Patricia Gonzalez is an NYBG Visitor Services Attendant and avid wildlife photographer.
In the 21st century, a smartphone is no longer just a convenient thing to have on hand if you need to make a call away from home. It is an invaluable tool for the wildlife photographer. I never leave home without it!
Read on for three downloadable apps that I use during my treks at The New York Botanical Garden to address three of the primary concerns of every wildlife and nature photographer.
Sunrise
We shutterbugs are chasers of light. Knowing the exact time the sun comes up and goes down is crucial if I want to get some early morning sky shots before I go in search of wildlife or some late afternoon images when the forest is a beautiful golden brown color. For this I use the full version of Sundroid.
Our latest exhibition had a great run, there’s no doubt there. Wild Medicine: Healing Plants Around the World has drawn thousands of visitors to its collections of botanical remedies, historical herbals, and unique Renaissance collections. But all good things… well, you get the gist. This weekend, we’re ringing the closing bell on what’s been an immense joy for us to host, and doing so with the help of Wild Medicine‘s lead curator—Dr. Michael Balick. On Saturday, September 7, he’ll take to the stage in the Ross Hall with a presentation on a topic that sits at the heart of this entire exhibition: the global landscape of medicinal botany, from traditional plant knowledge to medicine in the modern world.
Dr. Balick’s work as an ethnobotanist has taken him around the planet. He’s shown the potential of traditional knowledge and practices in the modern world, and dedicated himself to preserving the biodiversity upon which the survival of that knowledge depends. But with ecosystems being destroyed and the knowledge of these traditions fading, the work of scientists like Balick is often a race against time.
In the 21st century, a smartphone is no longer just a convenient thing to have on hand if you need to make a call away from home. It is an invaluable tool for the wildlife photographer. I never leave home without it!