Last week I traveled to Reno, NV to attend the 2010 “Nature Photography Summit” of the North American Nature Photographers Association (NANPA). Not only that, I had the honor of being selected as one of NANPA’s College Scholarship winners, which meant I spent my week working with eleven other talented young photographers.

It was an inspiring week – I knew that I would be meeting great photographers, but I also quickly discovered that our group was full of scientists (among both the mentors and the students). Many of us had found ways to integrate our passions, like using photography in our research or using visual media to translate science outside of academia. Here are some of the friends I met, starting with my fellow grad students:

Michael Dossett ()
I’m not ashamed to say that I’m jealous of Michael’s 600mm lens, not to mention his awesome photos of birds and wildlife. Michael is a Ph.D. Candidate in Horticulture at Oregon State University.

Rachel Nuwer ()
Rachel has great nature and travel photographs from all over the world. She is also pursuing a master’s degree in Applied Ecology at the University of East Anglia in England.

Ethan Welty (Website)
Ethan’s photographs of wild places and people’s interactions with their environment are really incredible. He recently started a Ph.D. at the University of Colorado, studying tidewater glacial dynamics in coastal Alaska.

Adam Wilson ()
Adam is a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Connecticut, studying global change ecology in South Africa. He has a really nice collection of images from his study sites in South Africa and from other travels worldwide.

Amy Wolf (Amy, do you have a website I don’t know about?)
Amy has got some impressive photos of wildlife from all of her time in the field in Kenya and Costa Rica; she’s a Ph.D. Candidate in Ecology at Stanford University, studying how plant-animal interactions affect nutrient cycling in ecosystems.

More to come!