The third episode of NatureScapes Radio LIVE aired on Tuesday, May 4, 2010 and featured guest speaker Carl Donohue. This episode heavily focused on controversial environmental issues, including the oil rig disaster in the Gulf, urban sprawl, pollution, climate change, and the role photography and photojournalism play in educating the public and spreading news about such issues.

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Show Notes for NatureScapes Radio LIVE! Episode 3:

Dave Warner opened the program with a brief summary of what to expect in the episode (0:20), including discussion about the Gulf oil spill disaster, exploring the artistic side of nature photography, E.J.’s first impressions of the new iPad, and investigating some of Carl’s favorite images, which could be below.  Dave also offered a special coupon code to the NSN store for live listeners.

After initial greetings, Carl told a little bit about himself (4:04).  He grew up in Australia, then moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1991, and now lives in Alaska.  His passion for the outdoors developed as a child playing in the woods with his dogs in the land down under, before he moved to Atlanta for school and to pursue a career as a guitarist.  In the late 90s, he visited Alaska for the first time, spending six weeks of the summer there backpacking and photographing.  His summer visits to Alaska became an annual tradition.  Then Carl began to lead his own trips and started a business based around them, Alaskan Alpine Treks, before finally moving to Alaska three years ago.

Carl told us a little bit about his guiding business (7:02).  He described his clients (although he doesn’t really like the word) as people from all backgrounds.  They span all ages and come from all around the world with different ideas, said Carl, but all have in common a passion for the wilderness.  Trips are limited to 4-5 people per outing and are tailored to fit the needs, experiences, and abilities of those in the group.  Trips range from relaxed, with the group staying at a base camp and participating in day hikes, to extended backcountry expeditions.  Most of his treks are based out of Wrangell St. Alias National Park, but he has also done trips on the Kenai Peninsula and in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Katmai National Park.

Carl is an active conservationist and heavily involved in the Environment, Conservation, and Ethics Forum on NatureScapes (11:10).  He said he likes that the forum encourages discussion of topics that he feels are important to nature photographers, including baiting, feeding wildlife, photographing captive animals, and other more general conservation topics.  Online discussion via the forum, said Carl, is a great way to promote conversation about controversial topics without the emotional outbursts that can occur with face to face conversation when people are debating heated subjects they feel passionately about.  Greg added that because various viewpoints are often posted about the same subject, it gives readers the chance to see research and evidence from different sides of a story and enables them to form their own opinions. E.J. said that the way that NatureScapes encourages discussion of conservation topics as they pertain to photographers and in general provides a “deeper, richer conversation than [he has] seen on any other photography forum.”

On the topic of the environment and conservation, Dave asked Carl what he thought about the oil rig explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico (17:28).  “When I hear the word spill I think of a glass of milk or something,” said Carl.  “It’s referred to as a spill or oil leak.  I used to drive a Toyota Corolla and that thing had an oil leak.”  It is estimated that 210,000 gallons of oil is being released into the gulf each day.  “Oil is hemorrhaging out of the ground,” said Carl.  “I think [calling it a spill] is a damaging way to talk about it.”  Carl said that while he is not an expert on the situation in the Gulf, the situation is a “horrific mess.”  He also pointed out that eleven human lives were lost in the explosion and that it was still uncertain as to what exactly happened on the rig that caused the accident although people have been quick to point fingers and place blame.

“At this point is doesn’t matter [who was at fault],” said Dave.  “It’s got to be stopped and it’s got to be cleaned up.”  Dave, who lived along the Gulf Coast for several years said that the impact the oil would have on the fragile ecosystems of the Gulf Coast would make the disastrous Exxon Valdez spill of 1989 look “not as bad.”  Carl added that oil is such a toxic substance that it would destroy any natural area, regardless of how fragile or resilient a particular ecosystem is.

Carl asked listeners to consider our own dependence on and demand for cheap oil and cheap energy, calling the Gulf event a consequence of that demand.  He quoted the French philosopher Voltaire and said “No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible.” 

“I don’t think you can separate a culture of fossil fuel energy from the disasters that come from that,” he added.

Greg then spoke about the efforts he is making to organize a clean-up response effort in Louisiana (22:25).  As of the airing of this episode, the Coalition for the Restoration of Coastal Louisiana (whose aid efforts are being endorsed by the National Wildlife Foundation) is accepting names of volunteers, but cannot offer volunteer opportunities until authorized to by British Petroleum, who has agreed to pay for the clean up.  Volunteers will have to undergo a mandatory four hour HAZMAT training plus a one hour safety class before aiding in recovery efforts, due to the hazards of dealing with oil.  Those who already have HAZMAT/HAZWOPER training and/or experience in wildlife restoration and rehabilitation are in the highest demand.  A thread has been started on NatureScapes about volunteering for the Gulf clean-up and any news updates will be posted there.

JeffM, a user in the chat room, asked what role images play in educating people about and preventing such disasters, or if images just numb the public (30:10).  Carl said he believed that images play an important role but that when people do see too many of the same type of evocative powerful image they do tend to be impacted less by them.  He said it is hard to draw the line between what is necessary to show the reality of such a horrific event and what is too much and ends up desensitizing people to the severity of it.  He said that when documenting a tragic event such as the oil spill that it is not only important to photograph the horrible ugly effects of the disaster but also to photograph and show the beauty of the area so that people want to protect it.

Dave asked “What do you think one of the most important things that we as photographers can do to protect our environment?” (32:25). Carl said that as artists we can be honest in regards to what moves us, as that makes for the most powerful documentary photography.  He said it is also important to not just celebrate the “freaks of the nation”, hotspots like the Tetons or Yellowstone National Park, which generates adoration towards very few places while leaving others unseen and little valued.  Greg agreed, and the guys briefly discussed other, less publicized issues, including urban sprawl and the “keeping up with the Joneses” obsession with stuff, including the latest and greatest digital photography equipment and technology.  E.J. would later comment that “Unfortunately we have built an entire world economy around ‘more more more’.” (44:10).

Conversation then drifted back to the media and the role of the media (and photographers) in reporting conservation issues.  E.J. chimed in with a few of his observations, noting that he had heard one reporter on CNBC disturbingly referring to the events in the Gulf as a natural disaster (43:30). 

Some examples of photographers and works of art that show the impact of man on the environment were mentioned.  Dave called the work of environmental photographer Daniel Beltra (46:20) moving and impactful.  Carl mentioned a film called Manufactured Landscapes which follows photographer Edward Burtynsky (47:40) on a journey to show the impact of man on the planet as he documents industrial landscapes.

As a society, we are addicts, said Dave (50:45), who addressed the various technologies he was using just to broadcast the podcast to illustrate how dependent and addicted we have become to new and ever advancing products.

Dave then decided it was time to switch to a more upbeat topic and asked Greg what was new on the NatureScapes site (51:45).  Greg briefly discussed the Florida Birding & Fotofest in St. Augustine, which he and NatureScapes Editor Kari Post recently attended.  The festival provided a great opportunity to meet NSN members and network with and learn from other photographers.  More on the festival can be found in the summary article published on NatureScapes.  Some new articles have been published on the site, including an article on photographing from boats by Kari Post, an article by Carolyn E. Wright on proper summer attire for the outdoor photographer, and a heartwarming piece on how to make your own backyard photography habitat and blind by Mike Matenkosky.

The guys then turned the show over to E.J. in order to discuss the new iPad (57:55).  He said the new 3G iPad is way more than he expected it to be and that it serves as a useful computer replacement as long as you are not creating content on it.  For the internet, email, and other more passive tasks, the iPad is great.  E.J. said a single charge lasts 10-11 hours and that the machine has a very low energy footprint compared to computers and other similar devices. Since getting his iPad a week ago, E.J. said he only turned on his power hungry computer system once, when he needed to process some photographs. He said apps written specifically for the iPad are phenomenal. For photography applications, the iPad is a bit more limited, but does allow for an impressive digital portfolio display. It is possible to upload RAW images to the iPad using the camera connection kit. E.J. feels that once the technology for the iPad matures, photographers will be able to find more uses for it. Dave, who also has an iPad, agrees that the device exceeded his expectations and will continue to grow as new applications are developed for it.

Dave next took listener questions (1:07:47), submitted via email, Twitter, or the chat room.  The first question was “What is the usability of a tilt and shift lens for nature photography?”  E.J., who has a lot of experience with tilt-shift lenses, took the question.  He explained the two functions of the tilt-shift lens.  The tilt function allows you to change the plane of focus of the lens, which allows the photographer to change their depth of field without stopping down.  He said the tilt function is great for wildflowers.  The shift function is good for eliminating diverging and converging lines that occur when a lens is tilted up or down, which is great for forest scenes when you don’t want the trees to look tilted.  Another advantage of these lenses is that they tend to have a very large exit pupil, E.J. said, which tends to lessen problems caused in the corners of the frame with other wide-angle lenses, such as corner softness.  He also noted that all tilt-shift lenses are manual focus.  E.J. mentioned that software can be used to somewhat replicate the tilt effect of a lens which allows for increased depth of field using a wider open aperture.  Helicon Focus is the most popular program for this, although more recent versions of Photoshop are also capable of focus stacking images as well.  Focus combining can also be done manually, although it is a time consuming process.  An article on Focus Combining by Christina Evans can be found in the NatureScapes article archives.

Dave then asked Greg how he felt social networking sites could be used to help photographers looking to sell images (1:19:00).  Greg said that he felt social networking sites appeared to be interactions between people with similar interests (photographers networking with other photographers) so that the market for selling images via social networking sites was probably rather limited.  He feels that social networking sites are valuable for sharing information and may be useful to photographers offering workshops or selling other services to other photographers.  E.J. said he set up a Facebook fan page for his photography business and has sold a few images to publications that way (1:20:05).  Greg said that Twitter and Facebook are different animals, but felt that the more you can get your pictures out there, the better off you’ll be from a marketing perspective.  However, he cautioned about getting spread too thin and spending too much time posting images on multiple sites.  The other guys joined in and the four of them dove into a discussion about various social networking sites including Facebook, Twitter, and Google Buzz, and talked about everything from using them for marketing, privacy (or lack thereof), and advertising via these sites.

The remainder of the show was used to discuss several of Carl’s images (1:28:08) which were posted on the podcast page prior to the show.  Dave, E.J., and Greg commented on the various photographs and they were used to illustrate several subjects discussed earlier in show, including environmental photojournalism and tilt-shift lenses.  They discussed how images like Carl’s can be used to promote conservation and environmental responsibility, and how resources like the Environment, Conservation, and Ethics Forum on NatureScapes can be used to educate one another about environmental issues that need coverage and awareness. 

Join Dave, Greg, and E.J. with guest Tim Grey for the next episode of NatureScapes Radio LIVE on Tuesday, June 1, 2010 at 9PM EST.

About Our Guest:

Carl Donohue - a passionate lover of the outdoors and the owner / operator of Alaskan Alpine Treks, a professional backpacking and photo guiding service, and Skolai Images, a Nature, Travel and Adventure Stock Photography business. "A reverence for what is wild, for the primordial, is embedded in the way I see the world. I guess I'm a wilderness advocate, and consider my photography a critical part of that journey. I'm also a fan of the creative process, of creating, of the experience of making art, which reflects the wildness within our selves; is creating art in the external wilderness perhaps the perfect union? When possible, I write, photograph, hike, camp and dally in the places I love; when I can't, I imagine I'm writing, photographing, hiking, camping and dallying in the places I love. The lessons I learn in the wilderness are some of the most valuable experiences in my life, and for each of them, I'm grateful. I’m currently working on a photography book on Wrangell-Saint Elias National Park and Preserve, Alaska, which grants me time in some absolutely amazing places. What a world!” For treks and photo tours, visit www.alaskanalpinetreks.com. For stock photography, visit www.skolaiimages.com. “For better living, visit the wild.”

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Images discussed during the show: