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So I've had the great privilege
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of traveling to some incredible places,
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photographing these distant landscapes
and remote cultures
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all over the world.
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I love my job.
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People think it's this
string of epiphanies
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and sunrises and rainbows.
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When in reality,
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it looks more something like this.
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(Laughter)
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This is my office.
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We can't afford the fanciest places
to stay at night,
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so we tend to sleep a lot outdoors,
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as long as we can stay dry,
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that's a bonus.
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We also can't afford
the fanciest restaurants.
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So we tend to eat whatever's on
the local menu.
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And if you're in the Ecuadorian Paramo,
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you're going to eat a large rodent
called a Cuy.
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(Laughter)
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What makes our experiences, perhaps,
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a little bit different
and a little more unique
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than that of the average person
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is that we have this gnawing thing
in the back of our mind
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that even in our darkest moments,
in those times of despair,
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we think, "Hey, there might be
an image to be made here,
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there might be a story to be told."
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And why is storytelling important?
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It helps us connect with our cultural
and our natural heritage.
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And in the Southeast,
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there's an alarming disconnect
between the public
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and the natural areas that allow
us to be her win the first place.
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We're visual creatures,
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so we use what we see
to teach us what we know.
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Now the majority of us
aren't going to go
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way down into a swamp.
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So how can we expect those same people
to advocate
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on behalf of their protection?
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We can't.
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My job, then, is to use photography
as a communication tool
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to help bridge the gap
between the science and the aesthetics.
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To get people talking,
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to get them thinking,
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and to hopefully, ultimately,
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to get them caring.
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I started doing this 15 years ago
right here in Gainesville,
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right here in my backyard,
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and I fell in love with
adventure and discovery.
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Going to explore
all these different places
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that were just minutes from
my front door step.
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There's a lot of
beautiful places to find.
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Despite all these years that have passed,
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I still see the world through the eyes
of a child
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and I try to incorporate
that sense of wonderment
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and that sense of curiosity
into my photography
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as often as I can.
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And we're pretty lucky
because here in the South,
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we're still blessed with a relatively
blank canvas
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that we can fill with
the most fanciful adventures
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and incredible experiences.
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It's just a matter of how far
our imagination will take us.
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See, a lot of people look at this
and think,
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"Oh wow, that's a pretty tree."
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But I don't just see a tree,
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I look at this and I see opportunity.
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I see an entire weekend.
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Because when I was a kid,
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these were the types of images
that got me off the sofa
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and dared me to explore,
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dared me to go find the woods
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and put my head underwater
and see what we have.
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And folks, I've been photographing
all over the world
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and I promise you,
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what we we have here,
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what we have in the Sunshine State
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rivals anything else that I've seen.
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But yet out tourism industry is busy
promoting all the wrong things.
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Before most kids are 12,
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they'll have been to Disney World
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more times than they've been
in a canoe
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or camping under a starry sky.
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And I have nothing against Disney
or Mickey,
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I used to go there, too.
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But they're missing out on those
fundamental connections
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that create a real sense of pride
and ownership
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for the place that they call home.
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And this is compounded by the issue
that the landscapes
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that define our natural heritage
and fuel our aquifer for our drinking water
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have been deemed as scary and dangerous
and spooky.
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See, when our ancestors first came here,
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they warned, "Stay out of these areas,
they're haunted.
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They're full of evil spirits and ghosts."
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I don't know where they came up
with that idea.
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But it's actually led to
a very real disconnect,
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a very real negative mentality
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that has kept the public disinterested,
silent,
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and ultimately, our environment at risk.
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We're a state that's surrounded
and defined by water.
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And for centuries,
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swamps and wetlands have been regarded
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as these obstacles to overcome.
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And so we've treated them as
second-class ecosystems
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because they have
very little monetary value
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and of course, they're known
to harbor alligators and snakes,
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which I'll admit, these aren't
the most cuddly of ambassadors.
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(Laughter)
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So it became assumed, then, that
the only good swamp
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was a drained swamp.
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And in fact, draining a swamp
to make way
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for agriculture and development
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was considered the very essence
of conservation
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not too long ago.
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And now we're backpedaling,
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because the more we come to learn
about these silent landscapes,
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the more secrets we're starting
to unlock
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about interspecies relationships
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and the connectivity of habitats,
watersheds and flyways.
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Take this bird, for example:
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This is the prothonotary warbler.
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I love this bird because
it's a swamp bird,
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through and through,
a swamp bird.
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They nest and they mate and they breed
in these old grown (?) swamps
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in these flooded forests.
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And so after the spring,
after they raise their young,
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they then fly thousand of miles
over the Gulf of Mexico
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into Central and South America.
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And then after the winter,
spring rolls around
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and they come back.
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They fly thousands of miles
over the Gulf of Mexico.
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And where do they go,
where do they land?
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Right back in the same tree.
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That's nuts.
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This is a bird the size
of a tennis ball.
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I mean, that's crazy.
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I used a GPS to get here today,
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and this is my hometown.
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(Laughter)
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That's crazy.
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So what happens, then, when this bird
flies over the Gulf of Mexico
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and into Central America for the winter
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and then the spring rolls around
and it flies back,
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and it comes back to this:
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A freshly salted golf course.
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This is a narrative that's
all too commonly unraveling
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here in this state.
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And this is a natural process
that's occurred for thousands of years
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and we're just now learning about it.
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So you can imagine all else we have
to learn about these landscapes
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if we just preserve them first.
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And despite all this rich life
that abounds in these swamps,
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they still have a bad name.
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Many people feel uncomfortable
with the idea of wadding
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in Florida's black water.
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I can understand that.
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But what I loved about growing up
in the Sunshine State
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that for so many of us,
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we leave with this latent,
but very palpable fear
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that when we put our toes into the water,
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there might be something much more ancient
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and much more adapted than we are.
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Knowing that you're not top dog
is a welcomed discomfort, I think.
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How often in this modern and urban
and digital age
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do you actually have the chance
to feel vulnerable,
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or consider that the world may not
have been made for just us?
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So for the last decade,
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I began seeking out these areas
where the concrete yields to forest
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and the pines turn to cyprus
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and I viewed all these mosquitos
and reptiles,
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all these discomforts,
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as affirmations that I'd found
true wilderness,
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and I embraced them wholly.
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Now as a conservation photographer
obsessed with black water,
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it's only fitting that I'd end up