The Naturalist

A naturalist is a "a student of natural history." Someone who observes the natural world. It can be photographers who spend months observing their subject to get the perfect photo or scientists who spend their time refining methods to answer specific questions. Naturalists do cool things. They go to cool places, take cool photos, ask cool questions.

A female Amphiprion percula (clownfish) looks out from a perched Radianthus magnfica (magnificent sea anemone). Taken in Papua New Guinea with Walindi Dive Resort.

And I want to be a naturalist. I want to be a marine biologist. I want to be a nature photographer. And I see these incredible images on social media of these incredible places, I hear about research in wonderful places, and I tell myself that if I was there I could be the naturalist, or photographer, or scientist, or whatever I want to be. If I was back in Papua New Guinea then I would be in a place where I could create images that I loved. It would be a place where there are stories special enough to be worth sharing. Projects and questions worth studying. Or if I was in Antarctica. Or Moorea. Or Australia. If I was somewhere else I could be what I want to be.

An Dendropsophus ebraccatus (hourglass tree frog) photographed during a night walk in Costa Rica.

But the wonderful thing about nature, is that its everywhere. Yes, there are incredible places and things around the world, and I hope to continue to be able to travel and explore and photograph these places. But nature is also the bees pollinating the flowers in my apartment's yard. Its the birds nesting in trees at the park. Its the fish swimming under the pier at the beach. It is everywhere around us, even in the midst of cities, far away from the "untouched" areas of which I dream.

And so, as I want to be a naturalist, I can do that wherever I am. I can learn about the patterns of the bees, which flowers they like, when they are most active. I can watch the shorebirds run up and down along the crashing waves. I can see where the leopard sharks, rays, and shovelnose guitarfish congregate along the coast. And as I learn about these stories, I can try to share them.

A Numenius phaeopus (Hudsonian whimbrel) walks into the sunset in Southern California.

I want to share the stories of the natural world to inspire people to be naturalists. And while I will share stories from the places I have been, and encourage people to explore and travel to new places, I also want to show that we can all be naturalists wherever we are. I am going to become more of a local biologist, learning and sharing the stories that take place around wherever I am.

An Apis mellifera (Western honey bee) pollinating a Echium candicans (pride of madeira) flower in Southern California.

I am not a very good writer. Not a great storyteller either. An alright photographer. But I hope that through these photos and stories that I can inspire readers to go outside and become naturalists themselves. The world around us is full of so many beautiful things. I want to inspire people to see, appreciate, and then put down my photos and go outside and explore for themselves. Because that's the best way to be a naturalist. You just have to get out there and start looking around.