Today's photo treasure is about a young, Seattle-based nature photographer: Floris van Breugel. I have been following his Art in Nature Photography blog for a while and appreciate his beautiful and original nature photographs. For example, have a look at his firefly photographs or at "Autumn Underworld" - a view through a pond with autumn leaves - from underneath. At the moment, I am particularly interested in photographs from the Pacific Northwest and Olympic National Park, because we will soon leave for long family holiday in this region. Therefore, I am glad the silent moment at Rialto Beach accompanies this blog post (the photograph was taken in winter, I think - the light will be very different for us).
All nature photographers share natural beauty as the subject of their photography and aim to convey their vision of this beauty. Different photographers are therefore often defined and differentiated by the region or area where they mostly photograph. I associate Floris van Breugel's photography with the Pacific Northwest. His photography is quite unique because he often undertakes long hikes to photograph remote mountain landscapes. He is lucky to have a companion with whom he shares his passion for mountains, hiking and photography and this combination of mountaineering and photography makes his portfolio stand out and special. Usually, alpinists are rather driven by sportive accomplishments and photographers rarely venture so far off the beaten track.
Besides taking beautiful photographs of nature's beauty, Floris van Breugel is a graduate student at the University of Washington and tries to unravel some of nature's secrets: He is studying how insects fly and manage to land at a specific location without stumbling or crashing. Some of his results on the landing control of fruit flies have already been published. Interestingly, his research also involves the use of cameras, specialized high speed video cameras if I understand correctly, that record the flight of fruit flies in great detail. If you are interested in this topic, have a look at the fascinating TED talk by Michael Dickinson (the principle investigator Floris van Breugel is working with).
