For nearly 30 years, James Balog has consistently broken new ground in the art of photographing nature. His work grows out of a lifelong passion for the environment as an artist, scientist, explorer, and adventurer. A former mountain guide with a graduate degree in geomorphology, James is equally at home on a Himalayan peak or a whitewater river, the African Savannah or polar ice caps. James is the author of Extreme Ice Now: Vanishing Glaciers and Changing Climate: A Progress Report, released by National Geographic Books in March 2009. He is also the author of six other books: Tree: A New Vision of the American Forest and Survivors: A New Vision of Endangered Wildlife, which were hailed as major breakthroughs in nature photography. His images are regularly published in The New Yorker, Life, American Photo, Vanity Fair, Sierra, Audubon, and Outside, and he is a contributing editor for National Geographic Adventure. He is the first photographer ever commissioned to create a series of stamps for the U.S. Postal Service. Awarded the Leica Medal of Excellence and the premier awards for both nature and science photography at World Press Photo in Amsterdam, Balog's photos have been exhibited at more than a hundred museums and galleries from Paris to Los Angeles. The documentary film A Redwood Grows in Brooklyn explores his thoughts about art, nature, and perception.

James's latest project, the Extreme Ice Survey is an exciting and unique portrait of what is happening to glaciers around the world. The Extreme Ice Survey team has installed 29 automated time-lapse cameras at glaciers in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, the Rockies and the Alps, capturing visual evidence of glacial melt due to global warming.

The Extreme Ice Survey is the most wide-ranging glacier study ever conducted using ground-based, real-time photography. EIS uses time-lapse photography, conventional photography, and video to document the rapid changes now occurring on the Earth's glacial ice. The EIS team has installed 27 time-lapse cameras at 15 sites in Greenland, Iceland, Alaska, and the Rocky Mountains. EIS supplements this ongoing record with annual repeat photography in Iceland, the Alps, and Bolivia.

Check out James on the iLCP website. Watch James deliver his recent presentation at the Ted Conference

James Balog will be presenting on EIS at WILD9 @ WiLD SPEAK!

iLCP Associate, Thomas Peschak, has returned to Hanifaru , in the Maldives Islands, on assignment for the Save the Seas Foundation and this time his main concern is with documenting the process of transforming this location into a fully fledged and functioning marine reserve.  Thomas will also be bearing photographic witness to Guy Steven's and Dr. Bob Rubin's efforts to tag 25 manta rays and monitor their movements in and out of the reserve and across Baa and into other atolls. He will be combining the best images of the area from 2008 and 2009 expeditions to create a book tentatively titled: Manta Rays and Whale Sharks of the Maldives to be published in mid 2010.  For a sneak peak at a few new images and background info visit his blog

iLCP Fellow, Piotr Naskrecki, will have his third recent feature published in BBC magazines.  The piece  entitled, "The ancient mariner", will appear in the September issue of BBC Knowledge magazine. A related article was published in the July 09 issue of BBC Wildlife magazine, with a story on horseshoe crab biology and conservation, titled "They came from the deep." Piotr also had a nice nice portfolio of invertebrate images in the June issue of BBC Knowledge "Celebrate invertebrates".




iLCP Emerging League Member, Morgan E. Heim, is working on an online piece about black-tailed prairie dogs for Smithsonian Magazine,  a critter being considered for endangered species listing which also happens to make its final stronghold in urban areas. This could create new troubles for wildlife management and residents. The story is due mid-September. Morgan's piece on  Red Desert as featured as an editor's pick on OnEarth.org. Several of her project photos have been selected for the Red Desert coffee table book being put out by Ron Chilcote's Laguna Wilderness Press. Lastly, Morgan has recently taken a job as the science writer and multimedia journalist for CIRES, the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences.

iLCP Fellow, Steve Winter's striking photos of Jaguars in the Brazilian Pantanal are featured in an article in BBC Wildlife Magazine's August 2009 issue. Take a look at the PDF of the story, with text written by iLCP Affiliate, Sharon Guynup.  Steve first visited the Pantanal in 1998 during work on a jaguar story. After six months of searching Central America, he was amazed to see three jaguars in as many days. For Steve, traveling the rivers looking for wildlife every day is always breathtaking in the Pantanal, but his latest trip, at the end of 2008, was the most rewarding - this story is the result.



National Geographic just published an article on orchids featuring photos from iLCP Fellow Christian Ziegler. "How do you spread your genes around when you're stuck in one place? By tricking animals, including us, into falling in love." View all of Christian's dazzling Orchid photos and read the article "Love and Lies" by Michael Pollan. Over the past 80 million years, some 25,000 wild species have taken root on six continents, in nearly every kind of habitat. Representing a full fourth of the world's flowering plants, there are four times as many orchid species as mammals, and twice as many as birds. The portfolio of Christians images of orchid pollinators has also been posted on NPR's website to accompany a conversation of reknown Michael Pollan, the author of the orchid pollinator essay, with Scott Simon for NPRs 'Weekend edition'. See NPRs feature here.

iLCP Emerging League Member, Santiago Gibert Isern, has just launched his new website. The site, entitled Dimensión Natural, http://www.dimensionnatural.com, exhibits some of his best work showing the excellence of nature through photography. Santiago Gibert is a Spanish-born photographer now living in Mexico who is dedicated to documenting the richness of the planet earth with the intention of preserving the most valuated treasure, Biodiversity.  On September 15th  Santiago will be opening a permanent exhibit in Zaragoza,  Nuevo Leon, México. The exhibit will be on display in the Municipal Museum and will be about biodiversity and culture of the  town of Zaragoza.

iLCP Associate, Kevin FitzPatrick has been chosen to receive the designation of North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) Fellow. This is a prestigious award given to those individuals who have made significant contributions to the professional nature photography industry over a period of at least twenty years. 









iLCP Fellow, Pete Oxford is featured in a recent article in Organic Connections. Oxford has now been dedicated to  conservation photography for many years collaborating with Ecuadorian NGOs like Jatun. He is a founding member of the International League of Conservation Photographers (ILCP) and works hand in hand with various NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), such as Conservation International, to raise public awareness of conservation issues."... Read the entire article

iLCP Fellow Daniel Beltrá is the winner of he Prince's Rainforest Project Award at the Sony World Photography Awards. Daniel continues his journey to photograph the last remaining large tracts of rainforest in the planet. His next stop: Indonesia. Daniel will be accompanied by ABC's Bob Woodruff, a producer and a cameraman. Together they will be producing  documentaries for a range of TV outlets, likely  including Planet Green, ABC's Good Morning America and World News Tonight. This media coverage will mostly focus on the Prince's Rainforests Project and  Daniel's recognition as the recipient of the Award.  To see some of the images he has created for this project visit the Photography Blog.

During the month of August, iLCP Fellow Luciano Candisani taught a basic photography course for public high school students in São Paulo. The course, called "Visual Narratives", was offered completely free to 60 public school students, providing them with valuable credit hours, reflex SLR cameras, and computers. This was a project of National Geographic Brazil and Editora Abril. Classes where given at the Victor Civita square, a new space built by Editora Abril in São Paulo devoted to culture and sustainability. With Luciano's participation, one of the main topics discussed was photography as a means for conservation. The September edition of National Geographic Brazil will have an article about the course, featuring photos from 17 year-old student of the course, Mirela Carvalho. Kudos to Luciano for supporting and inspiring young talents!

iLCP Fellow Annie Griffiths Belt's exhibit on THE LAST STAND continues to travel.  This summer it will be featured at the Chautauqua Institution in New York.  The exhibit will then travel to Springs Preserve Botanical Garden in Las Vegas for the fall.  Her book THE LAST STAND; AMERICA'S VIRGIN LANDS  takes readers from the tall grass prairies of Kansas to the Arctic tundra of Alaska to the deserts of the Southwest and bears passionate witness to the last wildernesses, reminding us why they must be preserved.

YUCATAN RAVE Download the Yucatan RAVE synopsis as a PDF.

FLATHEAD RAVE in BRITISH COLUMBIA
The Flathead RAVE in British Columbia, Canada was just wrapped up by a team of iLCP photographers this August.  Publications are readily publishing photos and stories from the RAVE, leaving no doubt that the mission has had a positive impact on the campaign. The buzz that was created from the RAVE  points to a resolution in favor of conservation and banning mining in the Flathead by sometime this fall. Once again, powerful images and dedicated photographers are helping protect our natural resources. There is still more to come from this RAVE, including a  traveling exhibit.

iLCP would like to thank dedicated members of the iLCP who participated in the Flathead RAVE, including  fellows  Garth Lenz, Matthias Breiter, Roy Toft, emerging member Joe  Riis, Executive Director Cristina Mittermeier, Director and Chief of Staff Justin Black. Other contributors to the RAVE included   naturalist and photographer Michael Ready, as well as photographer Andy Wright.  The Flathead River Valley, an area the B.C. government most values for its coal, timber and methane gas, is immediately adjacent to the world's oldest International Peace Park, the Glacier/Waterton Lakes, and it is one of the most important wildlife corridors in North America, especially for large carnivores like grizzly bears, cougars and wolves.   Read the Flathead RAVE blog! Many thanks to our sponsors: The WILD Foundation, LightHawk, National Parks Conservation Association, Sierra Club, Wilburforce Foundation, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, AlpineAire Foods and special thanks to Harvey Locke whose passion for the Flathead has supported the idea behind this RAVE. Follow details of this RAVE on our website.

Fotoweek DC 2009 Awards Competition
FotoWeek DC is pleased to announce the second annual FotoWeek DC Awards has expanded from a regional competition to an international call for entries of remarkable imagery, both in single and series form, as well as multimedia pieces that combine the strength of still images with video, sound and graphics. So much profound work has been created by photographers from around the globe we felt we needed to include this work in our Awards and at our Festival. You are invited to submit your best work! The competition is open to all professionals, amateurs, and students around the world, and features $21,500 in cash awards.  The final Awards deadline is September 13, 2009. Visit the website for a complete listing of award categories, eligibility, rules, judges and information on FotoWeek DC 2009.

The Great Plains
Pre-order an autographed copy of iLCP Fellow Micheal Forsberg's The Great Plains book. For more information on the book release, click here.  "The Great Plains were once among the greatest grasslands on the planet. But as the United States and Canada grew westward, the Plains were plowed up, fenced in, overgrazed, and otherwise degraded. Today, this fragmented landscape is the most endangered and least protected ecosystem in North America. But all is not lost on the prairie. Through lyrical photographs, essays, historical images, and maps, this beautifully illustrated book gets beneath the surface of the Plains, revealing the lingering wild that still survives and whose diverse natural communities, native creatures, migratory traditions, and natural systems together create one vast and extraordinary whole."

The National Parks: Our American Landscape
iLCP Emerging Member Ian Shive has published his first major book on August 1st.  The 224-page, hardcover coffee table book titled The National Parks: Our American Landscape will hit store shelves nationwide. National Parks have long been an inspiration to his photography. Ian spent the last 4-years photographing on assignment or just meandering through the woods documenting everything from the arctic slopes of Mt. McKinley in Alaska to the underwater world of Channel Islands National Park in his backyard in California.  Ian is donating proceeds from the sale of his book to the National Parks Conservation Association.  Also, WILD EXPOSURE with Ian Shive - a series that originated as a web promotional tool for Ian's upcoming book - "The National Parks: Our American Landscape"  will debut in August on the Emmy award-winning CURRENT TV. Learn more about the National Parks Book - Buy it on Amazon.com

Regarding the Land  - Limited Edition
Get a signed and numbered collector's edition copy of iLCP Fellow Robert Glenn Ketchum's Regarding The Land and help support the International League of Conservation Photographers, too. Limited to 125 copies, this special edition set arrives in a fine linen slipcase. Also included in the set is a digitally-mastered, 7.5x9.5-inch Fuji Crystal Archive print of one of Robert's classic images, Sun Dance. The only previous print run of Sun Dance, an edition of thirty-three 30x40-inch cibachrome prints, sold out in just two weeks, making this a rare opportunity to own a signed and numbered print of this important image. The price is $1,500 for the complete set, of which Robert will donate $250 to the iLCP. For more information, contact Robert's studio at (310) 472-3681, or by e-mail at peace2rth@mac.com. More information is available on Robert's website.

The all new Art for Conservation website is finally here! There are a lot of refinements from the old site, including a section of the gallery reserved for iLCP Fellows, Associates and Emerging Photographers. They also have been - and will continue to be - featuring news from iLCP as often as possible. And they're aggressively developing their AFC social networking.

Take a look at the iLCP Gallery!  Enjoy - and purchase - these beautiful images by the photographers of iLCP. Know that each purchase provides valuable funding for both conservation photographers and the causes they are supporting.

iLCP Fellow Staffan Widstrand was chosen as the photographer of the week on the Wild Wonders of Europe website. See his photos and read there interview here.

"A World First - the Crown Jewels of Nature in Europe now covered in 150 000 top image database The last of the 68 top nature photographers in the "Wild Wonders of Europe" initiative, returned on Friday, completing the 14 months of intensive field work, including 118 photo assignments to all 48 European countries"... Read more about the success this project:  website

Join one of their many communities or check out the new galleries of images.  You can also enter the photo competition, or place your vote!  The last day of each month is the deadline for each coming month's competition. Join Wild Wonders of Europe on FaceBook! Browse some 200 images on Flickr

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