distinguishing characteristic that separates it from other beetle larvae. Thanks to Ted MacRae for identification and natural history information.

Photo of the Week – October 14, 2011

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Back in June of this year, I went up to The Nature Conservancy’s Broken Kettle Grasslands in northwest Iowa for a meeting on prescribed fire.  As we were starting a field tour, a group of us was walking from the parking lot to the hills when we spotted this tiny little turtle (about the size of a 50 cent piece).  I hung back and followed it around with my camera for a few minutes before catching up with the group again.

A very small painted turtle at The Nature Conservancy's Broken Kettle Grasslands.

Painted turtles are common but fascinating creatures with lots of interesting natural history trivia – especially related to temperature.  First, the gender of turtles is determined by the temperature of the eggs in their underground nest.  Males are produced in cooler temperatures, and females are produced in warmer temperatures.  A second temperature-related fact is that painted turtles hatch out of their eggs in the fall, but remain underground through the winter and emerge in the spring, surviving temperatures down to at least 5 degrees F.  They eat the shells they hatched out of and, apparently, get some nutrition from the surrounding soil minerals.  Finally, the basking that painted turtles do in the sun not only helps them with thermoregulation but also activates enzyme production for digestion of their food.

Oh, and they’re cute too.