Nature Photography Exhibit, Digital Photo Workshop Featured at TFFC

Larry Hodge, 903-676-2277, larry.hodge@tpwd.texas.gov

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ATHENS, Texas — The Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center will host a traveling photo exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. from June 5 through July 20.

A photography workshop June 12 will complement the exhibition.

Vanishing Pollinators: Photography by Carll Goodpasture consists of 34 framed, large-format color photographs with accompanying text panels. Subjects include a pollen-dusted bumblebee emerging from a hollyhock blossom, sleeping bees sheltering overnight in a poppy flower, and a brimstone butterfly probing a goldenrod flower for nectar and similar images. The exhibit is organized by the Smithsonian National Zoological Park and circulated by the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service (SITES).

A biologist and photographer, Goodpasture’s images portray the beauty and grace of flowering plants and their threatened insect pollinators in an attempt to unite the energy of one of nature’s most important biological systems with the power of visual art.

Vanishing Pollinators is an education art exhibit that alerts us to a worldwide decline in pollinator populations and the consequences of this decline. Scientists estimate that more than 60 percent of the world’s species of flowering plants recruit animal pollinators to ensure their survival, reproduction and evolution. In exchange for the pollinators’ role in aiding fertilization, plants provide both food and shelter to their pollinators.

Without these tiny, busy creatures, not only would our world be far less lovely, but our diets would change greatly. To enjoy such things as apples, melons, coffee and chocolate, we need pollinators.

The exhibition at the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center is the only showing in Texas in 2004. The display will hang in TFFC’s exhibit hall and may be viewed from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and from 1-4 p.m. Sundays. Admission to the exhibit is included in the TFFC’s regular admission price of $5.50 for adults, $4.50 for seniors and $3.50 for children ages 4-12.

This exhibition is made possible in part by the Thomas K. and Katherine Reed Charitable Fund and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Persons wishing to participate in the photography workshop on June 12 should visit (http://tpwd.texas.gov/fish/infish/hatchery/tffc/) for more information and to download a registration form. For information or to request a registration form by FAX or mail, call (903) 676-2277. The registration deadline is June 4.

The workshop is scheduled to be led by TPWD photographer Earl Nottingham, whose work appears frequently in Texas Parks & Wildlife magazine. Assisting will be Larry D. Hodge, former wildlife editor of that magazine, and Diane Murray, a reporter and photographer for an East Texas newspaper.

Any type of camera may be used for the workshop but special focus will be on digital camera techniques and extreme close-up photography. Tips will be included for using point-and-shoot cameras for landscape and close-up work.