Day’s Edge Year in Review: 2011

 Posted by at 8:32 pm on December 31, 2011
Dec 312011
 

Is it really almost 2012? Between research, teaching, photography, and films, the last year has really flown by at Day’s Edge Productions. Let’s take a quick look back at some of the things that made 2011 a great year at Day’s Edge:

JANUARY: After winning a travel grant from the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center (NESCent), Neil attends the meeting in North Carolina. He meets lots of new science communicators and starts using . Around the same time, Neil’s cover feature on burrowing owls is published in Birder’s World magazine.

FEBRUARY: Along with colleagues , Kari Post, and , Nate and Neil launch , a web magazine and online community for scientists, photographers, educators, and anyone interested in using visual media to communicate about science, nature, and sustainability.

MARCH: The Day’s Edge Productions website goes live! Nate receives the 2011 , and Neil returns to the NANPA college program as a mentor. In McAllen, Texas, they photograph some of the unique wildlife of South Texas. Nate and the other college students produce a short multimedia film in and for Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge.

APRIL: Nate and Neil head to “the field” — Formentera for Nate, and Miami for Neil. Nate makes some short videos about his experiments, which you can see and . Meanwhile, Neil appears alongside cast members of One Tree Hill in a TV pilot called , produced by award-winning photographer Ian Shive.

MAY: Nate continues his fieldwork in Spain, and is visited by Joris van Alphen. Joris, one of the world’s best young nature photographers, helps with and co-produces a short film about lizard cannibalism: “.” Meanwhile, Neil’s article on territorial behavior in birds is published in Living Bird magazine.

JUNE: Nate finishes his field season in Formentera, while Neil returns to Miami to continue the work he started in April. wins the !

JULY: Neil continues his field season, and Nate and Neil produce a short film about Neil’s experiments in Miami, which is featured on the National Geographic website. Three of our films are screened at the Animal Behavior Film Festival, and wins the top prize in the non-commercial division.

AUGUST: Neil and Nate travel to Austin, Texas to teach a Photography for Ecologists workshop at the Annual Ecology Society Association (ESA) meeting. Neil then heads for Puerto Rico to finish up his field season. Nate meets him there to help with research and filming. Together they create – a short film about Neil’s work in Puerto Rico, which is featured on the National Geographic website. Still in Puerto Rico, Nate and Neil visit a remote cave to film

SEPTEMBER: Neil and Liz Losin launch their video , which was created for the Society of Neuroscience’s film competition.

OCTOBER: Neil and Nate head to the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival and met some amazing filmmakers from around the globe. Later that month, Neil (a National Geographic Young Explorer) gives a public talk about his research at National Geographic Headquarters in a NG Young Explorers Salon. At the end of the month, Nate and Neil launch , which is featured on the National Geographic website.

NOVEMBER: Nate and Neil finish a short film created for the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) Film Festival. Later in the month, Neil’s nature photography exhibit opens at the G2 Gallery in Venice, CA.

DECEMBER: wins the jury prize in the WWF film festival. Unfortunately, Nate and Neil can’t travel to India to accept the award in person, but will still be creating a film for WWF in 2012. is selected as the 2nd most astounding animal video of 2011 by Scientific American.

It was awesome year and plans are already afoot for an epic 2012! Thanks for all your support in 2011, and Happy New Year to all!

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PHOTOS: My exhibit at the G2 Gallery

 Posted by at 9:00 am on December 15, 2011
Dec 152011
 

A number of my LA-area friends made it out to the opening reception of my exhibit at the G2 Gallery last month, and I’m very grateful to all of you who showed up! Eleven of my photos — all images of local birds — are included in the “Emerging IV” exhibit, alongside some wonderful images by fellow photographers Christopher Taylor and Sheri Mandel. But since not everyone could make it to the opening (and not all of my friends live in LA!), I figured I should take some photos of the exhibit while it’s still up. If you are in the LA area, you’ve still got time to see the exhibit in person; it will be on display at the G2 Gallery through the end of the year!

The Emerging IV exhibit (wide shot, including "my" wall in the center)

Sheri Mandel's beautiful black-and-white wildlife images

Christopher Taylor's awesome wildlife shots from around the world

My section of the exhibit, closeup. All images are of birds found in LA County.

My section of the exhibit, even closer. If you want a closer look, visit the gallery!

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You make science happen: The Scifund Challenge

 Posted by at 9:00 am on December 12, 2011
Dec 122011
 

One of the improbable successes of the Internet has been crowd-sourcing. From assembling huge amounts of information (e.g. Wikipedia) to finding archaeological sites (e.g. the amazing led by Dr. Albert Lin and run by the National Geographic Society), crowds of people have succeeded at tasks that would be difficult or impossible to achieve through a single, centralized effort. Now, a project called the SciFund Challenge aims to endow “the crowd” with a new power: the power to fund scientific research.

How is science traditionally funded?

The National Science Foundation (NSF) is the federal agency responsible for funding most non-medical science in the United States. When a scientist submits a grant to the NSF, a panel of other scientists in the same field (i.e. “peers”) reviews the grant and decides whether it’s worth funding.

These days, the funding rate at the NSF is very low – in some disciplines, the average grant has less than a 10% chance of being funded.

What’s a scientist to do?

With funding rates at the NSF and other traditional funding sources at an all-time low, scientists are turning to other sources of funding. One funding model that has really taken off in the arts world is “crowd-funding.” Through crowd-funding platforms like Kickstarter or IndieGogo, artists (photographers, filmmakers, writers, etc.) can create an online request for funding. Anyone who finds the request on the web can make a donation to the project. Projects are supported by dozens or hundreds of small donations, rather than a single large grant.

The SciFund Challenge is, to my knowledge, the first large-scale effort aimed at bringing this funding model into the world of science. And it’s an impressive start – as I write this, more than $70,000 has been pledged to the projects participating in the first ever SciFund Challenge.

How can you get involved?

You can see all of the projects here. Some are already fully funded; others have a long way to go. The way most crowdfunding sites work (including RocketHub, the crowd-funding platform that is hosting the SciFund Challenge projects) is that the “applicant” – in this case, the scientist – only receives the money that donors have pledged if his or her funding goal is met. There are only three days left in the first-ever SciFund Challenge, so maybe you can help push some of these projects over the edge!

As regular blog readers know, Nate and I are passionate about sharing science with everyone. I think one of the coolest aspects of the SciFund Challenge is that it forces scientists to ask themselves why the public should care about their work. Scientists participating in the SciFund Challenge create short videos to introduce their work to potential donors, and our friend posted a nice round-up of some of the more creative videos here.

As far as I’m concerned, anything that encourages scientists to share their research more broadly is a good thing. And if the scientists who do the best job of it also get the money they need to continue their work? Then so much the better!

Days Edge wins First Prize in the WWF Video Competition!

 Posted by at 2:52 pm on December 8, 2011
Dec 082011
 

A few months ago, Neil and I created a 2-minute film for the World WildLife Fund (WWF) Video Competition. This competition, launched as part of WWF’s 50th anniversary celebrations, asked filmmakers to produce original short films on the theme of: “Life. Nature. You. Make the Connection”. There were over 260 submissions to the competition, but in the end there could only be 2 winners, one by popular vote and one by jury vote. Surprisingly, WE WON! Check out our award winning film below:

We are thrilled to announce that our film, the Runner, was one of the two Winners! Our film won the Jury prize and Myles Thompson won the popular vote with his film “Life, nature, you.” Check out Myles’ video below.

On top of a $10,000 film commission, another part of the prize was an all-expenses covered trip to New Delhi, India to attend the actual film festival. Neil and I couldn’t make it due to our responsibilities at our Universities, but we did produce a little award-acceptance video that they played at the festival. Check the video below.

We’re really grateful to the WWF for running the competition and can’t wait to work on our next film project with them.