It shapes what we notice, challenges our assumptions, and expands our curiosity. Then I placed a light behind the hive to make the surrounding wax glow.Ī compelling photograph can change us. Using a trick I’d learned from an entomologist, I plucked one of my eyelashes and used its thin, flexible tip to brush a bit of debris away from the bee’s face. One day I noticed something out of place: A young bee had become trapped as it was emerging from the hive. I started by learning how to keep bees in my Berkeley, California, backyard, hoping that with enough time and study, I’d discover some new way of portraying their lives. But as an insecure young photographer, how could I say no? So I faked some enthusiasm and landed a job I had no idea how to accomplish. The tiny pollinators had already garnered so much media attention that I couldn’t imagine how I could contribute anything new. When editors at National Geographic asked me to photograph a story on honeybees, I was not excited to take on the assignment. Photograph by TIM FLACHįor example, size. Right: A portrait of a male northern cardinal showcases the fine points of his vibrant red plumage, used to attract females. But I didn’t grasp the true magic of what was in front of me until I saw the photographs David took of these creatures I’d been gathering. My eyes were glued to the tanks, my attention absorbed by these alien beings. I had never imagined such bizarre life-forms could exist in our oceans. At the end of each night, I’d sit and marvel at my dazzling collection. Those evenings aboard the Sette made me feel as if I were on another planet. I’d carefully select an ambassador for each species and set up aquariums to house them as they waited for David to take their glamour shot. Shimmering baby eels, tiny transparent crabs, sparkling squid. Like moths drawn to a flame, mysterious creatures would emerge from the depths in search of this light. )Įvery night after the Sette had completed its scientific mission, I would cast a floating lamp off the port side of the ship. ( See the microscopic universe that lives in a single drop of water. My role was to collect specimens for him to photograph. David’s assignment was to document the astounding biodiversity found at the surface of the ocean. We spent 10 days aboard the Oscar Elton Sette, a 224-foot NOAA research vessel sailing off the Kona coast of Hawaii. Then, at 20, I was introduced to photographer David Liittschwager, who hired me to help him with a National Geographic magazine assignment on marine life. At 14, I started working at my neighborhood aquarium shop. Since I grew up in a landlocked suburb of Atlanta, I lived out this fantasy by setting up aquariums at home. As a kid, I dreamed of becoming a marine biologist and living my life by the sea.
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