photography - Karen A. Chase

Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark: Animals Near Extinction

January 15, 2024 By Karen A. Chase

This week we attended a Richmond Forum lecture with Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark project, in collaboration with National Geographic. As someone who cherishes the art of photography, I am inspired by Joel Sartore’s mission. He’s striving capture the essence of 15,000+ insects, creatures and animals near extinction. Why did Joel kick off this incredible project? View some of the photos below, and read on about the impact Joel hopes to make. 📸✨

What is the Photo Ark project?

Sartore initiated the Photo Ark project out of a deep concern for the accelerating loss of species around the world. Too many animals are near extinction. Witnessing the devastating impact of habitat destruction, climate change, and other human-induced threats on wildlife, he felt a compelling need to take action. The project started in 2005, aiming to photograph 15,000 species that are on the brink of extinction—those with the smallest numbers and/or protected in captivity. His goal is not merely to create a stunning visual archive but to raise awareness about the precarious state of these creatures—both great and small.

Joel Sartore’s photo of Kindu, a Schmidt’s red-tailed guenon (Cercopithecus ascanius schmidti). Kindu was hand raised at the Houston Zoo. During bottle feedings, Kindu was given a surrogate stuffed animal that he still loves.

What do Joel Sartore’s Photos capture?

The captivating photos captured by Sartore span a wide array of species, from the tiniest of insects to the most majestic mammals (like this elephant and her baby). His lens doesn’t discriminate, encompassing the beauty and fragility of life in its myriad forms. Each image tells a story of a species fighting for survival, serving as a poignant reminder of our shared responsibility to protect the intricate web of life on Earth. On simple black or white backgrounds, the creature’s eyes are clear and vivid, and if possible, they’re looking directly into the camera. That kind of eye-contact resonates with us humans, and increases our empathy.

A federally endangered three-year-old cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus) named Hasari at White Oak Conservation Center.

Why the Photo Ark images are important?

Through the Photo Ark, Joel Sartore hopes to evoke a sense of urgency and empathy among the global audience. By showcasing the incredible diversity of life facing extinction, he aims to kindle a collective commitment to conservation. Sartore’s believes awareness and education will inspire us to take action to safeguard these species and their habitats.

An endangered (IUCN) and federally endangered hatchling green sea turtle (Chelonia mydas) at Riverbanks Zoo and Garden.

What you can do to help animals near extinction.

We can lend a hand to these awesome creatures, too. Joel’s friendly advice is to begin right in your backyard (or patio or front stoop). Instead of a lawn we douse in chemicals, Joel recommends planting native plants and grasses. It will reduce pollution of the waterways. And pollinators will have more food to thrive. Don’t have a yard? Pick one creature—insect, bird, buffalo—and give them the voice, funding, and support they need.

If you want to delve deeper into the magical world of the Photo Ark, hop on over to his website to run through the gallery of Joel Sartore’s Photo Ark. There, you can immerse yourself in the beauty and fragility of our planet’s incredible biodiversity.

Let’s be the superheroes these creatures need. Support conservation groups, volunteer for wildlife causes, or just spread the word. (Ahem, share this blog.) Let’s make sure that the Photo Ark isn’t just a gallery of memories. Let’s make it a call to action for a better, wilder world.

A brown-throated sloth (Bradypus variegatus) at the PanAmerican Conservation Association in Gamboa, Panama.

I share stories like this and more in my author newsletter. I hope you follow along or sign up for my Chasing Histories Newsletter.

Show Don’t Tell, Quebec

September 21, 2016 By Karen A. Chase

There are dozens of blogs for writers on the importance of show, don’t tell. It’s the difference between stating your character “is happy,” and saying, “with each step her feet felt like dancing.”

Well, show-don’t-tell is also a handy thing for a writer to keep in mind while on vacation in a foreign place, so that the time away is either spent taking pictures or experiencing the journey without constantly popping online to write about it.

To that end, here are a handful of pictures from a recent excursion to Quebec, to bike (casually and with friends) the P’tit Train du Nord trail. It’s an affordable, relatively easy rail-to-trail, so even if you’re a novice you can do it. Over 3, 4 or 5 days the trip includes gorgeous B&Bs that serve both dinner and breakfast. Just remember the words of one of our favorite B&B owners, Guy, along the trail. “Take your time, it’s a holiday, not a job.”

Click on the below images for an enlarged slideshow…

How Time Flies

January 15, 2016 By Karen A. Chase

Hello again. Dipping back into my blog after a hiatus and after a new year begins, it’s clear to me how time can zoom by. You’re doing one thing (editing, in my case) and thinking, “After this, then I’ll get to that.”

This thinking is not mine alone, as witnessed on a holiday with my in-laws in New Jersey. Now in their mid-90s, my partner’s parents have been in the same house since 1959. Although some appliances or worn out chairs have been replaced, much of it has stayed true to the 60s. In part, because life was happening. Be it the morning newspaper or six kids, and thirteen grandchildren. They were so busy with this, that that (updating the house) just wasn’t the priority. And maybe it’s lovely it wasn’t.

While I’ll have more details on this excursion in my upcoming Will Travel For Words column over at ShelfPleasure, for now, enjoy these few snapshots of a circa 1960s house, and be thankful it hasn’t changed, so you can go back there, too.

Ciao 60: Fun

October 25, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

From the posts of the last few days, you could say that our trip through Italy was serene and moving. It was. However, as this entry shows, it was also blissfully fun. The photos below feel like a series of out-takes or bloopers from a holiday, but they’re not. This is how Ted and I behave on vacation together. I would be remiss if I did not mention a huge part of the reason why. It’s the same reason we took this Ciao 60 trip in the first place. Ted.

Traveling with Ted is romantic, like driving a convertible top-down through Italian villages. However, the car also has no brakes, is constantly in top gear, and only slows down for photographs, love, food and wine. It’s crazy fun. Silly. Playful. He’s like that at home and not just on vacation. Thank goodness. Ted displays what he often encourages in others: curiosity and openness. It allows him to try new things, constantly learn, and share a laugh with complete strangers (even Italians who don’t speak English). The result? We all want to come along for the ride.

For a man now in his 60s, it’s impossible to guess his age. When most men are becoming grumps (research shows it’s because their testosterone levels are falling) or languishing in retirement, Ted faces each day as if life is merely beginning. That, on holiday or otherwise, is easy to love. We should all be striving saying Ciao 60! the way he does. Laughing. Loving. Joyful.

Fun is in what he sees, does, and encourages. Click to enlarge and scroll through the photos.

Ciao 60: Feasting

October 23, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

Paris has cafés and bread shops. New York has bagels and pizza. But there’s a reason the world over loves Italian food. Italy has it all. Between the gelato shops, cafés, butchers, fisheries, and pasticcerias (pastry) it’s enough to make you want to move there and fall face first into a pizza pie. Each Italian day also begins with a frothy, perfect cappuccino.

“How,” I asked Ted, “are we going to return to American coffee?”

“We’ll be ruined,” was his only response as he gleefully picked up his cup. I love a man who knows he’s headed for trouble and goes there anyway.

A meal in Italy begins with your eyes. Fresh ingredients hang from the trees–olives, grapes, limes, and lemons. Tomatoes and herbs are nestled in baskets and bins, artfully arranged inside spotless kitchens. Then ingredients are stacked, tucked or puddled into works of art like the fish soups that clunk into the bowl.

Along the Riviera from Cinque Terra to Genoa, the region is known for pesto. Made with tiny leaf basil grown in ancient salty air, it’s a richer flavor than ours. They heap it onto hand-rolled gnocchi that makes you wanna die! North, into the Lake District, I swear the Perch comes right out of Lake Como coated in parmesan and lemon. Wine flows as cheap as water. However, feasting has consequences.

At the airport we weighed our bags and then ourselves. Despite our walking and all those stairs it was… well… Let’s just say it was amoré.

Click to enlarge the photos.

Ciao 60: Views

October 22, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

In a scene from An Affair to Remember, Deborah Kerr jokes to Cary Grant, “If the view is so lovely down there, why did you bring me up here?”

Nowhere is that line more repeatable than in Cinque Terre: A set of five villages in the terraced hillsides of Italy along the Riviera, built in the eleventh century to ward off Turkish invasion. As Ted remarked, “They were built to keep invading tourists out. Yet here we all are.”

No cars are allowed, so you must travel by foot, by boat, or by the train that unpredictably runs between the five villages (it’s on time, there is just no guarantee if it will stop at each town). Regardless of your mode of transport, or your position in the towns, the jaw-dropping views are your reward. Each town contains colorful buildings, sea breezes, cats, and a gabillion stairs. Given all the rich wine, bread and pasta, the calves and butt have the chance to work it off.

It was to these five towns, now a National Park, that we came with our friends to celebrate October 2nd, Ted’s birthday. It was here, along the shores of the Monterosso village, Ted waded out to swim in the Mediterranean for the first time in his life–the Italian reconnecting with the water of his roots. Still warm. Salty. And a sweet way to say Ciao 60.

The first five images below are all taken in one of five towns, Vernazza, from different vantage points. At the base of the tower, inside it, and then walking away from it up and out of town.

Ciao 60: Friends

October 21, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

To kick off the five part series on the Ciao 60 trip to Italy for my dear Ted’s birthday, we must first chat about friends. We actually began our sixteen-day Italian adventure in France, where our friends Andrew (a fellow writer) and Christiane and their children now live. There is no better way to get over jet lag than to cook in their Provence home, play with their children, and take naps in a hammock overlooking rolling farms.

A few years ago, Andrew and Christiane took on the immense task of revamping a 17th century farmhouse, amid their work, raising a family, and Andrew’s writing. The house and farm speak to all of it. Work areas mesh with rows of books that line ancient walls, with beams in mid-repair among rooms containing the sound of children’s laughter. For a gal without kids, and for Ted whose grandchildren live far away, time with children reading books (me) or flinging them around (Ted), makes for an incredibly joyful way to begin a break from work.

To help celebrate our visit, they also threw a dinner party (very Jane Austen of them), and as we set the dining table, the late afternoon sun made everything feel like a Rembrandt painting. The light, I’ve written about this before, is incredibly different in Provence. Brighter. Softer. Sweeter. It turns moments into memories. So does sitting at a friend’s table, surrounded by old and new friends and family… what a lovely way to celebrate life. Happy birthday.

Ciao 60: Wordless in Italy

October 18, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

Ciao! We are back from two-plus weeks traveling through France and Italy for my dear Ted’s very special birthday. (Yes, he is in his 60s. Can you believe it?!)

As I outline this week in my monthly column, Will Travel For Words, we made the best of plans to stay online and in touch, and then “hopped the plane, flew over the big blue ocean and promptly landed in an internet troublesome zone.” For all of you who maybe wondered why there were so few posts, please read my ShelfPleasure post on the details of why I disconnected, and what resulted (beautifully).

For those of who had hoped for a post-a-day, all next week I’ll do just that. Starting Monday October 21st, I’ll showcase five topics (food, fashion, views and more) with photos that were the highlights of Ted’s Ciao 60 birthday trip to Italy.

In the meantime, here are a few images to tide you over…

An elegant covered plaza for dining, shopping and people-watching in Milan.

Postcards — Disconnected means finding an old-fashioned way to stay in touch. Hello postcards.

Sailing — The northern Italian lakes (Lake Maggiore) in the early morning.

Vernazza — Italy is chaos. Beautiful, old-world chaos.

Constructing the Eiffel Tower

February 8, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

In honor of the last day of my Eiffel Tower necklace give away, I pay homage to this fabulous landmark, originally constructed for the 1889 Exposition in Paris. Despite the fact that all of its metal could be melted down to fit a 125-meter-square base less than 2.5 inches high, it took two years to build.

I’m especially thrilled that someone had the smarts, and we had the technology, to photograph the construction process. All these images come from Wikimedia Commons and are in the Public Domain. Click on an image to enlarge and scroll through the gallery. Enjoy!

A few more Eiffel facts:

~ Thomas Edison visited it in 1889.
~ Radio transmitters were fitted in WWI to jam German communications.
~ There used to be a pâtisserie on the second level.
~ Gustave Eiffel entertained in an apartment on the third level.
~ 72 names are engraved on the tower–all French notable people.
~ It’s painted every seven years with up to 60 tonnes of paint.
~ When it opened, the lifts weren’t operable.
~ It took visitors and hour by stairs to ascend the tower.
~ The original spiral stairs were removed in the 1980s.

Korbella is helping me give away an Eiffel Tower necklace made from that spiral staircase to one lucky reader. Korbella’s Charmes de Paris necklace has a retail value of $525. This sterling silver necklace is hand-finished, with a heart-shaped Swarovski CZ drop, a charm in the shape of Paris’ famous landmark. Enter before midnight tonight, February 8th.

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Guest Post: Kelly of Austen Hill

January 11, 2013 By Karen A. Chase

Today’s fabulous guest is the lovely Kelly Fitzgerald, founder and creative voice behind the lifestyle blog Austen Hill, where she writes about fashion, design, travel, food and more. She created the site as an outlet to share things that inspire her, and she’s come to chat about how it all started. Kelly…

Take a Chance on Yourself
When I began Austen Hill I had no idea how hard it would be, but I had felt for some time that there was a burgeoning designer inside of me just waiting to get out. What did I want to design? I had no clue. I just knew I had all of this creative energy and I needed a way to channel it. Blogging seemed like a wonderful way to explore things that I loved, and also write a bit.

Step 1: What do I do well?
A lot of my friends have asked me to help them plan parties, re-decorate rooms, or pick out the perfect shade of gray. I soon realized I had a knack for designing, and I was never asked to run the final length of a relay race. So I can’t run very fast, but I can design the heck out of a tablescape.

Step 2: Find my style.
For those of you in the marketing world, you know brand is everything. Articulating my brand, or style, consistently ensures that my readers immediately identify Austen Hill. What is my style and why does it matter? I created my Pinterest Board to get started and I always come back to it for inspiration and continuity.

Step 3: Drink a lot of wine!
It can be scary putting yourself out there. What if people don’t like what I’m doing? Through this experience I’ve learned to trust my design instincts and go for it. I took a chance on being myself and I’m so happy I did.

Check out her blog, AustenHill! Or visit the blog’s Facebook Page. Starting Monday, 14th, AustenHill will be holding a week-long give-away in conjunction with moi! If you like Paris and free books, this contest will be for you.

For her day job, Kelly travels the country working on health policy issues, but calls Richmond’s historic Church Hill home, where she lives with her dog Miss Austen. Below are a couple of her lovely pics from her blog, including an appetizer set-up in her living room, and a mood board she put together inspired by Les Misérable.