This is an ever-growing, member-generated list of web resources on science, visual communication, and sustainability. We encourage you to contribute; we've developed this section of the website in a "wiki" style, so all the pages in this section are fully editable. Add your own website to the "Personal websites" page, and add other links to the appropriate pages below. Please be respectful of the content that others have added, and make the links you add to these pages as valuable as possible by annotating them with relevant information.
The links on this page lead to departments at universities and colleges, as well as non-university research centers on science communication, sustainability, and related topics. Please contribute appropriate links below!
Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE)
A research center funded by the National Science Foundation, CAISE "works to strengthen and connect the informal science education community by catalyzing conversation and collaboration across the entire field—including film and broadcast media, science centers and museums, zoos and aquariums, botanical gardens and nature centers, digital media and gaming, science journalism, and youth, community, and after-school programs. CAISE focuses its work on improving informal science education practice, documenting evidence of impact, and communicating the contributions of informal science education."
Florida International University (FIU) School of Environment, Arts and Society (SEAS)
"SEAS – part of FIU’s College of Arts and Sciences - recognizes that the challenges to achieving environmental sustainability are rooted in the interaction between environmental and human systems and that long-term sustainability in natural systems can only be achieved if human societies are just and sustainable. To address these challenges, SEAS unites the natural and social sciences with the humanities in order to understand how both human and natural factors affect the environment, how people relate to the environment, and how research, education and the exchange of ideas can bring about positive change."
This page lists books that can improve your outreach stills
http://explainingresearch.com/
Your research success depends not only on conducting incisive experiments and publishing in top journals. You must also explain your work clearly and engagingly to important audiences: your colleagues, potential collaborators in other disciplines, officers in funding agencies and foundations, donors, your institution's leaders, corporate partners, students, legislators, your own family and friends, journalists, and the public.
Explaining Research, published by Oxford University Press, is the first comprehensive book to give you the tools and techniques to reach all these audiences effectively.
Included on this page are links to degree-granting programs and other educational opportunities relating to science communication (especially visual communication), environmental journalism, sustainability, environmental education, and related topics. Note that not all of the links here lead to college and university sites -- there are also opportunities to learn in shorter workshops and other settings.
Montana State University Science and Natural History Filmmaking
This program is the first of its kind, and still recognized as one of the leading science and nature filmmaking programs in the world. The program, which leads to an MFA degree is primarily aimed at students who already have some formal education in a scientific field.
American University Center for Environmental Filmmaking
Part of American University's School of Communication, the CEF provides courses, funding, and expertise to students interested in producing films about the environment. The CEF is also actively involved in producing films for PBS and other organizations.
Scientific Filmmaking
Jeff Morales (National Geographic Television) and Colin Bates (University of British Columbia) teach intensive 1-2 week Scientific Filmmaking workshops at various locations, often at biological field stations. Two SustainableFocus.org staff, Neil Losin and Melissa Evanson, have taken these courses. They are highly recommended!
Environmental Photography
This is a 3-12 month volunteer placement for recent graduates and students with Archipelagos Institute of Marine Conservation in Greece.
From website:
"This placement focuses on environmental photography with main fields of activity:
• Wildlife and nature photography of species found in the eastern Aegean
• Landscape photography on the islands of eastern Aegean
• Panoramic photography
• Portrait photography
• Photography of research subjects and activities carried out by the research teams
• Advising members of the research team on basic photography and editing techniques relevant to their field of research
• Photojournalism on issues related to biodiversity and factors impacting the natural environment"
Film festivals and photography contests can provide great opportunities to share your work, network with other people sharing your interests, and of course engage in a little healthy competition. Listed below are a variety of such events. If you add a link to this page, and your event has a deadline for entries (or a date for the festival itself), please add these dates to our calendar as well.
Animal Behavior Society Film Festival: The Animal Behavior Society Film Festival was organized in 1983 to honor the outstanding amateur (non-commercial) and professional (commercial) films produced in the preceding five years that portray important concepts in animal behavior research and education. The Film Festival promotes the Animal Behavior Society’s goals of research, teaching, and conservation at the university and college level.From all submissions the Chair will select the semifinalist films will be shown at the festival. At the festival, a panel of judges will select one final winner for best amateur (non-commercial) and one final winner for professional (commercial) film. The festival is often attended by several hundred scientists, professors, applied practitioners, and students from across the globe.
Beneath The Waves Film Festival: From the website: "The Beneath the Waves Film Festival is one of the only film festivals that is housed within an academic conference. We are partnered with the Benthic Ecology Meeting, a group of marine scientists that meet once each year to present research, network, and promote collaboration." Submission deadline is February 15th, 2011, and the festival takes place at the Benthic Ecology Meeting in March 2011.
48 Go Green: An environmental variant of the well-known "48-hour Film Project," this contest will take place in multiple cities worldwide on February 18-20, 2011. Teams of participants will be given an ecological theme and then have 48 hours to write, shoot, and edit their film. The winners receive $5000 and their film will be shown at the Cannes Film Festival.
Wild and Scenic Film Festival: An annual film festival held in Nevada City, CA, organized by the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL). From the website: "SYRCL’s Wild & Scenic Film Festival is a call to action. At Wild & Scenic, filmgoers are transformed into a congregation of committed activists, dedicated to saving our increasingly threatened planet. We show environmental and adventure films that illustrate the Earth’s beauty, the challenges facing our planet, and the work communities are doing to protect the environment. Through these films, Wild & Scenic both informs people about the state of the world and inspires them to take action."
The Vimeo Film Festival: The online video sharing community Vimeo hosts an annual film festival with a variety of categories including documentaries. The best video award will be selected by a group of judges from multiple categories and the Vimeo Awards staff. Winners will receive a $25,000 grant to produce new work.
Sony World Photography Organisation: This is a more general photography contest, not only geared towards conservation but a great website/organisation to post, get comments, meet other photographers and maybe even win the annual competition ($5,000)! There are also a few other competitions through WPO such as the monthly Facebook competition and the Moving Image Award.
Leica Oskar Barnack Award: An international photography competition based on a series of images that shows the "interaction between man and the environment." Prizes are substantial. Excerpted from the website: "An international jury awards the Leica Oskar Barnack Award / Leica Oskar Barnack Newcomer Award to photographers whose unerring powers of observation capture and express the relationship between man and the environment in the most graphic form in a sequence of a minimum of 10 up to a maximum of 12 images. Entry submissions must be a self-contained series of images in which the photographer perceives and documents the interaction between man and the environment with acute vision and contemporary visual style – creative, groundbreaking and unintrusive." 2011 Submission deadline is March 1.
ANZANG Nature Photography competition: International photo competition of natural flora, fauna or wilderness. ALl photographs must be taken in the following bioregions: Anstralia, New Zealand, Antarctica and New Guinea. Entries in all sections are invited from photographers who use either digital or film cameras. Grand Prize $5000 with cash prizes for 2nd, 3rd, 4th and winners choice. Deadline March 18th 2011.
Nature Conservancy Annual Photo Competition: The Nature Conservancy is looking for striking digital images of nature, highlighting the diversity of life on Earth. Your images may be taken anywhere in the world. Your images may show animal behavior, portraits of wildlife in natural habitat, plant life, natural landscapes, weather or people interacting with nature. Submission start in late May. Deadline in late September, early October.
This page is for funding opportunities of all kinds: grants, fellowships, scholarships, and other funding. Please contribute any funding resources related to science communication, photography, film, sustainability, and related topics.
The Explorers Club: Scott Pearlman Field Award for Science and Exploration
The Scott Pearlman Field Awards provide grants for professional artists, writers, photographers, filmmakers, and journalists in support of scientific expeditions sponsored by The Explorers Club. Grants in amounts up to $1500 are made to professionals who are recommended by the leader of an expedition sponsored by The Explorers Club. Samples of the candidates work must be submitted with this application, along with two references from individuals familiar with the candidate’s skills, personality, and ability to provide reproduction-quality documentation of the specified expedition.
The Photocrati Fund
From the website: "The Photocrati Fund offers $5000 grants to emerging photographers to undertake important humanitarian and environmental photography projects. Our goal is to identify outstanding, up-and-coming photographers and give them the resources necessary to pursue projects that will have a tangible and positive effect on the world... The 2011 Photocrati Fund competition will begin in November 2010 and will run through March 1, 2011. The 2011 Photocrati Fund award(s) will be announced at the Look3 Festival of the Photograph in Charlottesville, Virginia in June 2011. Awardees become Photocrati Fellows for the calendar year from the announcement of their award until the announcement of the following year’s award."
Google Maps & Earth Grants for Non-profits
Google Earth Outreach give non-profits and public benefit organizations the knowledge and resources they need to visualize their cause and tell their story in Google Earth and Maps to the hundred of millions of people who use them. they also have a grant program which mostly provides grants to non-profits for google software.
Science.gov v5.0 - Image search that taps into metadata of three federal image databases: NIX NASA Image Exchange, NOAA Photo Library, and USGS-NBII LIFE.
This section has links on online tutorials and articles that can help speed up the learning process of video creation or improve your current skills.
Learn the basics of video capture, editing, sound and more these short video tutorials.
Video 101: Editing with Windows Live Movie Maker
Video 101: Importing your videos with Windows Live Movie Maker
By clicking any of the links above you will be sent to the Vimeo Video 101 page where you will have access to many other tutorials for both PC and Mac editing programs.
This page is for listing the websites of nonprofit organizations and other groups dedicated to promoting communication, especially visual communication, about science, nature, and sustainability.
From the website: "Imagine Science Films is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in existence since 2008 committed to promoting a high-level dialogue between scientists and filmmakers. ISF encourages a greater collaboration between scientists who dedicate their lives to studying the world we live in and filmmakers who have the power to interpret and expose this knowledge, ultimately making science accessible and stimulating to a broader audience. ISF is committed to drawing attention to the sciences, whether it is through art or our community outreach efforts." ISF also organizes the annual Imagine Science Film Festival in New York, which usually takes place in October.
International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP)
A group of world-class nature and environmental photographers, dedicated to promoting conservation with their images. From the website: "iLCP is an incorporated non-profit organization. As a project-driven organization, our mission is to translate conservation science into compelling visual messages targeted to specific audiences. We work with leading scientists, policy makers, government leaders and conservation groups to produce the highest-quality documentary images of both the beauty and wonder of the natural world and the challenges facing it."
VisionWorkshops is a DC-based nonprofit providing photography-based workshops for children in underserved communities. From the website: "Our goals are to give young people a voice, challenging them to see themselves and their communities in a new light; to encourage them to explore their world through the lens of a camera; and to share their perspectives with others through the publication and exhibition of their work."
Listed here are other online communities with missions related to that of SustainableFocus.org. These include: photography communities, science education and communication communities, sustainability communities, etc.
NatureScapes.net
Naturescapes.net, or NSN, is a great learning community for nature photographers. Here you can read original articles, participate in image critique forums and discussion forums. It's a great place to improve your nature photography.
Untamed Science
Untamed Science is a multimedia production company that produces science videos for the education market. On their online community, you can become a member (or "ecogeek") and participate in discussions, share photos and videos, and more. They've also got good resources for those who want to get started in science or natural history filmmaking.
InformalScience
This is a community dedicated to informal science education -- education outside the classroom. It will be useful for anyone funded or interested in getting a project funded through the NSF's "Informal Science Education" program.
Nature Stories
Nature Stories is a really cool online community based in India, and its purpose is to encourage and provide a forum for photographs that tell natural history stories. The site's moderators and contributors post wonderful, unique nature images and the site promotes dialogue between nature photographers and field biologists.
The Digital Naturalist
The Digital Naturalist is a forum for video and multimedia on the environment and other social topics. From the website: "Our mission is to provide a resource for anyone interested in the use of visual, digital storytelling... We hope to help nonprofit groups and the creatives working with them understand how to effectively use video and multimedia to convey some of the most pressing, complex issues of our time."
This page is intended as an ever-growing list of personal websites belonging to people with an interest in visual communication about science, nature, and sustainability. When adding new links to the list, please keep the list alphabetical by last name!
Nathan Dappen Photography: Fine Arts, nature, wildlife, travel and event photography by Nathan (Nate) Dappen, founding member and moderator of SustainableFocus.org. Nate also publishes a blog about science and science communication using visual media.
Neil Losin Photography: Nature and wildlife photography by SustainableFocus.org Editor Neil Losin. Emphasis on birds and other wildlife, especially unique behavioral images. Neil also maintains a blog about science and photography.
The organizations listed here are professional organizations for people working in the fields that SustainableFocus.org is built around: science, photography, film, education, and sustainability. This is also the page to list publications related to these topics, such as peer-reviewed journals.
Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ)
SEJ is an independent, nonpartisan grassroots educational group dedicated to more and better coverage of environment-related issues. SEJ’s mission is to strengthen the quality, reach and viability of journalism across all media to advance public understanding of environmental issues.
North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA)
NANPA aims to promote nature photography at all levels, from beginner to professional. They hold an annual Nature Photography Summit, a great event for learning and networking, and provide high school and college scholarships that help students become members and attend the Summit.
IUCN Commission on Education and Communication (CEC)
IUCN is the international organization responsible for maintaining the Red List, a worldwide list of threatened and endangered animals and plants. The CEC is a network of professionals who share an interest in biodiversity education and outreach.
Environmental Communication Network (ECN)
ECN "is a community of scholars, professionals and activists concerned with the role of communication in environmental affairs." ECN maintains a listserv that is "open to the public, so anyone can participate. It provides a space for the interdisciplinary exchange of information among researchers, activists, and professionals interested in all forms of environmental communication. This includes mass media, speech communication, rhetorical, linguistic, cultural studies, and other communicative perspectives on environmental affairs." Click here to subscribe.
Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture
A peer-reviewed publication dealing with environmental communication. From the website: Environmental Communication: A Journal of Nature and Culture publishes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship that examines theories, practices, and processes of communication as they relate to the environment around the world. NOTE: You may need an institutional subscription to access all of the content of this journal.
International Environmental Photographers Association (IEPA)
A professional organization based in Japan for environmental photographers. From the website: "The International Environment Photographers Association hopes to appeal to the world about the importance of the natural environment and the state of vanishing nature through the following activities under the philosophy that 'beautiful, natural landscape is deeply connected to the spiritual wealth of human beings.'"
This is a list of projects involving visual communication of science, nature, or sustainability topics that are already underway. Some of the projects listed below may be projects in which SustainableFocus.org members were involved; others are not. Use this list for project websites, not personal websites (personal websites can be found in the "Personal websites" area of our Online Resources).
A collaboration between Drew Fulton (photographer), Greg Goldstein (ecologist), and Colin Witherill (cinematographer), Canopy In The Clouds seeks to "1. Promote conservation through educational media delivered in an innovative and engaging manner. 2. Inspire young scientists by sharing our passion and excitement for carrying out science. 3. Engage people in the beauty, biodiversity, and importance of tropical montane cloud forests from the perspective of the forest canopy." Visit the site to see incredible interactive spherical panoramic images, and educational videos about the cloud forest environment of Costa Rica.