Nature Photography in Science Education

Recently I went hiking at Howland's Island, which is part of the Montezuma Wetlands Complex.  I'm a photographer as well as an educator, so I brought my camera along.  In fact, I put up some of the nature shots I took from the trip up on my photo blog.  This was my first time hiking there, and I found it to be a beautiful place and an enjoyable experience.  While I was there the informal science educator in me kept popping into my head.  Instead of looking for artistic things to photograph, I started thinking about what kinds of photographs I could use as part of a educational program.  Usually, I use photographs in my work to give a clear representation of something I'm teaching about.  It might be a picture of a planet, a moon, or an animal, but the pictures are always direct and easy to read.  Maybe it's because I've been thinking about Landsat imagery lately, but the idea that came to me was to make photos that weren't so easy to read.  Instead of the subject being centered in the foreground, what if it were hidden somewhere in the setting?  This approach, seems to me to be more in-line with what being in nature is actually like.  When you are out there you have to seriously observe your environment if you want to find the good stuff.  I don't know if the images I made will end up in an education program or not, but I think they are fun and remind of the wonder I always experience when encountering animals in the wild.

Muskrat swimming at Howland's Island

At first glance the image above looks like a simple view of a wetland pond, but can you find the muskrat?  This muskrat started near the bank on the right.  When I started walking by it swam out 10 feet or so, and then swam back the bank on the left side, making on big half-circle.  The muskrat started swimming directly toward me, but right before it reached the bank it dived underwater and vanished.  I never saw it come up.

Muskrat lodges and Canada goose

Some of the most noticeable features of the wetlands at Howland's Island are muskrat lodges.  The photo above shows three of these lodges.  At first glance they may seem like the interesting part of the image and the educational subject of the photo.  In fact, this is all I noticed at first too.  Luckily, my girlfriend is a birder and spotted a Canada goose.  Can you find it?  Click on the photo to view a larger version and see what you can find.

Canada goose on muskrat lodge

Here is a close-up shot of the Canada goose.  It appears that this is probably a female guarding her next.  A nest which happens to be on top of a muskrat lodge.  The color of her back is well camouflaged against the dead branches.  Notice that she hides her black neck, which may have been more noticeable.  My girlfriend and I watched this bird for five minutes or so, trying to figure out what was going on.  At first we thought she might be dead, but we did end up seeing some slight movement and ended up agreeing on the nesting hypothesis.  I wonder if she adopted that posture when we came near or was already laying like that.

Have any of you ever tried activities with images like this with your students or museum visitors?  Wouldn't a program with photos like these be fun.  I imagine the students could really become engaged talking through what they saw and trying to figure out the animal behavior.

Can you find the bird's nest.

PS.  This shot is from a different photo shoot from a few weeks ago.  I couldn't resist adding it.  Can you find the bird's nest?