Mercury Rising Teacher's Log #2

Gary Braasch's path to photography was unusual. He didn't own a camera until he was an adult, studying journalism in college. His first camera was simple, and when that was stolen he didn't immediately replace it. "My life had nothing to do with photography."

During a tour of duty in the Air Force, Gary took a short Creative Photography course, the only formal training in photography he's had.

Gary was a writer. He began taking pictures to go with the stories he wrote. "Then I discovered I was taking much better pictures than I was writing articles. There were a number of pictures that were magical and that surprised me. My photographs were powerful for me and for the people looking at them."

The 1980 eruption of Mount Saint Helens, a volcano in the state of Washington, was a turning point in Gary's career. He began looking for the news in nature, using both his training in journalism and his knowledge of photography. "Before that I was just making pretty pictures."

Gary is an environmental photographer. "The environment is the sky, the plants, the forest, the soils, the mountains, the sea...the natural part of the planet. But I'm also photographing the part that means conservation and protecting the planet."

In his current project, "World View of Global Warming," Gary is working to photograph the effects of climate change, something that's not always easy to see. Here at the Monteverde Cloud Forest, he's taken pictures of the cloud bank that now forms at a higher altitude, pictures of a small lizard that now lives closer to a river to find the moisture it needs, and pictures of the area where the Golden Toad once lived.

"Most habitats are feeling some effect of climate change. Scientists know that from watching the behavior of animals and plants," Gary commented.

Good photography isn't easy. As an environmental photographer, Gary often deals with plants and landscapes in less than perfect weather or lighting and with animals that hide or don't hold still.

It also takes time. "Keep going back until you get the pictures. Wait for the light. It takes more patience and persistence than skill." That may be so, but Gary's skill becomes obvious as soon as you see his photographs.

Seedpods: These orange and dark brown seedpods develop from flowers pollinated by bats and hang on a branch of the Mucuna urens tree. They're about three inches long, with bumpy ridges. When we look closely, we can see the golden, prickly hairs that make touching these seedpods painful.

Flowers of the Columnea microcalyx: These large orange flowers are pollinated by hummingbirds and bloom during the Cloud Forest's wet and misty seasons. Gary spots the flowers and spends time photographing them.

Orchids: We see ten or twelve varieties, including those that Karen Masters is studying (see today's Dispatch). The tiniest has flowers incredibly small. Most of the orchids in the Cloud Forest are epiphytes that live high up in the tree canopy. We see those that have fallen to the ground on dead branches.

Tropical Sweet Cedar: This tree can reach huge sizes and was often cut for lumber. We see a thick and tall living Tropical Sweet Cedar and another that fell down across a creek a few months ago.

Oak: The Oak tree and the Tropical Sweet Cedar are the two largest kinds of trees found in the Monteverde Cloud Forest.

Myrtac (Myrtaceae): The bark of this tree is white and sometimes sheds. That keeps too many epiphytes from growing on it. The Myrtac is related to the Eucalyptus and Guava trees.

Liverwort: The leafy structure of this plant is dark gray-brown; it curls because it's drying out in today's sunlight. What looks like its leaves aren't considered true leaves, because they don't carry water.

Hemi-epiphytes: This means "half epiphytes." These plants begin their life as an epiphyte (a plant growing on other plants) but send roots down to the ground to get water and food from the soil.

Green Hermit Hummingbird call: This hummingbird makes a squeaky chirp that it repeats over and over. It's the male, hoping to attract a female with his call.