This site was originally developed as an appendage to the website of meteorology for biologists.  It is a sort-of “freebie”  intended to add value to lecture material in the meteorology for biologists course.  While there is no obvious relation between the two subjects, it is material that is certainly relevant to every biologist who does any field work, and is material that is not often taught in conventional biology programs.  Yet everyone has a camera today, though many people only have a cell phone camera, and only a fraction of biologists ever become serious about photography.   Why?

This site will provide some motivation for why photography remains important – if that isn’t already obvious to biologists and field scientists of related disciplines.  It also provides basic guidence on how to take better photos – from a scientist’s perspective.

The material here does not pretend to be a self-contained nature photography course.  A tremendous amount of material can be found today online (or in photo books) on virtually any aspect of photography.  The material presented here should be supplemented by such online content.

The Photography for Biologists link below provides content and examples related to field photography.  This short course focuses on techniques to improve photography.  Though this is intended mostly for biologists, it could be useful for any nature photographer.

Photography for Biologists (a short course)

 “Quick” summary of photo tips

Silhouettes for naturalists

Birders know that it is important to recognize birds by their silhouette since many birds will only be seen against the sky.  But many other natural history subjects can be revealed by their silhouettes and here we provide a sampling of images to test the readers knowledge of nature.  We have modified the original color images to produce images where the silhouette is the main feature.  See if you can identify the subjects being shown.  This is an early work in progress… text will come (eventually).

Note on photo to left:  This camera and flash set-up is not ours – it was photographed on the Anhinga Trail in the Everglades National Park.  Bird photography benefits from lots of specialized equipment.