Project: Field Herping Photographic Atlas

Hey All,
   I know I'm not on this forum very often - mostly because I can't keep hots where I am, so I have less to share than a lot of you - but I wanted to put up a post about a project that a lot of photographers are collaborating on. 

Here is a quick synopsis of the project. I have a link below to a much more detailed description with a lot of questions answered. 

- I'm working on gathering photos of herps (reptiles and amphibians) from all over the world. The goal of the project is to create an atlas of beautiful photos taken in the field. It's not going to have captive specimens (unless a particular shot is needed to show a particular aspect of a species EX. Gecko feet, unique scalation, etc). The idea is to create a visually appealing book (not a field guide) with many different species (not every species on Earth) that can help show how diverse and wonderful the creatures of our hobby are. I will be writing the majority of the text - species information (not incredibly scientific, some taxonomy but more so for the lay person) - and am querying several people (these people have a lot of experience in their particular region) to write intros with herping information for each region (the regions consist of North America, Central America and the Caribbean, South America, Asia, Oceania, Europe, Africa, and the Oceans/Seas - the Arctic region is also currently planned, but with no submissions yet). Lastly, I'm going to query several well-known herpetologists/photographers in interest of authoring prologues/epilogues.

There are 19 contributors so far (not counting myself) and most have contributed photos of herps of the Americas, so there is a big need for other regions although these regions could always use more photos to choose from. There are literally hundreds of photos submitted already and I'm still collecting more. Each contributor sends me a gallery link and I go through and choose the most visually appealing, which then get put into a shot-list on my computer. At the end I'll pick out all of the best shots to put the book together and center the text around the species chosen.

Okay, so the big question most people have is payment... there is no money that can be offered. The goal is to find a publisher (I'm going to query several once the project is nearing completion - it's hard to find a publisher for a photographic project when I can't give a good idea of all of the photos until they're all submitted) and work a deal where each contributor receives a copy of the book as well as credit line for each photo they submitted and is used. If any money is obtained from the project, it will be used to purchase more copies for contributors or donated (herp conservation, cancer research, etc.) in the name of the contributors. I will not make any money off of this project. This is simply a passion project for me. I want to create this project and add a credit to my name, but will not take any money from it. It's more about an opportunity for people to get published and show-off the amazing species we've seen and photographed in the wild.

I hope it's okay that I post a link to the project information (even though it's on another forum) here. It's just easier, and shorter, since there is a lot of information and many questions answered. Herp Atlas Project

If anyone comes up with any other questions or is interested in participating, please e-mail me: ccarillephoto@gmail.com

Thank you for your time reading through this!
Cheers,
Chris Carille

Hi Chris,

a wonderful idea, and I certainly don't want to discourage you from pursuing it. However, it will be hard to find a publisher in times where plenty of (higher and less high quality) pics of almost any species can be found in the net. So for your project to evolve positively, it might be of utmost importance that it somehow 'makes a difference', that is, offers something that can't be get already somewhere else. Just my two cents.

Maybe this is naive, but perhaps one could try to select among the thousands of good quality pics in the net the very best ones, contact the copy right holders for written permission in each case, and combine these pics into a commented atlas that might then be distributed as a non-profit contribution where 'customers' are asked to donate a small fee to, for instance, David Williams' Indonesian/PNG antivenom project.

Good luck,

Klaus

Hi Klaus,
   Thank you for the insight. I agree with you that it may offer many photos that could possibly be found on the net with some research, but the project is unique in that it is a collaboration between many photographers and offering images from all over the world. The way I've gone about gaining collaborators has worked well so far, totaling now over 22 and authors for sections that have catalogued every herp in the region (Europe and the US) or have extensive field research experiences (South America, Asia, etc). The information won't be material that is readily available on the net, and because of the photographic content/quality, the book will make a good "coffee table" piece. I also have in mind some high profile photographers/herpetologists/conservationists I've emailed back-and-forth with before to author the epilogue and prologue (this may add some credibility to the project since I am an unknown author).

I do understand your concerns for the project, and appreciate the comments, but am not worried about finding a publisher for the work. Many of the projects I've seen published have information and photography that can easily be found on the internet - just look at all of the field guides, or local guides about history. Our project differs greatly on this and is unique, offering up the first strictly field herping atlas that is also containing high quality images - not just "plate" shots. Unfortunately, contacting photographers for each image found online would be an effort in futility as many images that are googled aren't on the original owners site, but shared illegally through other means - easily seen if you google the "gastric brooding frog". The image that comes up is the same and not given permission by the photographer, an Australian herpetologist who is now in several lawsuits (I believe) about the use of the image. Tracking down each photographer would take a very long time.
If the project doesn't get picked up by a publisher, and I'm confident it will, I plan to distribute a pdf of the atlas to the contributors and then sell copies of the pdf to donate funds. Hopefully, everything goes to plan and works out - the project is already moving much faster than I originally had intended!

Cheers,
Chris

Sounds Great. I m looking forward to seeing the final opus. Good luck!

Thanks for the well-wishes Klaus!

Update 07/24/2013 12:00 pm:
Hi All! I hope no one minds that I'm creating a new post for updates to make it easier to follow and for me to keep everyone in the loop.

We now have 23 contributors and counting. We still have some major spaces that need filling, so please pass information about this project around to good field-herping photographers you may know. The major spaces we need photos for are the following regions: Oceania (Australia, NZ, etc.), the Seas (underwater sea snakes and turtle shots mainly), Africa, the Arctic region, and Asia, so spread the word!!

Complete (received photos, ids, locations, credit line info):
- Nicholas A. Hess
- James R. Evans
- Matthew Sullivan
- Ryan Francis
- Matthew Jennette
- Justin Michels (waiting on 2 shots)
- Matt Buckingham (waiting on about 30 shots)
- Daniel Bohleis (waiting on about 30 shots)

Photos I've gone through (and e-mailed shot lists):
- Anton (last name? - sent a pm for e-mail info to send a shot list)
- Zeev (last name? - sent a pm for e-mail info to send a shot list)
- Thor Hakonsen (e-mail sent with shot list)
- Andrew Snyder (e-mail sent with shot list)
- Jason Rothmeyer (e-mail sent with shot list)
- Rob Schell (e-mail sent with shot list)
- Chris Harrison (e-mail sent with shot list)
- Riley Campbell (e-mail sent with shot list)
- Nathan Shepard (e-mail sent with shot list)
- Jeroen Speybroeck (e-mail sent with shot list)
- Markus Oulehla (e-mail sent with shot list)
- Fil Tkaczyk (e-mail sent requesting other gallery links)

Still need to compile shot lists (given permission as contributors):
- Hans Breuer
- Andre Schmid
- Fred Vachss

Total species (not shots) for photos received (6 completed photographers' photos - my shot list is 100+ pages long so far, so there will be a lot more! haha granted that includes photo links, contributors names, and latin and common names):
Snakes: 44
Amphibians: 39
Lizards & Skinks: 29
Crocodilians: 3
Testudines: 6