Environmental Disaster of Epic Proportions

Environmental Disaster of Epic proportions
Today I spent most of the day out in boats photographing the BP Oil Spill affected areas in South Louisiana. It was heartbreaking to say the least. As a nature photographer who has routinely tried to display the very best of nature in my images, this was difficult. To look around and see the potential beauty and as a scientist, realize the potential harm, my heart broke. I hear the stories of how the people here are being affected. Their livelihoods, their homes, their families, their beautiful backyard. They are angry and rightly so. As I watch Brown Pelicans on a rookery, some of their island was coated with oil. They are surrounded by “protective boom” to keep the oil out.. I wonder how they know to stay inside the boom. Were there training and information sessions for them on the dangers of sitting in oil slick water, or trying to scoop up fish from water full of oil, emulsified down into the water column? I think not. The boom I saw set out today was somewhat of a joke. Not maintained, not complete and any small chop blown up by wind can cross the boom and with the oil down under the surface, the boom prevents none of that.
And where is the clean up? In the past 3 days of looking around the epicenter of this ecological disaster, the only effort I have seen is the boom being placed. I have seen the presence of most of the agencies.. USFWS, USCG, Army Reserve, LA State Fish and Wildlife, but I haven’t seen the EPA around at all. I heard a story from one of the boat captains that 2 days ago shrimp trawlers were out in one of the bays going back and forth over oil that had been spray with dispersant. He asked one of his friends who was piloting one of the boats what they were doing. The reply was “breaking up the oil so it will sink”.. and this is considered CLEANUP? The government and President have said they are doing all they can to help, while there are thousands of volunteers waiting, being told that it is a liability if they get out there to help. The American people need to be told what is being done to start cleaning this up and to prevent any further encroachment of BP oil on American soil. We need to have confidence that our government is going full throttle, not rhetoric. Show us the evidence, show us your effort. You tell us you’re doing something, but I’ve been there in the heart of the disaster, and I don’t see it. We need to call our Congress representatives and tell them to get on the ball. We need to support organizations like Defenders of the Wildlife and National Wildlife Federation who are trying to help.

This Isn't Venice Italy

Having just returned from a trip to Greece and Italy, I thought the next time I would tell someone that I’m going to Venice, it would be a trip to Venice, Italy since we didn’t go there back in March.. Then certain events in life change your entire perspective.. The BP Oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has done that.. Within days of realizing just how large the spill was and considering the impact on the Gulf Coast environment, I knew I had to come photograph what was happening. Rebecca and I were walking with another scientist from her department when I told her that I might want to be gone for 1-2 weeks to photograph the oil spill.. She said no problem.. To put this response in perspective, our wedding is coming up on July 3 and we still have some planning and details to work out.. What a great support, but that is one of the many reasons I am marrying her..
On to the Oil Spill. Today I was fortunate to get on one of the boats that the National Wildlife Federation put together to get a first hand look at the oil on the water. There were scientists from LSU and FSU, reporters and photographers and videographers from Reuters, AP, NBC, PBS.. I actually got to meet Tom Bearden of the MacNeil Lehrer Report for PBS.. Nice guy. There was even a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) or submarine that a scientist from LSU brought to look for oil under the surface of the water. He went down about 250 feet and saw globules of oil floating consistently down the entire water column. We saw no fish, no dolphins, no birds.
All of this is very disturbing. The thoughts that the impact may be for 10-15 years, maybe even a lifetime. This oil spill may affect all of the Gulf States coastline and maybe the Atlantic States coastline up to Cape Hatteras. The amount of wildlife and wild areas that may be affected is staggering. This trip is my start of document, over time, the affects of the oil spill on wild life and wild areas. My wish is that the images will get no worse than the ones I’ve seen.. But I know that is only a pipedream..
You can follow my on my Twitter page, bcphoto3 and this blog.. Feel free to pass it one or to leave comments…

Bon Secour NWR and Gulf Oil Spill

I have been here since Saturday afternoon.. Talked to a bunch of people and walked several beaches and some trails. The only evidence you see here that there is something coming is the barriers the Alabama National Guard has put up on the Sound side of Fort Morgan area. These barriers are lined with a felt like material and will be filled with a polymer that binds to hydrocarbons and will not release them once bound.. Supposedly the polymer can then be used for paving or even burned with a higher BTU than lignite coal.. The polymer is not toxic to wildlife, even ingested while loaded with hydrocarbons.

The US Coast Guard has also been mobilized as 500 Reserve USCG have been deployed from all over the country to the Gulf coast to try to respond to any threat of oil coming on shore.. The group I talked to is from Hawaii.. A long way from home..

Tar balls, even though I haven't seen any yet, are normal to come on shore. They don't know where they come from.. Speculation is oil leaking from fields underwater, oil rigs leaking, tankers with oil leaking, etc.. I have been told that all the tar balls found have been tested and are not from the Deep Horizon event.. But we were also told that only 200000 gallons a day were leaking from the site and now appears that may be a gross underestimate.

All in all, people are mobilizing to try to deal with the eventual onslaught of oil.. Whether that will be beaches black with oil slicks or just a few tar balls, no one seems to know..

LA is getting hit very hard and that is the next stop on my trip by Tuesday afternoon..

I'm hoping to keep coming back to these areas to document photographic the effect of what some people say is the worst environmental disaster in American history.. Stay tuned..

Gulf Oil Spill

Waiting to hear from Jamie Clark.. May be going down to LA, MS, AL, FL coast to photograph the results of the Deep Horizon BP Gulf Oil spill. Have all my gear ready. I will try to blog and tweet about my adventures. I have usually tried to photograph the positive images of nature as I want something good that people can focus on... But this oil spill along the coast of where I grew up vacationing ( and was just there last May) really makes me consider that people need to see the bad that goes on in nature too. Especially when it is man's fault. To raise awareness of how we treat our environment and what our dependence on oil is doing to our environment seems to pull at me. I am a positive person by nature, but if I have to use negative images to create a positive response, I will.

Off to South Africa

I'm sitting in airport in Knoxville TN waiting to board plane. By this time tomorrow (11/29) I will be in Johannesburg South Africa. By the evening of Monday, will be in Kruger NP.. I am going to attempt to publish some while on the road, with some images, if possible.
Stayed tuned.. Two weeks in South Africa will be stunning and hopefully come back with lots of great images..

Bill

Weighing in on Health Care Debate

Ok, most of what I write here is usually nature and philosophically related. I hate politics and usually don't like to get caught up into political debate. Many times it is a struggle of one power (read money) against another power (read more money). I have always thought that we should have terms limits across the board (yes, that includes the Supreme Court) and maybe, just maybe, we would have more statesmen (and stateswomen) come forward to serve their country, not the politician with agendas to fill and pork to send home. We would also have to have election reform because you cannot get elected without lots of money backing you (and usually one of the parties, but don't get me started on our party system!).

What has brought me out to want to voice my opinion is the health care debate. So many of us are tired of paying huge prices for health care and being totally at the mercy of the insurance company. We all want affordable health care. But the plan ahead of us thinks that by putting slight pressure on insurance companies that they will mend their ways.. HA. If you are old enough, think back to when insurance was to cover going into the hospital or catastrophic injuries. ER visits were covered because people usually only went to the ER for true emergencies. Doctors office visits were reasonable, medicine didn't cost as much and tests weren't as sophisticated and expensive.

Insurance companies came in and said we can cover all of this, just pay us a bit more.

And they did and everyone one seemed happy. Most people didn't know that the coverage they now had greatly increased the hospitals and physicians overhead. Now it seems there are more people working in hospitals and doctor offices to keep up with the billing and insurance paperwork than actually are there to help you feel better. And I have never met a "poor" insurance executive.. If you want to see a great video, go to http://pol.moveon.org/insurance_execs/?id=17285-2656214-4O57_7x&t=2 and see Will Ferrel talk about health care reform.

Medicine is a healing art. We need to decrease the big business aspect of medicine and decrease the cost of medicine in this country. Having a single payer system with possible supplemental insurances is something to think about. Look at the French system. Are we too proud to realize that our system is broken and we need to look around at ones that are working? We as Americans also need to step up and claim some responsibility. Many of the diseases are self inflicted.. Look at our habits, our diet. If we took better care of ourselves, our health care cost would go down and this has nothing to do with access to health care. This has to do with taking charge of your own life and eating better and exercise more. This 2 things would lead to healthier Americans and less health care costs.. It's up to us.

I have not been a fan of Michael Moore and his films.. To be honest, I haven't seen any of them. But his newest film on Capitalism also strikes at the heart of medicine. He made a film on a single payer health system, but we don't have unlimited resources to run any and every test on any person that wants it. To say health care is a right is placing the emphasis on in the wrong direction. It is a privilege that we enjoy by the prosperity of living in the this country. But to abuse ourselves abuses that privilege and to expect all of us to pay for a person's choice of lack of self control when it leads to adverse health is wrong. A single payer system will only work when we are also made accountable for the health care choices we make.

When we look at nature, there is hope. We can change and have a rebirth. Just like the butterfly, it takes stages to reach the beautiful flying jewel we see. We are at a stage where we have to make a choice of responsibility or self indulgence. The fat cats of big business would love to see us more self indulgent, because they will just get richer.. But there is still a choice!

Training for Wildlife Photography

Practice makes perfect. If you are want to capture moving wildlife, but need some practice, sports is a great way to practice. I have shot mainly soccer and football(some tennis, baseball and track) and it helps to see how your equipment works, especially if you are making a big trip to Africa to shoot wildlife. During an expensive trip is not the time to learn how your equipment works. It is best to learn how it works, get familiar with all the controls and also have a good idea about outcome of an image before you take a trip.

In shooting sports, I use a monopod, because I'm moving up and down the touchline (sideline for those of you unfamiliar with the most watched sport in the world, soccer) and have to be able to jump out of the way of a ball or player headed my direction. I use VR on my Nikon 200-400 and usually zoom out to watch action and zoom in when I see what I want. I always pre shoot some images of players to make sure my exposure is not blowing out highlights. I shoot in A priority and watch my shutter speed to make sure that I have enough speed to capture action sharply. Watch your image count on your card, it's a shame to have 5 images left and start ripping off what should have been 10-20 images and miss the best action because your card is full.

I have gotten some great shots of soccer and football over the years and know that it helps when I am focused on shooting wildlife action. It helps if you have kids that play sports. My oldest son played HS soccer and my middle son plays HS tennis and the youngest is playing HS football (and hopefully soccer in spring). Rob Sheppard, a great friend of mine, has done the same thing with baseball and soccer, his 2 kids sports. He has advanced to college soccer as Sammie now plays in college. You can hone your photography skills while being involved in your child's life. Pretty much a win/win situation. To see some images from my most recent football shoot, go to www.flickr.com/photos/bcphoto3/ .

Get out there and practice and spend some time with your kids..