Photography has 5 subcategories that I’ve been experimenting a lot with lately: Drone photography, Repeat photography, Stereo photographyRemote (motion-triggered) cameras and Telephotography.

Of course, there’s a huge world of photography outside of these 5 relatively narrow subcategories. Bob Armstrong and Doug Jones have been pushing the envelope of new technologies, and, equally important, are both master-naturalists. Check out naturebob and Doug’s vimeo collection

Clockwise from upper left:  Eric Pohl, Singularity Imaging, LLC, flying stream surveys on Tàan, sea lion (POW). Discovery interpretive project on Staney Creek for The Nature Conservancy, July, 2018.  ● Bears on Sayéik, spirit helper (Douglas Island), recorded on motioncam, 2017. ● Photographers from the Navy’s 1929 aerial survey of Lingít Aaní. This mission is a rich source for today’s airborne repeat photographers.     ● Bob Armstrong’s camera array for capturing insects in flight.

Bob and Doug have coauthored an excellent online guide to video photography. It covers everything from ultramacro of insects, to underwater movies, to extreme telephoto challenges:

Enjoying Nature in Alaska through Video by Bob Armstrong and Doug Jones

(If this link doesn’t open the guide it will download a pdf link. Clicking that will take you to the Armstrong-Jones guide, which in turn links to many excellent movie clips from their respective websites).

My own photography, outside of the 5 specialized subcategories above, has evolved toward lighter weight cameras and an elaborate system for linking photopoints in arcmap for postfield documentation. On a typical outing, I’ll use an iPhone for panoramas (as a landscape-guy, often more than half of my pictures), and a pocket-sized Lumix 30x telephoto for wildlife. The DMC ZS40 is extremely compact but gives more control over settings than most equivalent sized point-&-shoots. A summary document on Ground-truthing methods is listed below (PS 2021: Hmmm, it’s dated 2017! The dark ages! Guess I need to work on an update . . .)

In this section

Ground-truthing methods & workflow: field to office to posting

Place-based technologies Update, 2023: Every 5 years or so I create an updated description of my methods and workflow: prefield…

2023 | Richard Carstensen | 4 pages

Sesquicentennial slideshow

For the sesquicentennial year of the 1867 Alaska Purchase, Juneau-Douglas City Museum asked me to create 3 banners showing 150…

2017 | Richard Carstensen | 28 minutes

2001 summer newsletter, Gold Creek solstice: field notes from the crest of the year

On the solstice, I walked the Flume Trail above Dzantik’i Héeni, flounders creek (Gold Creek). Enamored of my newest tool—a…

Summer 2001 | Richard Carstensen | 4 pages

Bob Armstrong’s Photographing nature in Alaska

Bob Armstrong is one of Juneau’s most innovative and energetic photographers. If you just need a great photo or video…

2010 | Robert Armstrong | 162 pages