The other evening I was watching a fascinating documentary about National Geographic photographer Jim Sartore’s project to preserve photographically as many of the worlds animal species as he can. He entitles this The Photo Ark, and the analogy is poignant.  It is a very noble effort and his work is stunning; so I thought that I would share his website with everyone. I recommend it to nature lovers and photographers alike. Sartore is following  a simple but striking approach: to photograph against either pure white or pure black. You may remember my recommendation to photograph flowers at night with flash.

Pictorially this is a magnificent approach. It isolates the species, which is intriguing because in reality species are always part of an ecosystem and have no true existence outside of this system. Here they get to stand for a moment in the sun or in the moonlight by themselves. And this sets them off in isolation. They are beautiful, but for many this may be the end of a long evolutionary line.