Conservation Photography

Conservation photography is a vision of photography that has a long history with a new purpose. A conservation photographer's work begins once they click the shutter. It's what you do with these images that matters as it takes you into the active role of affecting conservation for the natural world.

Conservation Photography Class & Excursion
In Partnership with the Oceanic Society
Whales, Birds & Life of the Farallon Islands
Gary Sharlow, Photographer, Education Manager

Saturday October 5th 1:00pm to 4:00pm & Sunday October 6th 7:30am to 4:00pm
Affectionately known as San Francisco’s "Galapagos Islands" the Farallon Islands serve as one of the most biologically rich and important habitats along the western coast of the United States. Come do what 99% of San Francisco residents never do… hop aboard a boat and ride out under the Golden Gate Bridge to visit one of the richest marine ecosystems in the world. The Farallon Islands, just 27 miles off the coast of San Francisco, lie amid the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, a food-rich marine ecosystem that attracts whales, dolphins, seals and seabirds each summer and fall, to feed and to breed. Researchers have catalogued hundreds of individual humpbacks and blue whales as seasonal feeding residents. Twenty three species of marine mammals, including eighteen species of whales and dolphins, can be found here. The Farallon Islands National Wildlife Refuge is the largest seabird rookery in the contiguous United States with nesting Tufted Puffins, Pigeon Guillemots, Rhinoceros Auklets, Common Murres and other species. Migratory seabirds such as Shearwaters, Jaegers, and Phalaropes are also attracted by these nutrient-rich waters. Island beaches are covered with sea lions, including massive Steller's sea lions, now on the Endangered Species List. The first day of this program is held at the Academy and will include a presentation about the Islands and an introduction to your DSLR that will provide you with some easy tips that will allow you to keep your head up with your eyes on the horizon and in search of whales and birds. The advice is also intended to help you keep from looking down at your camera which is really not the best thing to do when you’re on the ocean.

More details coming soon!

Please Note: Entrance is via the Academy's Business and Staff Entrance at the back door located at 75 Nancy Pelosi Drive. You will not be permitted entry at the front door. Please arrive 15 minutes early.

Reservations: This event is sold out. Thank you!

Conservation Photography Class
Introduction To Your DSLR

Gary Sharlow, Photographer, Education Manager

Sunday November 10th 2013 at 1 to 4pm
In this three-hour classroom presentation, you will learn about the inner workings of your DSLR camera. This class is designed as an overview to help you better understand your camera, the digital workflow and how to make better images. We cover basic features of the DSLR camera to include choosing lenses and filters, ISO, white balance, shutter, aperture and program modes, EV, exposure, bracketing, focusing, resolution, histograms and more. The main objective is to help you understand the fundamentals of exposure so that you can get your camera out of auto mode and start making images the way you want them to look. Once you have the skills to get the correct exposure under any conditions, we can shift our efforts to proper techniques for focus, light metering, depth of field and some basic rules of composition.

Please Note: Entrance is via the Academy's Business and Staff Entrance at the back door located at 75 Nancy Pelosi Drive. You will not be permitted entry at the front door. Please arrive at least 10 minutes early.

Reservations: Members: $40, General $50. Seating is limited and advanced ticketing is required. To reserve a place today, buy a Member or Non-Member ticket online or over the phone at 1-877-227-1831

Our Real World Meetup Community

Consider this your invitation to join our virtual community that can serve as way for all of us to stay in touch as a photography community. If you who are new to Meetup, they describe their service as such: “Meetup.com helps groups of people with shared interests plan meetings and form offline clubs in local communities around the world.” We would love to have you join our group and spread the word to fellow photographers. We can use this platform to announce free real world gatherings to grow our community and plan times to get together with new friends that you may have made through the Academy photography workshops. Speaking of workshops, we’ll also announce upcoming Academy workshops through the service as well as on the Academy site. We hope you will join the group and spread the word so we can grow our community.

Please visit us online so we can make plans to get together in the real world!

Conservation Photography Flickr Pool

The second most requested thing from our workshop participants, beyond ways to continue to get together in person, has been for ways to post the images taken in our workshops to an online site where we could offer each other feedback on our images and technique. This can also be used to open up topics of conversation about anything photography related. We hope you will consider posting some of the images you took through our workshops, and we look forward to seeing more of your nature related photography through this group. A bonus of contributing to the flickr pool is that they joined forces with Getty images giving you a professional service from which to sell your images. If you’re good, they will find you!

Check Out & Join Our Flickr Pool

Big Picture: Natural World
A Photography Competition

The California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco will launch its inaugural Big Picture: Natural World Photography Competition in October 2013. This International photo competition will spotlight conservation with an esteemed panel of judges and significant prizes to be awarded. Spotlighting the work of conservation photographers from around the world, the competition will focus a visual lens on the Academy’s mission to explore, explain and sustain life, raising one simple yet profound call to action: What on Earth have you photographed?

Chaired by award-winning photographer and Fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers Suzi Eszterhas, the competition welcomes professional-level, high-caliber nature, wildlife and conservation images and is open to all photographers who aim to capture the beauty and fragility of the natural world through an artistic lens.

Launching October 1, 2013 the Big Picture competition entry period will run through March 31, 2014 and paid image submissions will be accepted online at BigPictureCompetition.org. Please note that website content will go live in July 2013. The competition seeks submissions in the following categories:

1. Land Mammals
2. Birds
3. Insects, Reptiles, Marine Mammals, Fish and Amphibians
4. Waterscapes, Landscapes and Plant Life
5. Conservation Imagery

Big Picture also aims to inspire the next generation of conservationists in its two unique youth-oriented categories, giving young people the opportunity to enter photos that capture their interpretations of the natural world.

The Grand Prize and Category winners and their work will be honored at an awards ceremony, currently slated for May 29, 2014 at the Academy, and they will receive significant cash and camera prizes. A panel of esteemed judges, comprised of renowned international photographers, photo editors and conservationists, will include: Daniel Beltrá (Madrid, Spain), Klausse Nigge (Luenen, Germany), Thomas Peschack (Cape Town, South Africa), David Liittschwager (San Francisco, California), Clay Bolt (Easley, South Carolina), Tui De Roy (South Island, New Zealand), Ian Shive (Los Angeles, California), Kathy Moran (Washington D.C.), and Jury Chair Suzi Eszterhas (San Francisco, California).

The Academy curates an ongoing suite of conservation photography workshops and lectures featuring prominent photographers, scientists, naturalists and conservationists, offering visitors the opportunity to engage in thoughtful discussions around the nature of life and the science and sustainability of our planet. Big Picture encourages photographers from around the world to contribute their work to this competition that will both celebrate and illustrate the rich diversity of life on Earth and inspire action to protect and conserve it.

Our Real World Meetup Community

Consider this your invitation to join our virtual community that can serve as way for all of us to stay in touch as a photography community. If you who are new to Meetup, they describe their service as such: “Meetup.com helps groups of people with shared interests plan meetings and form offline clubs in local communities around the world.” We would love to have you join our group and spread the word to fellow photographers. We can use this platform to announce free real world gatherings to grow our community and plan times to get together with new friends that you may have made through the Academy photography workshops. Speaking of workshops, we’ll also announce upcoming Academy workshops through the service as well as on the Academy site. We hope you will join the group and spread the word so we can grow our community.

Please visit us online so we can make plans to get together in the real world!

Conservation Photography Flickr Pool

The second most requested thing from our workshop participants, beyond ways to continue to get together in person, has been for ways to post the images taken in our workshops to an online site where we could offer each other feedback on our images and technique. This can also be used to open up topics of conversation about anything photography related. We hope you will consider posting some of the images you took through our workshops, and we look forward to seeing more of your nature related photography through this group. A bonus of contributing to the flickr pool is that they joined forces with Getty images giving you a professional service from which to sell your images. If you’re good, they will find you!

Check Out & Join Our Flickr Pool