The Nature Photographer Podcast, featuring Beth Huning
Join NANPA President Beth Huning and Past President Dawn Wilson, along with the Wild and Exposed crew of Jason Loftus and Ron Hayes, in a wide ranging discussion that moves from the parched vistas Death Valley, to the sublime desert landscapes and neolithic ruins of Algeria, to rafting the Colorado River, and from working with state and federal agencies to her goals for NANPA to watching tarantula migrations. This episode covers a lot of ground!
Beth Huning received a 2011 Philip Hyde Conservation Grant from the NANPA Foundation, served on NANPA’s Environment Committee and as NANPA’s Membership Chair and has been deeply involved with NANPA for years prior to becoming president earlier this year. She came to the role with 17 years’ experience working with the Fish & Wildlife Service and managing conservation projects in and around the San Francisco Bay area, including the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture. There she dealt with the conflicts between conservation and protection versus recreation and economic development. In order to get all the different agencies and organizations working together for a common goal, you have to “manage ecosystems and ego systems,” Huning says.
Beth Huning’s photographed the wildlife, landscapes and cultures of a variety of locales, from the high Arctic to North Africa to the South Pacific. In this episode, she talks about the challenges of photographing in Death Valley and of being a campground host in what Ron Hayes called “a landscape photographer’s lab.” Huning also spoke about her favorite places in Algeria and the difficulties of travel into and inside of that country, which is just beginning to open up to the world. In answer to a question from Ron Hayes, she describes her “favorite outdoor experience of all time.” After 15 years of applying unsuccessfully, she finally won a private permit to organize a 16-day rafting trip down the Colorado. It took an additional six months to put all the logistical details, people and boats together and pass National Park Service inspection, but the stunning experiences were more than worth all the effort.
Show Notes
Links
Discussed in the show:
Philip Hyde Conservation Grant https://nanpafoundation.org/philip-hyde-conservation-grant/
Janie Moore Greene Scholarship Grant: https://nanpafoundation.org/janie-moore-greene-scholarship-grant/
San Francisco Bay Joint Venture https://sfbayjv.org
