"The camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity"

The title of this blog post is a quote by French photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson,  the father of modern photojournalism. What does this have to do with field biology you might ask? Well, Cartier-Bresson also once said that "a photograph could fix eternity in an instant" and I completely agree. I want to remember this experience for years to come, and photos are the way to do so. For the most part, I have been taking photos throughout my internship using my easy-to-use point-and-shoot Panasonic in order to document this amazing journey. However, I have also taken my Nikon D90 Digital SLR camera out on some spontaneous adventures. Just my bike, my music, and camera. So I would like to share with you today some of the photos I have taken throughout my journey here in The Bahamas, taken with a both a point and shoot and DSLR, photos that were taken underwater and on land, and photos of human and nature subjects. I hope you enjoy.

Panasonic LUMIX DMC-ZS20

 Beautiful Sunrise!

Sunrise from my tent on Surfer's Beach

Birthday Cake rock in the Hatchet Bay Caves

Caught Schoolmaster Snapper handlining

Setting the last anchor of the longline

Green Sea Turtle caught in Half Sound 

 Diving at the Cage

Diving at the Cage

Diving at the Cage

Diving through the Tunnel at Tunnel Rock

 Corals at Tunnel Rock

 Corals at Tunnel Rock

Corals at Tunnel Rock

Large palm trees located at the abandoned Club Med

Nikon D90 DSLR

 @ High Rock

 @ High Rock

 @ High Rock

 @ High Rock

@ High Rock

until next time!

Sincerely,

Your sometimes photographer Field Biologist

In the Aftermath - Tales from Hurricane Sandy part 4

Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay. Immediately after the hurricane we lost internet connection for a couple days and since then, we have been very busy getting back into the swing of things. We all made it through the hurricane unscathed with one more interesting story to tell. The campus also managed to sustain minimal damages:

• The Wet Lab lost 4 roof panels, one of which got blown across the road
• Aquaponics lost a couple of their shade sails and posts, even through they were secured before the Hurricane
• The Island School had
• 1 toppled Flag Pole
• countless destroyed plants
• 2 fallen trees
• Mangroves held up quite well with few losses (which just proves why mangroves make such amazing storm barriers!!!)
• Surprisingly the wind turbine held up ok, and for days afterwards was moving with such ferocious speeds the sound could be heard all across campus

 

I spent a few hours on the Saturday following the storm, along with the other Interns and Island School kids, cleaning up campus. In particular, we righted the flag pole and attempted to save the large almond tree that got blown over. We dug out the ground for the roots and tried to pull it back up with the truck but the cord snapped. We ended up propping it up with a 2x4 until we could get the crane truck in to do most of the heavy lifting. It now seems to be doing ok.

What I think was absolutely amazing was for days after the storm passed, we still experienced extreme winds! So much so that the wind turbine was still running at amazing speeds!

I just want to take a minute to thank everyone who sent me well wishes during the storm. They were very much appreciated! I hope everyone who got hit by Sandy along the East Coast of the United States are doing ok as well and my thoughts are with you!

until next time

Sincerely,

Your Field Biologist