Feb 7, 2007  David Campbell "What's a Nice Bird Watcher Like Me Doing In  A Place Like This?"

The meeting in February was not what seemed to be a normal meeting with a person lecturing on a specific species of herps. This meeting was about a photographer’s journey to find herps. Ironically Dave Campbell stated, “Keep in mind of other wildlife. This will lead to your discoveries of your own in the herp world.” This is what this meeting was about. Mr. Campbell is a biology teacher at Ridgeview. He is National Board Certified to teach science. On his list of classes he teaches is Advance Placement Biology and International Baccalaureate Biology. He was the photographer in Dr. Rossi’s book. He was a bird watcher at the age of seven for four years. His first interest in herps was a short head garter snake. The short head garter snake rarely bites. The pictures shown had an awe-inspiring effect. From the squirrel living under a concrete piling marker for parking spacing to the various plants in which you will find herps near. Just some of lists of some herps pictured were the Majovie rattler, garters, dwarf caimans, soft shell turtles, Nile crocodiles, Komodo dragons, red belly turtles, American alligators, green iguanas, scarlet king snakes, and various amphibians. A Nikon camera N-90 with a Z flash unit accompanied by a slave and equipped by a 200-millimeter lens was used to take the pictures. A tip he gave on photographing in the wild was find good use of snake hooks. Especially the extendable pocket size hooks; these can be used to spread the blades of grass to get a clearer picture of the animal. Mr. Campbell told us that the most of time when he went field herping that he hardly found any herps. It was when he wasn’t looking for herps that he found some profound herps. On one occasion, he was driving in Clay County and encountered a venomous reptile. And, while he was photographing the herp, a person drove up pulled out a shotgun yelled, “Move and I’ll shoot him.” Mr. Campbell replied, “No!” Then it escaladed to that if he didn’t move he would shoot him, too. Luckily, the homeowner came out and told the enraged person to leave. Mr. Campbell kept the audience mesmerized with his entertaining talk and beautiful pictures. With the comedy of the fungus with the fly on it, to the quiz of herps which kept the audience involved. We loved it. Thank-you again David Campbell for the great talk. Now everyone, don’t forget that next month is our second auction. See you there. ~Joel Pope

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