Cedar Key

The morning temps dropped into the 30s and there was little activity at the ramp in the morning. Cold clouds covered the horizon and the light was not good for shooting. I made a bunch of phone calls to line-up shooting opportunities and then drove to Gainesville for an oil change and tire rotation, deciding that the light would not be good again until 3:00 pm anyway.

Cedar Key

At first light I hung around the shell boat ramp, behind the new marina, talking with and photographing fishermen coming and going. I learned later that Heat Davis convinced the city commission to buy this land for $250,000, driving his point home with pictures of the new blue, metal marina, which many locals dislike, followed by pictures of the old “Cedar Key” way. He told them this was their chance to preserve water access for the fishermen who were otherwise being pushed off the island by land prices, they agreed and bought the land that makes up the natural boat ramp plus an adjacent area for parking vehicles.

It was there that I met Chris Topping and hitched an airboat ride with him, Mike Beckham, and their two cohorts out to a new clam lease they will be planting. It was an exhilarating ride though the wind cut through my jeans like they were mesh. Next time I will wear waders like the others on the boat. We met Jerry Beckham and his 320pound nephew out on the water and I rode back with them in their Carolina Skiff.

Cedar Key

This afternoon I was speaking with Jerry Beckham at Beckham Seafood. He has been an Oysterman all his life and easily made the transition to clamming. He spoke rather objectively about the Net Ban and seems to harbor less resentment than many of the other former net fishermen. He said he could see the day was coming when the nets would be taken away. Several times, he said how much things has changed. He said, “you couldn’t pay my daddy enough to put a crab trap on his boat.”

He explained that back then there were crabbing families, line fishing families, net fishing families, and oystering families, and that they didn’t cross over. His was an oystering family. Jerry also had some great comments about the moon, and how much his father talked about the moon. He talked about the power of the moon and its reflected light, saying that in the old days the fishermen went out at night would cover their mullet with palm fronds sand mangrove leaves to keep the moon from spoiling them. He said the moonlight would spoil fish faster than the sun, going on to say that a full moon would bleach the color out of your clothes faster than sunlight. He also talked about digging holes and the power of the moon. If you did a hole on a waxing moon you will have more than enough dirt to refill it, but if you dig a hole on a waning moon, you will not have enough dirt to refill it in the end. Something to do with the pull on the water in the earth, he added.

Earlier I photographed Mike and Beth Davis sorting and packing clams, Jeanine and Nancy Beckham shucking oysters, and Leslie Sturmer and others studying clam genetics.

What is Conservation Photography?

Letter by Carlton read to founding assembly of the International League of Conservation Photographers, Anchorage, Alaska, September 30, 2005

Here are my thoughts on a central question: What makes a Conservation Photographer?

In very simple terms, it is it relies on the two words: a Photographer working for Conservation. It is a given that all of us here are photographers (plus editor and reps), but the defining principal should be conservation.

A photographer should not qualify as a conservation photographer unless his or her primary purpose is advancing conservation. Loss of biological and cultural diversity is the most fundamental problem facing humanity, yet these issues are not receiving the necessary attention. In a modern world, photography needs to help solve this problem and is arguably the most powerful tool available for doing so.

Each person who claims membership to the ILCP should be a conservationist first. He or she should be choosing projects based on the ability to make a difference. With the privilege of being the eyes of the world comes a serious responsibility to help steer society in the right direction. And while an ILCP member should be a dedicated professional producing photographs of the highest quality possible, their role should not stop there. The photographs should be embraced as a means to an end goal of conservation, not an end in and of itself. Photography is a potent force only when applied.

The ultimate measure of successful conservation photography should be creating tangible advancement for the conservation agenda. The benchmarks have been set: the early American landscape photographers and the creation of the national parks, Nick Nichols and the new national parks in Gabon, Peter Dombrovskis and the conservation movement in Australia, Patricio Robles Gil and the trans-boundary Wilderness in Mexico. These are the examples of our mission.

Each ILCP member should be an ambassador for conservation and for the mission of the league, and they should use their pictures to champion for conservation causes. If the photographer cannot do their own campaigning, they should make sure the photographs are placed in the hands of people who can use them to affect change.

I believe the most important achievement of this symposium will be for the photographers to leave here will a common vision of what ILCP stands for. There are seemingly endless possibilities for how the principals of conservation photography can be applied and for what role the ILCP will serve in advancing their principals. But the principals are the guiding factor that all decisions should come back to. Like a constitution, our principals will define us and must be cauterized before we take the next steps.

As such, please remember this opinion: Conservation in the essential mission, applied professional Photography our solution.

Thanks you for considering my thoughts,

Carlton Ward Jr.

Omotepe, Nicaragua

The island of Omotepe is surrounded by Lake Nicaragua. It is the largest freshwater island in the world. I sit on the patio of the Omotepe Biological Station, looking out over the lake. The surface is calm, resting from the stiff easterly winds that stir the waters 300 days out of the year. Behind me, the dominant volcano is hidden by fog. After breakfast we will hike into the mist toward the San Ramon waterfall which plummets 350 feet.