Project ideas for a suburban natural area restoration

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Hi folks,

I’m involved with the restoration of a 23-acre natural area on the outskirts of Chicago, IL, USA.

I’m a relatively new photographer, and am looking to document the restoration as best I can. I’ve heard a few folks say that having a project as a newbie is a great way to get some structure and purpose behind your photography, which makes sense to me!

As it’s not a large area, there are no traditional “grand” landscape scenes. I’ve just started working my way though Beyond the Grand Landscape (Sarah Marino and Ron Coscorrosa) and am really enjoying it, it encourages a style of photography that I think will work at this location.

I don’t really know enough to ask a well targeted question, so I just have a few vague asks:

  • Are there any non-obvious ways to show the change over time, beyond taking a similar composition at a similar time each year?
  • Do you know of any similar projects showing changes over time to small natural areas?
  • Are there any other resources/tips that you think might be helpful?

Thanks a bunch for the great community!

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I’ve been involved in a larger restoration project the last 25+ years, Matt , and at the beginning no one was documenting the original condition of the property except by accident. I think that’s a critical first step. It’s difficult to document what’s not there, but documenting the major invasives is a good start.

Even though it’s not considered nature photography, document the people involved-they’ll change over time and some will probably die and you’ll sorely regret not having good images of them. If you or someone else in the group is into video, interviews with the volunteers would also be awesome. Then document the bloom season as native plants come back (and possibly some native critters).

Though it’s not photography, if somone is doing transects of the plant life, havingthat data over time can add a strong rei forcement to what’s been accomplished.

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Great questions, and great to see you here!

  1. I think that is probably the best method, but what about showcasing the different plants that are showing off at different times of year?

  2. I’m not familiar with any off of the top of my head!

  3. What about doing a video or time-lapse series of this?

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Study and emulate the work of Robert Adams. There was no one better at this genre of photography.

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Matt, I am a bit south of Chicago, Kankakee area, I have found shooting in Illinois, it’s best to look at the small landscapes and work with them. I am far from being an expert in this, but I would think I would pick a few spot and returned to them each time and record the changes.
remember to have fun with this

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Thank you all so much for your inputs!

If anyone is interested, the site I’m talking about is the Dunning Read Natural Area.

@Dennis_Plank :

Great pointers to make sure we capture the original state of the property. I’ve subconsciously shied away from trying to take aesthetically pleasing images including invasive plants, as they’re not something I would want to share now, but I will want them in the future!

We do have someone else on the park advisory council who does a lot of audio production, they have been working on audio interviews with current folks as well as those who’ve been in the area a long time.

There isn’t anyone doing transects currently, I just learned about the concept reading your message! Thanks for the pointer. A couple of us log observations using iNaturalist, but transects would provide much more useful data. The site is a “hotspot” on eBird, and there are some regulars, so hopefully we see grassland bird counts improve over time.

@Matt_Payne :

I’m here because of your podcast! Thank you for promoting such a great community.

This winter will mark my first full year of being involved, I hopefully have enough of an idea to take better seasonal photos starting next spring :+1:

A long term time lapse would be amazing, but probably a bit beyond what I can do at the moment. A targeted time lapse of a volunteer day where we clean up an area would be great though (especially for something like teasel removal), I’ll look into that!

@Igor_Doncov :

Thank you! I will take a look. I was recently gifted Wild Visions: Wilderness as Image and Idea which covers some of his work and has been a really interesting read.

@hank :

Nice to know of another midwesterner here! Thanks for the tips and the reminder to enjoy it :slight_smile: I just looked at your site and these type of scenes are exactly what I want to develop an eye for.

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First off thank for looking at my images, didn’t think anybody did.

I am not one to give advice, but if you want to make those kind of images, you can’t be afraid to get dirty or get your feet wet. One of my favorite images was taken from the bottom of a drainage ditch looking up. Second find your local camera club, you will learn so much from those old guys, and remember shoot for yourself, don’t try and be someone else.

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