Grizzly Bear - Khutzeymateen Provincial Park, British Columbia Canada

Random Musings on Teaching, Photography, and Conservation

July 12, 2019 in Featured

As a high school educator who has spent the better part of a career teaching Advanced Placement Biology courses, I am constantly looking for ways to inspire “buy-in” by my students. I stress the values of grit, perseverance, and resiliency. I spend my non-contact hours dreaming up ways to bait the hook so that my content is too irresistible to ignore. Yet, there are times when I know I am a fraud; a flimflam artist trying to sell an old junker of a car as if it were something shiny and new. Herein lies what I consider to be the art in teaching.

Harbor Seal - Broughton Archipelago, British Columbia Canada

Photography is a wonderful parallel to my life as a teacher. When I’m not thinking about the next lab or lesson to share with students, I’m dreaming of ways to make compelling images that will engage and entertain the viewer. More than this, I am seeking to inspire my audience to value a world that extends beyond our human wants. I use this medium to display life’s diversity and to illustrate its beauty. Like the teacher who focuses on the extremes of reality to establish a commitment to learning, this photographer uses the same tools as way to inspire conservation and the fear of loss. My hope is that my images force you to look into the eyes of a cute animal in its untouched habitat and wonder…

Bobcat - Point Reyes National Seashore, California United States

The amount of detail captured by the photographer, the cameras used, or the time spent to get on location are all irrelevant if the pictures produced fail to inspire the audience. Like the great teachers, the real wildlife artist is a master of exclusion leaving you with more questions than answers.

Sunrise on the St. Croix, Minnesota
Nikon D500 + Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6G VR

Summer's End, 2016

September 05, 2016 in September 2016

Tomorrow is the first day with my latest crop of students. I began my teaching career twenty-four years ago and assumed it would be a short-term gig. I never experienced "the calling," an intrinsic desire to devote myself to serving children... to teach. Yet, here I sit with less than twenty-four hours to go, and I am excited to return to the classroom.

The Old Birch, Minnesota
Nikon D810 + Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5G

To those who ask, I claim to be a fortunate man. Married to the love of my life nearly three decades, I have been a researcher, traveler and photographer... all of which now fall under the category of avocation rather than career.

Ferns and Fog, Minnesota
Nikon D810 + Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5G

I didn't find teaching, it found me. Many years later, I now know that this thing I do is not "just a job." I have embraced the profession and the responsibility that accompanies the vocation. Undervalued by some and overvalued by others, I continue to search for ways to motivate and inspire.

Forest Fog, Minnesota
Nikon D810 + Nikon 18-35mm f/3.5G

So as I share this gallery of images made during my last week of "freedom," I both mourn and celebrate the passing of summer. The moniker of photographer/naturalist/traveler is laid to sleep for the winter and, with chalk in hand, I am ready to do that thing that I do best.

Sunrise on the St. Croix, MN
Nikon D500 + Nikon 200-500mm f/5.6G VR

Fires to the North
Nikon D810 + Nikon 50mm f1.8 AFS-G

Good Work

May 17, 2016 in May 2016

During one of those all too frequent moments where I was waxing poetic about some prior exploit, a student asked me if I regretted my decision to become a teacher. As these queries often appear in a flurry, I was not surprised when the topic turned to my decision to live in Minnesota rather than my childhood haunts of New York City and Southern California. I suppose that if I grew up in a midwest suburb and my teacher was from a heavily publicized city and appeared surprisingly competent, I might wonder why he chose to stick around rather than pursue what seemed to be a more exciting life. Were I was asked to reflect on these choices twenty years ago you might here a hint regret, but today I am rather sanguine when it comes to my plight. Teaching has been good to me. While it is very hard work, emotionally demanding and can be painfully redundant, the rewards far outweigh the costs. There is a real purpose to my life, as I have the opportunity to share my deep passion for how scientists do science. While I love to lecture about all things ecology, evolution and molecular biology, my real creativity is borne from those rare moments when I can frame an exploration that fosters naive discovery.

In the Hole of the Storm
Nikon D500 + Nikon 200-400mm VR AFS

As "Teacher's Week" came and went, I couldn't help but reflect on the good fortune that led me into this field. Working as a field ecologist for a university team on St. George Island, Alaska, I was also charged with helping a middle-school teacher on sabbatical to fit in with our group. Not being much of a people person, this was quite a daunting task; yet there was something about the man that seemed remarkable to me. Dwight was not only a middle-school science teacher, but he was an amateur photographer who chose to spend his free minutes documenting life with a camera. After nearly two weeks of collaboration and training Dwight and I parted company, but he left a little something behind. I think it was the midnight dinners and frosty beers that loosened our tongues, and resulted in philosophical chats about living a quality life. This teacher loved his work, believed he was doing good, and enjoyed the small things like so few seem to do. It's been nearly 30 years since I last talked to the man, but I sincerely believe that the teacher I am today can be attributed to my own naive discovery about a guy and his career that evoked passion and a love for good work.

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