Exploring Nature Through a Lens

This course has been designed as a starting point on our exciting series of visual natural history and biological imaging courses, that use primarily photography as a method for exploring ecology. Starting with an overview of how the naturalists of the past have shaped contemporary relationships with the natural world. We look at the ancient’s work, through the Middle Ages, to pioneers of the Enlightenment and Victorian eras, using those examples to create our own images. We also look at early film makers, and the influence of the television age, and consider how wildlife documentaries and modern wildlife photography have pushed the boundaries of what can be captured giving us ever better insights of this planet’s diverse habitats and species. These techniques we will use ourselves, to record, photograph, and map the life around us. No previous experience in photography or ecology is needed, all that is really required is an enthusiasm for the natural world!
The course has been designed with the bare minimum of technical requirements, just bring a working camera, digital compact or phone, or even a film camera, as long as you have some way of getting the images off your camera onto a computer. Cameras can be left in auto mode for this course. Please note that this course is not going to focus on the technical skills of photography, there is a ‘photo support unit’ but this is there to help you make the basic requirements of the course. There is however a ‘Basic Photo Skills’ short module that now runs in parallel with this course should you be interested in pushing your photography further.
1. Multiple choice questions on the development of British natural history (20% of overall mark)
2. A brief project outline for a hypothetical long term project using images to document nature (1200 word equivalent). (40% of overall mark)
3. The creation of a photographic species map (40% of overall mark)

Note

This module is at CQFW Level 3