Quality Photographs in Illustrated Programs — The lights dim and the illustrated PowerPoint program has begun. The audience is quiet, their minds intrigued and inspired by the interpreter’s words. Using quality images, the interpreter has arranged pictures of wolves and elk that dissolve and dance on the screen. The images are synchronized to the narrative. Masterful choreography allows the audience to explore subtle layers of meaning in the intertwined lives of predator and prey.

So far it is a successful illustrated talk. But then, a stumble. The interpreter, in misguided enthusiasm, inserted a snapshot he took with a point-and-shoot digital camera. The image is bland. Half of a road sign is visible in the lower left corner. The image is tilted 2 degrees from horizontal. The colors are off and whites are too bright. Worst of all, the subject, a lone wolf, is a small dark speck in the background.

The interpreter might as well have farted.

The interpreter had been in the field a few days before the program and saw a wolf in the distance. He used a pocket digital camera for a snapshot he thought would work in the program. While the animal sighting may have been important to the interpreter at the time, the hasty picture didn’t belong in the program. With a single poor image, the continuum of quality in the program was lost.

We, as professional interpreters, use images as tools because they facilitate visual connections to park resources. Professional photographers know how to create those powerful images. Our hypothetical interpreter is guilty of casual point-and-shoot snapshot photography. This is a malnourished substitute for quality photography. The use of snapshots is becoming more common in programs due to the prevalence and ease of use of cheap pocket digital cameras. While the camera itself is not to blame, the casualness most people take toward snapping a picture is.

A snapshot may technically capture the subject but that doesn’t make the picture compelling, just as information is not the same as interpretation. We have been spoiled for decades by high-quality park slides from professionals. Don’t take those sumptuous images for granted. There’s a lot more to photography than many realize. We have to remember what the original photographers went through to get the “keeper” slides we use.

Digital snapshots are temptingly simple to make, but they are a risky shortcut. A program can be ruined by substandard equipment, lack of knowledge about techniques, and a fatal assumption that the audience won’t really care if the picture was taken by Ansel Adams or Joe Blow. Never discount the audience. We don’t go to movies and photo galleries to see technical professionalism; we go for entertainment and art. However, we notice when quality is compromised. Likewise, visitors expect a professional level of photography in NPS programs and will notice when it is missing. It is important to maintain that quality of content in our programs. Otherwise, visitors will leave our programs disappointed and Park Service credibility will be lessened.

Interpreters must separate themselves from the personal relationship they have with their snapshot. While the picture may be important to the photographer, that snapshot does not convey the same meaning to the audience. The viewer doesn’t know the back story and can’t fill in the missing emotional or intellectual details. This is where photographic techniques come in.

Meaningful photography is a learned skill. Skilled photographers know how to take a picture that conveys more than the information in the picture. Even so, in the hunt for the perfect picture, pros may end up with 50 bad pictures for each keeper. But, you never see their mediocre shots because the photographer trashed those. You just see and remember their best shots. This creates the illusion that the photographer has an ability most folks lack. If you invest the time, you can learn these skills. Just be ready to take a few thousand pictures for the 80 slides in your PowerPoint program.

So, how to learn? There are several web sites I consult frequently. The best I’ve found are fredmiranda.com, luminous-landscape.com, kenrockwell.com and normankoren.com

Study the information on these sites. They provide feedback galleries where people solicit critiques and comments on their pictures and tutorials where photo techniques and Adobe Photoshop tricks are taught. These sites teach new photographers how to avoid common mistakes such as taking pictures in the middle of the day when the light is flat and harsh, taking a picture with everything in focus rather than using a shallow depth of field, failing to properly frame the picture or not cropping irrelevant portions of the image. Other topics: why not to take a picture toward the sun, why to use a flash during daylight, how to avoid obscuring the subject among too many details, exposure mistakes from not understanding a camera’s light meter, or using the horrid digital zoom function.

It is an adage in photography that taking the picture is only half the job. Photographs usually need to be post-processed with a photo-editor program like Photoshop to crop images; adjust colors, sharpness, color levels, white and black levels, contrast, brightness and shadow detail. These corrections add emphasis to important aspects of photographs and enhance their emotional impact.

Your park, if it has a quality slide collection, needs to get those slides scanned with a dedicated slide scanner and put into a searchable database. If interpreters are seeking images from the Internet, it’s apparent the park needs to shore up its image collection, or update it beyond images of visitors with neon bell-bottoms and lamb-chop sideburns.

Supervisors need to audit interpreters to ensure that the quality of selected images are of a caliber that visitors have come to expect from the NPS. Set the tone during training that if interpreters want to take their own pictures, those images must be interpretive and professional. Also, make it clear that interpreters have a limited amount of time to make their own images. Talk to them about the elements of photography. Are your interpreters’ expectations realistic for what they want to accomplish? What tools do you have for them to use? Does the park have a camera? Lenses? Photo editing software? Available computers? I highly recommend steering your staff toward existing images when program development time is at a premium.

While most interpreters clutch their digital point-and-shoot camera and salivate at the prospect of taking photos for their PowerPoint program, that may be unrealistic. Interpreters should pursue and expand their photographic talents, but we must set realistic goals and manage our time and efforts within time constraints. Photography takes a lot of time and dedication to get right and is not an endeavor a professional interpreter should take lightly.

If you have questions, e-mail me at iceagecaver@yahoo.com. You can find my photographs on the park websites of Tumacácori, Lake Roosevelt, the Anza Trail, and coming soon, Saguaro. I shoot with a Canon 1D Mark IIN and Canon L-series lenses and use Adobe Photoshop CS2.

Protection

Keeping Rescue Training Affordable — “The skills you will learn this week will someday save a life. It might be your own, your fellow rescuer’s, or a park visitor’s, but some day, someone in this class will save a life because they used skills that will be acquired this week.”

So went part of the introductory briefing given by course coordinator Ranger Rob Turan to this year’s trainees at the NPS Eastern High-Angle Rescue Course, held at Shenandoah this past April. We participate in a lot of training as NPS employees, and all of it is important. One would be hard pressed to find training that is more important than that which will help save lives.

Because the course coordinators know the value of such training, they go to great lengths to fill it each year and to make it as affordable as possible, both to parks and individuals. This sometimes takes creativity. This year’s course implemented four distinct ideas to help make it tuition-free.

1. Assistance from Other Agencies. Though primarily an NPS course, coordinators used other agencies this year, as they have in the past, to offer unique training opportunities and perspectives. In addition to NPS personnel, participants from New Jersey State Parks, Shenandoah Mountain Guides, Shenandoah volunteers and Shenandoah Mountain Rescue Group all played important roles in making the training as comprehensive as possible. Also notable, the U.S. Park Police Eagle 1 helicopter presented a block on litter and jungle penetrator hoist operations, which was a first for the course.

2. Military Expertise. Three U.S. Navy SEALs, an Air Force pararescue jumper and the director of the Navy’s Special Warfare Tactical Climbing Research and Development Unit joined the instructor cadre to offer their unique teaching abilities and to lend perspective on cutting-edge ideas. As in previous years, their collective expertise made indispensable contributions to the overall success of the course. The military helped absorb the cost of five instructors.

3. Rescue Equipment Manufacturer Sponsorship. Four representatives from the Petzl company attended a full day of training and ran two stations: fixed rope ascending/descending/changeover; and litter raise and lower. One of these reps came from France. Who can better demonstrate the use of certain rescue devices or articulate exact rescue procedures using said devices than reps from the company who builds them? Again, it was cutting-edge expertise, all of it on Petzl’s dime, and they even donated some equipment for use during the course.

4. Support from the Washington Office. For years, the eastern rescue course has persevered on a shoestring budget or no budget at all. Instructors’ home parks have absorbed their travel costs, the host park has provided the majority of equipment, and handout materials have been generated locally. This year Dan Pontbriand, the NPS branch chief of emergency services, provided support with several much-needed ropes, printed manuals and miscellaneous equipment. Moreover, Pontbriand, who has an impressive rescue background of his own, spent an entire day with the class, speaking with students and instructors, evaluating the quality of the training, assisting with skill stations and getting on-rope himself. Pontbriand saw the extraordinary degree of learning that occurs during this week. Coordinators are confident that WASO’s support will continue and hopefully expand in the future.

It is our hope to never charge tuition for this outstanding rescue course. We have accomplished this for 12 years. By continuing to use other agencies, manufacturer sponsorship, military expertise and support from WASO, we will continue to make this training available and affordable to any interested rescue-affiliated individual, regardless of their financial resources.

This goal is a lofty one, but no more lofty than the ultimate reason we train at all: ”That others may live.”

~ Kevin Moses, Big South Fork

NOTE: Are you in resource management and interested in becoming a columnist in this space? Please contact the editor at fordedit@aol.com.