Amazing short on Conservation Photography from Neil Ever Osborne... check it out

http://vimeo.com/18498629

Hi All

It's been awhile! I just wanted to share some great conservation photographer profiles through the Photocrati Photographers for GoodSeries. 

Malin Fezehai's work on Kiribati and climate change

Andrew Harrington's work on the conflict between lions and people in Tanzania

Nick Nichols work on the Megatransect and Zoo projects

Enjoy!

Hi All

Just wanted to share a few links from Mark J Davis a fantastic photographer who's work on the status of the Chilean fisheries really grabbed me. He is being featured on Time.com and also wrote an article about his experience as a Photocrati fund winner. 

This fund is definitely worth checking out as it offers "$5000 grants to pro and emerging photographers to undertake important humanitarian and environmental photography projects".

http://www.photocrati.com/photocrati-fund

"To make an image that stops people it has to be something that tickles that beauty perception and makes people appreciate the aesthetics" - J. Henry Fair

Great article in this month's Smithsonian called 'Devastating Beauty'. It highlights J. Henry Fair's aerial photography work of industrial sites throughout the US and really makes you wonder how something so beautiful can be so toxic. A great example of how photography can be used to tell a compelling story by stimulating people intellectually while tapping into an artistic context. Love it.

I'll leave it there. The story and images speak for themselves.

As part of a scientific documentary filmmaking course I took in the summer of 2010 (which I highly endorse), Danika Kleiber and I profiled a local issue in coastal British Columbia, Canada concerning a sustainable farming project of a local, threatened abalone. This story was appealing for its politics, environment, community and First Nations issues all of which were caught in the maelstrom of federal regulatory policies that actually negated the success of the project from the get go.

While it was a complex story, we conceptualized, produced, filmed and edited in just 3 days after an intense 1.5 weeks of hands on training. It is far from perfect but it just goes to show you how much can be done in very little time and with even less experience and equipment.

Film and photography are invaluable tools in story telling and we scientists often forget that while research is the foundation of our work, being able to communicate the main findings and implications of our research is a necessity. Particularly in fields like conservation, we have to engage the public in what we do, otherwise, we are fighting a losing battle.

After briefly looking for links for this post, I came across a Globe and Mail article outlining the halting of the project. While this short was far from polished, I can't help but wonder if it would have made a difference if we had kept plugging away at it and really given this story the time and attention it deserved. One lesson I won't have to learn twice.