What are Calories? (or The Snickers Challenge)

 Posted by at 6:16 am on March 1, 2013
Mar 012013
 

Last month, Nate and I returned home after our Dos Equis-funded expedition to the Rwenzori Mountains in Uganda. We’ve been editing some photos from the trip, so you can get a taste of what we experienced during , while , and you can get a closer look at some of the  of the Rwenzoris. We’re also producing a short film about the expedition, and we’ll be able to share more details about that soon!

A portrait of our expedition cook, Augustine. Photo by Nate Dappen.

It was a physically demanding expedition – we hiked for several hours every day, often carrying heavy camera gear, and we summited five 16,000-foot peaks in the space of seven days. We expected to lose a few pounds during the trek, but thanks to the excellent (and abundant) food provided by Augustine, the expedition cook, we didn’t end up losing much, if any, weight.

We ate our fair share of snacks on the trail, of course, and that’s how our latest video project began. I stuck with classic fare – granola bars and peanut butter crackers – but Nate had packed some calorie-dense protein bars in his backpack. I said, “If you really want lots of calories in a compact package, you should’ve just gotten a bunch of Snickers.” That’s when the disagreement started. Nate claimed that a standard-sized Snickers bar only had 120 Calories, a figure that I knew must be incorrect. I guessed 300 Calories. To make it interesting, we made a bet. It was a gentleman’s bet – no money involved – but the loser would have to eat five Snickers bars in one sitting… Very gentlemanly.

Unsurprisingly, I was right. Or nearly so… the standard Snickers bar in the U.S. contains 280 Calories (not for long, however – they are downsizing the bar to 250 Calories by the end of 2013… keeping the price the same, naturally). But rather than let Nate serve out his sentence in the privacy of his home, we decided we should parlay his misfortune into something positive… educational, even! So we made a video about Calories – what are they? And what do they do? So here it is! It’s kind of like a double feature; you get to watch Nate eat five Snickers bars AND learn something in the process. Enjoy!

To borrow a John Stewart line, “Are you not horrortained??”

The Most Interesting Project in the World

 Posted by at 10:17 am on November 16, 2012
Nov 162012
 

We’ve got big news, and it involves beer and science! Last night, Nate and I found out that we won the first-ever “Stay Thirsty Grant” from Dos Equis. This $25,000 grant is going to support our expedition to Uganda’s Rwenzori Mountains to document some of the last tropical glaciers on Earth. (View our “pitch” video here: )

The official announcement was made by “The Most Interesting Man in the World,” the spokesman of a wildly successful Dos Equis advertising campaign, in a private event in New York, which was followed by a huge masquerade party. You can see us fraternizing with TMIMITW, as we affectionately call him, in the pictures below.

The winner was decided by a popular vote, so we have to say a big THANK YOU to everyone who voted for us and encouraged their friends to vote! We couldn’t have done it without your support! To learn more about exactly what we’ll be doing in Uganda, check out this piece we wrote for National Geographic Newswatch last month. We’ll be posting lots more about this project as our plans develop over the next couple of months, and we can’t wait to get to the Rwenzoris and bring back some amazing images to share with all of you! More to come!

The Symbol – Final Photo Gallery and Videos!

 Posted by at 1:39 pm on September 14, 2012
Sep 142012
 

During the summer of 2012, we traveled to Ibiza and Formentera to photograph the Ibiza Wall Lizard and create the first-ever book about this amazing species. Our trip was funded by 290 generous donors, who contributed to our project through the crowd-sourced fundraising website Kickstarter.com. We spent four intense weeks visiting Ibiza, Formentera and about two dozen remote islands and taking tens of thousands of photographs.

Our expedition is over, we’ve reviewed our photographs and we’re thrilled with the results. We feel we’ve successfully captured the amazing diversity of this species’ color variation and behaviors. We’re confident that we have all the photos we need to put together a beautiful photographic book about this species’ natural history, evolution and conservation. We’ve put together a photo gallery with highlights from the expedition. To check out that gallery, click the thumbnail above or here.

We also produced one short film for each week were there about our adventures in the field. Those “Video Updates” are posted in chonological order below.

Video Update 1:

from on .

Video Update 2:

from on .

Video Update 3:

from on .

Video Update 4:

from on .

 

In addition to those four video updates from 2012, we produced two award-winning films in 2011 about this species’ color evolution and dietary adaptations. You can see those below:

from on .

from on .

Over the next few months, we are going to make the final image selection for our book, design the layout, and complete the text. We should be ready to print in early 2013 and our book will be on the book shelves in the islands before next year’s tourist season!

The Symbol 7/21/2012: Photo Gallery 4

 Posted by at 5:20 am on July 21, 2012
Jul 212012
 

Click this image to check out our fourth photo gallery!

Our expedition to photograph the Ibiza Wall Lizard has come to an end! None of us can believe how quickly it flew by. We are sad to be leaving this place, but we feel confident that we’ve taken all the photos we need to put together a beautiful and engaging book about this incredible lizard species. Click here, or on the thumbnail image, to view a fourth photo gallery from our trip.

Since our last gallery, we’ve visited seven new island populations. The first was Isla Malvin Nord, which hosted brilliant green lizards with bright orange bellies.  Next we checked out the lizards on Dau Gran, a truck-sized rock off the cost of Ibiza Town. The population of lizards on Dau Gran are the result of intentional mixing; before the 20th century, there were no lizards on this tiny island. In 1930, the German biologist Eisentraut brought 20 green female lizards from Ibiza (Podarcis pityusensis pityusensis) and 8 black male lizards from Escull Vermell (Podarcis pityusensis maluquerorum) to this small rock to see what would happen if these populations mixed. Over the last 80 years, these two subspecies have interbred and produced an amazingly unique population of lizards that show clear characteristics from both original populations. Check out the photo gallery to see some images of this experimental population.

We left Formentera on Saturday the 14th. Over the next five days we visited populations in and around the west coast of Ibiza. The first island we visited during this trip was also the hardest island to reach. On Sunday the 15th, we set out to visit the majestic island of es Vedra. Es Vedra, an island off the southwest coast of Ibiza, is off-limits to the general public. It is an iconic location in the islands and has inspired legends for centuries. Many people say that es Vedra, which stands almost 400 meter out the sea, is the tip of the lost city of Atlantis. Others say it is the location where Odysseus was seduced by the Sirens. There are even legends, both recent and centuries old, that the island is a UFO landing site. There is something about the island that draws you in. From the moment we arrived in Ibiza and Formentera, we’ve wanted to visit this island.

A watch tower overlooks the islands of Vedranell (in the front) and es Vedra (the larger island).

We are producing a short film about our adventure to es Vedra, so I wont give away too many details. I will say this, though: our trip to Vedra was the most epic day of our expedition. To get there and back, we swam four miles, hiked for seven hours and managed to take some photos in between. We can’t wait to share our film about this trip, so stay tuned.

The next two days after es Vedra, the National Parks had a boat available to take us out to some new islands. During that time, we visited Espartar and Esparte – two islands that are separated from one another by less than 10 meters, yet have astonishingly divergent lizard populations. The last island we visited was Conillera, a large island near the Ibizan town of San Antonio, with a great view of all the western islands.

After over a month of photographing lizards on dozens of islands, we realized that we had forgotten something important – we didn’t have any photographs of the Ibiza Wall Lizard in Ibiza! And so, we spent the last day of our expedition capturing images of the Ibiza Wall Lizard on the island where they got their name.

While our photographic journey may be over, our work has just begun. We have countless photos that need editing and several videos about our expedition that we’ll to share with you over the next several weeks. As soon as these are ready, we’ll let you know!

To see our first three photo galleries go here:

Gallery 1

Gallery 2

Gallery 3

Farewell to Formentera!

 Posted by at 8:25 am on July 13, 2012
Jul 132012
 

They say time flies when you’re having fun. And evidently it flies even faster when you’re working 12-hour days photographing lizards in an island paradise! Our time in Formentera is drawing to a close — we leave for Ibiza tomorrow morning, and we’ve got a busy schedule planned for the final five days of our expedition there. The local response to our project continues to be really encouraging… everyone we tell about our project seems excited that we are creating a book about their iconic sargantanas. And the local media have continued to cover our expedition as well; the total is now up to 2 TV interviews, 1 radio interview, and 2 newspaper articles about our work. The most recent addition to this tally is a really nice article (in Spanish) by reporter Carmelo Convalia in the most widely read newspaper on the islands, Diario de Ibiza. One of the nice things about this latest article is that it’s in color! We got the whole back page of the newspaper devoted to our project, with several color photographs. We took a quick picture of the newspaper (the front page is just for reference; the article about our work is on the back page), which you can check out below (click the image to enlarge).

On a side note, this is our 200th blog post on Day’s Edge Productions! We hope all of our readers will stick around for another 200!

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The Symbol 6/30/2012: Day’s Edge in the news!

 Posted by at 11:20 pm on June 29, 2012
Jun 292012
 

Nate explains lizard color evolution to Pep Toni and the listeners of Radio Illa in Formentera and Ibiza.

There are so many unique lizard populations here that we’re trying to adhere to a strict schedule of island visits. Yesterday, we had grand plans to visit some small island populations near Formentera. but our schedule was interrupted with some welcome local media coverage. Both the local radio station and the Ibiza television channel asked me if they could interview me to talk about the lizards here and about our book project.

Last year I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Pep Toni of Radio Illa.  This year, I was invited back to talk with Pep for a 30-minute live morning interview. He gave me the opportunity to talk about the results of my dissertation, the sex lives of lizards, and to promote our book about the Ibiza Wall Lizards. If you’re interested in that interview, you can listen to it here.

Next, the Ibiza television channel asked if they could film an interview with me and get some footage of all four of us working in the field for a short TV piece. We met up with them in the Cap de Barbaria in the afternoon. They filmed an interview with me and got some footage of us pretending to capture and photograph lizards. This short piece is supposed to air in a week or so. I’ll share it with you as soon as it’s out!

I did both the radio and TV interviews in Spanish. My Spanish is decent, but talking about science is hard in a second language and I made a few embarrassing mistakes. For example, I screwed up a great anecdote about the “Coolidge Effect” – the biological phenomenon whereby males of many species have a strong sexual preference for unfamiliar females over females with which they have already mated (you can read that anecdote at an old blog post here). Hopefully my convoluted retelling of this story will be so confusing that I’ll sound like a genius, rather than an idiot…

We left Formentera this morning to spend a few days photographing lizards on islands off the west coast of Ibiza. We’ll spend a few days on or near Ibiza before heading back to Formentera.  We’ve taken some great photos over the last few days and will post another gallery shortly. And we’ve got our first video update coming out soon, so stay tuned!

In the studio at Radio Illa.

Nate explains the biology of the Ibiza Wall Lizard to Ibiza TV.

Nate, lizard in hand, explains the biology of the Ibiza Wall Lizard to Ibiza TV.

Neil showcases his lizard capturing skills to Ibiza TV.

Liz gets low to photograph a lizard for Ibiza TV.

Amanda tries to get a wide-close photo for Ibiza TV.

New video: Monkey See!

 Posted by at 2:53 pm on May 30, 2012
May 302012
 

Everything you need to know about our latest video can be summed up in one word: monkeys. Monkeys everywhere.

Actually, there’s a lot more to it than that. About a year ago, Nate and I learned about some really cool genetics research involving squirrel monkeys. And luckily for us, Nate was teaching a summer science program for middle school students at a place called Monkey Jungle in south Florida, which has a colony of captive squirrel monkeys. When I was in Florida last summer for my anole research, we had the amazing opportunity to film at Monkey Jungle for a couple of mornings. It was really fun to interact with the monkeys! I won’t say they didn’t make shooting a challenge, because they can be pretty mischievous little critters. But they sure made it more interesting.

With all of our other projects, it’s taken almost a year to turn this footage into a finished video! But we like the result. If you want to learn some very cool science, or even if you just want to see Nate serve as a playground for monkeys, check it out!

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New Video: Backyard Naturalists!

 Posted by at 9:05 am on May 24, 2012
May 242012
 

Well, it’s been a crazy few months – Nate finished his dissertation and got his Ph.D. from the University of Miami earlier this month, and I’m just a couple of weeks away from getting my Ph.D. from UCLA. We successfully funded our upcoming book, The Symbol: Wall Lizards of the Pityusic Archipelago through Kickstarter, and we’re less than a month away from our 1-month trip to Ibiza and Formentera to capture photos for the book!

With all of this stuff going on, we haven’t been producing as much new video content as we would like. But when our friend Clay Bolt asked us if we’d like to produce a short video for his new organization, , we had to make room in our busy schedules for it! Clay has already gathered some serious photographic talent all over the world to participate in , a photographic endeavor in which photographers capture everyday organisms in their area on a simple white background (you can see a few of my own Meet Your Neighbours images, captured around LA, here). These distinctive images grab your attention and focus your eyes on the intricate – and often beautiful – details of even the most seemingly mundane creatures.

Backyard Naturalists takes a similar approach, focusing on local wildlife (including traditionally “uncharismatic” organisms like arthropods and plants) to connect kids with nature. Backyard Naturalists workshops use photography (including the Meet Your Neighbours technique) and other activities to get kids excited about the nature that’s all around them. To introduce Backyard Naturalists to the world, we wanted to show kids (and their parents) that anyone can be a naturalist. And we wanted to portray the amazing diversity of wildlife that you can find near your home, wherever you may live. See what you think!

As usual, our talented friend Dan Warren, an evolutionary biologist at UT Austin, composed and performed the music that you’ll hear in the film.

Of course, Nate and I had a great time shooting this film. We don’t get a lot of opportunities to work together in person, since we live on opposite sides of the country! Here are a few photos we took while we were working on this video.

A young Anhinga dries its wings in the last rays of sunlight. Everglades National Park.

Looking northeast from the Everglades, Miami's city lights give the night sky an orange glow.

Nate affixes a GoPro point-of-view camera to the underside of his skateboard.

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Opportunity: “Environmental Visual Communication”

 Posted by at 7:05 am on January 30, 2012
Jan 302012
 

Our friend Neil Ever Osborne, a Canadian conservation photographer and a member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (iLCP), has created a new graduate certificate program in “Environmental Visual Communication.” It’s a 6-month-long program, which includes a full-time summer “Applied Project,” for which students are placed with environmental organizations or other clients to create a visual outreach product. Osborne has previously taught visual communication and multimedia courses at Stanford University and elsewhere, but this is the first time, to my knowledge, that anyone has created an immersive, fully integrated program in environmental visual communication.

The list of courses is impressive: everything from “methods” courses, to help students learn the technical skills to make the most of their cameras and editing software, to more theoretical courses on visual and verbal communication strategies, to courses on business practices and professional skills for budding environmental media professionals. Take a look for yourself! I can’t wait to see who the instructors are — Osborne is well connected in the field (through iLCP and other channels), so I know he’ll pull together an all-star team to teach these courses.

Finally, one of the coolest aspects of the whole program is that it’s based at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, one of the top science and cultural museums in Canada. The resources of the museum, their expertise in bringing science to the public, and the connections with scientists who work at the museum really set this program apart. If you’re interested in communicating visually about science and the environment (and if you’re reading our blog, it’s a good bet that you are), take a serious look at this program! They are accepting applications now.

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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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