An Eye For Pollen


"Photography is ultimately a catalyst", explains Carll Goodpasture, the scientist cum photographer who created the extraordinary pictures on this page. “It’s a force influencing our perception of reality”.

Goodpastue’s photographs- these and more- are traveling the country beginning this month, as part of an exhibition, Vanishing Pollinators, organized by the Smithsonian National Zoological Park in Washington D.C.

The exhibition captures the largely unseen relationship between flowering plants and visiting pollinators, a delicate and complex symbiosis that is increasingly threatened by environmental change.

Educated in California and now living in Norway, Goodpasture has been photographing pollinators for 35 years. He took these pictures in Spain, Norway, and the US, many of them in botanical gardens.

We (at this newspaper) believe that there is no better way to inspire you to do likewise; combine art and science. Today we introduce the Nature & Eye Photo contest sponsored by Quest and the San Diego Natural History Museum.

Should you need further encouragement, listen to Goodpasture explain the essence of nature photography; “Without a visual image, what meaning do things have? Photography’s significance and importance lie therefore in its ability to convey visual information as well as to inspire a viewer to do something, like to think, feel, or learn about life.

Unless we know living things, how will we come to love them? Unless we learn to love them, we will not have the will to conserve, protect, or sustain them. And, to complete the argument, without them we will not exist”. For Goodpasture’s tips on nature photography, turn to the how to photograph close up page here.

For more information see "About the photography" then click on "Technical Info".


- Leigh Fenly,The Plight of Pollinators, The San Diego Union Tribune, September 5, 2001