At the Women's Wellness Weekend we held recently at Fairy Stone State Park we were fortunate to have Carl Boast share his knowledge of nature photography. I sat in on his lecture which started with some incredible photographs he had taken. Actually I was called over to his program because he chose The Colors of the Wind from Disney's Pocahontas as his background (that song always makes me cry).
Carl did a wonderful job explaining the technical aspects of photography including one of the best explanations of the exposure/aperture relationship that I have heard (and I have heard many).
But what I took away from his class was his one comment: "To become a better nature photographer, become a better naturalist." After all, the more you know about the behavior of nature, the more you will know when and where to find the shot of the creature or landscape that lets you capture it at its essence.
Carl used this opportunity to put in a plug for one of his other passions - the Virginia Master Naturalist Program (and yes that's a picture of the Douthat State Park Spillway on their main web page). I am going to cheat and use the description of the program right from their website:
From the Virginia State Parks perspective, this is a fantastic program because it creates a cadre of enthusiastic and knowledgeable volunteers anxious to volunteer in our park and they are making an impact. Our agency, the Department of Conservation and Recreation, is one of the partnering organizations that make this program possible. A peak at the 2009 annual accomplishments will show you what this origanization is doing. For more details see their full 2009 annual report. To find a Chapter near you, click here.
Back to Carl. Carl is a member of the Blue Ridge Foothills and Lakes Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists. He is a volunteer at Smith Mountain Lake State Park and Fairy Stone State Park. We appreciate his support of our Virginia State Parks Women's Wellness Weekend!
