An Interview with Larry A. Stone: Part 2

What advice would you give to younger nature photographers? What are the particular challenges of being a botanical photographer?

For beginning nature photographers—young or old—my standard advice is to “look at nature like a child!” Kids have a great curiosity and sense of wonder, which we sometimes lose as adults. If we look through the camera with a sense of amazement, perhaps we can capture that unique image, rather than just taking a “pretty picture.”

The biggest challenge for any photographer may be time. Equipment is getting better and better, and easier to use, but the photographer must spend the time to “make” a picture, rather than just “take” a picture. That means finding the subject, being there at a precise time in its blooming cycle, knowing when the light and weather are best, and getting to know the subject well enough to set the proper mood or tone for the photo.

What are your favorite natural areas in Iowa and the Midwest? What areas do you return to constantly, and what’s your favorite newly visited area?

Like many photographers, I’m drawn to the Mississippi River, the Loess Hills, the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, and various parks and wildlife areas. But I often find that I do my most creative work close to home. It’s really satisfying to prowl around our woods or our reconstructed prairies to look for new images and moods.

Larry A. Stone, photographer, Wildflowers of Iowa Woodlands

Plant of the Week

Cream-colored false indigo

Baptisia leucophaea Nutt.

scientific name, 2008

Baptisia bracteata

Muhl. ex Elliot

other common names: long-bracted wild indigo, plains wild indigo, large-bracted wild indigo, yellowish false indigo, cream wild indigo

Baptisia: from the Greek baptizein, “to dye,” referring to the economic use of some species that yield a poor indigo dye

Leucophaea: meaning “cream-colored”

Legume family: Fabaceae (Leguminosae)

Photograph by Thomas Rosburg, Wildflowers of the Tallgrass Prairie: The Upper Midwest, Second Edition

An Interview with Larry A. Stone: Part 1

How long have you been photographing plants? Why have they kept your photographic attention for so long? What other subjects do you focus on?
As a kid on the farm (Gulp! That’s 50+ years ago!) I played around with an old Brownie camera. But I didn’t start to get serious about photography until college, when a friend loaned me an old SLR. My botany prof at Coe, Robert V. Drexler, got me hooked on plants, so it was only natural to photograph them. That interest expanded dramatically when I became the outdoor writer with the Des Moines Register in 1972. That also was the year I met Sylvan Runkel —and you just couldn’t help but love plants if you ever connected with Sy!

Nature offers endless other photo subjects besides plants: scenics, wildlife, water, weather, geology. But one of my favorites is to try to show the interface between people and nature; as Sy would say, to show how we’re all part of one big natural community.

What has changed in the outdoor world since your first days of photographing these areas? What’s better, what’s worse?
Over the last 40 years, the size and number of our natural areas have continued to diminish—although conservation groups, government agencies, and individuals have taken more interest in protecting remnants. People also have restored or recreated habitats to simulate native environments.

Still, it’s becoming more and more of a challenge to find sites that have not been impacted by nearby development or agriculture. It’s tough to avoid having utility lines or communications towers or agricultural buildings or roads in otherwise scenic photos! And invasive species are encroaching on many sites, threatening the integrity of natural communities.

Larry A. Stone, photographer, Wildflowers of Iowa Woodlands