{"id":46725,"date":"2020-08-18T10:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-18T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/?p=46725"},"modified":"2020-08-24T17:35:42","modified_gmt":"2020-08-24T21:35:42","slug":"a-photographers-quest-to-document-the-ephemeral-world-of-vernal-pools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2020\/a-photographers-quest-to-document-the-ephemeral-world-of-vernal-pools\/","title":{"rendered":"A photographer&#8217;s quest to document the ephemeral world of vernal pools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Professor Steven Johnson<\/strong> is pushing the frontier of conservation photography \u2013 by entering \u201ctoad time.\u201d He explains: a toad could sit on a rock for six or seven hours, seemingly doing nothing the entire time. If you blink for a split second, you might miss its tongue darting out, snagging a wayward fly before going still again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"alignright size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/biopic-by-magdalena-johnson-20160714-P1250839-1-690x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-46730\" width=\"276\" height=\"409\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/biopic-by-magdalena-johnson-20160714-P1250839-1-690x1024.jpg 690w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/biopic-by-magdalena-johnson-20160714-P1250839-1-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/biopic-by-magdalena-johnson-20160714-P1250839-1-768x1139.jpg 768w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/biopic-by-magdalena-johnson-20160714-P1250839-1.jpg 863w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 276px) 100vw, 276px\" \/><figcaption><strong>Professor Steven Johnson, photographed by his daughter Magdalena Johnson.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>That level of patience and focus is how Johnson photographs the fantastical, intricate world of vernal pools. Johnson, who teaches photography at Eastern Mennonite University, devoted his recent sabbatical to advance his multi-year project \u2013 inventing new ways of using equipment to immortalize ethereal salamander egg masses and alienesque macroinvertebrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWhen sunlight filters through Spotted Salamander eggs, it illuminates them in delicate shades of blue and green like an aquatic Vermeer painting,&#8221; Johnson says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vernal pools are unique ecosystems that fill up with rainwater or snowmelt in the spring. They dry up and disappear at some point in the year, which prevents fish from inhabiting them. That allows for other species to flourish, such as salamanders that use the pools as a breeding ground, and tiny critters like copepods and fairy shrimp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Johnson mostly finds the pools in Rockingham and Augusta counties, either by word of mouth or exploration. He\u2019s taken a few trips farther afield, including one out to the Virginia coast to track down the rare Mabee\u2019s salamander.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Currently, Johnson is putting together an e-book for the North American Nature Photography Association on techniques people can use to document vernal pools in their own \u201cneck of the woods.\u201d In the last year, he\u2019s also contributed to the new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shopdwr.com\/product.cfm?uid=2421219&amp;context=&amp;showInactive=N\"><em>Guide to the Salamanders of Virginia<\/em><\/a> published by the Department of Wildlife Resources, written about his work for <a href=\"https:\/\/themennonite.org\/feature\/vernal-pools-appalachia\/\"><em>The Mennonite<\/em><\/a><em>, <\/em>been the featured guest on <a href=\"https:\/\/jaymiheimbuch.com\/podcast\/020-how-to-boost-the-impact-of-your-photos-an-interview-with-steven-david-johnson\/?ck_subscriber_id=588049487\">\u201cImpact: the Conservation Photography podcast,<\/a>\u201d and had his photos featured in articles about the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biographic.com\/a-proposed-pipeline-runs-through-it\/\">Atlantic Coast Pipeline<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.org\/en-us\/magazine\/magazine-articles\/cumberland-forest-project\/\">biodiversity in Appalachia<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"484\" src=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200430-_DSC3887-2-1024x484.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-46732\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200430-_DSC3887-2-1024x484.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200430-_DSC3887-2-300x142.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200430-_DSC3887-2-768x363.jpg 768w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200430-_DSC3887-2.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><strong>A Spotted Salamander larva will soon join other recent hatchlings in a Virginia vernal pool.<\/strong><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>One project Johnson is especially excited about is a collaboration with friend Alex Wiles: a highlight video of footage from this year\u2019s \u201cpool season\u201d titled <em>Ephemeral, <\/em>available for viewing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stevendavidjohnson.com\/ephemeral\">on his website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Johnson says \u201cthe <em>Ephemeral<\/em> video depicts the intricate world of biodiversity that exists just below the surface of the vernal pools that form in our forests.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Besides the unique biodiversity of these elusive aquatic environs, Johnson is drawn to the technical challenge of capturing these images. This requires freshwater ultra macro photography \u2013 immersing equipment underwater that greatly magnifies the subject. It\u2019s challenging, and Johnson is a pioneer of the field, which is why his work looks unlike most any other nature photographs you\u2019ve seen before. He\u2019s done extensive research to this end to set up his own underwater rigs, and corresponded with companies to see just how far he can push the limits of their equipment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cImagine trying to get a sharp photograph of a single tiny bird in a fast-moving flock during twilight,&#8221; Johnson says. &#8220;That\u2019s similar to the kind of challenge I have when photographing a miniscule copepod swimming through a vernal pool. It takes a lot of experimentation and patience to get it right.\u201d&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The life of vernal pools is cyclical \u2013 filling, harboring life, and then disappearing each year. Rather than becoming repetitive, though, Johnson said this ongoing work is more like a \u201cspiral,\u201d as he goes deeper and documents new creatures, behaviors, and moments each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cEach year, the life cycle of vernal pool creatures repeats, but I also observe and learn more each year, so it\u2019s kind of an upwards spiral of learning,&#8221; says Johnson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200225-_DSC9396-2-1024x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-46731\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200225-_DSC9396-2-1024x1024.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200225-_DSC9396-2-300x300.jpg 300w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200225-_DSC9396-2-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200225-_DSC9396-2-768x768.jpg 768w, https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200225-_DSC9396-2.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption><strong>A copepod (a type of tiny crustacean), <\/strong><strong>photographed in a vernal pool in the George Washington National Forest of Virginia<\/strong>, shows its single blue eye. Its estimated size is 2 millimeters. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Professor Steven Johnson is pushing the frontier of conservation photography \u2013 by entering \u201ctoad time.\u201d He explains: a toad could sit on a rock for six or seven hours, seemingly <a href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2020\/a-photographers-quest-to-document-the-ephemeral-world-of-vernal-pools\/\" target=\"_self\" class=\"more-link\">... read more <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">about A photographer&#8217;s quest to document the ephemeral world of vernal pools<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":46727,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7931,5590,5592,17562,5643,5642,5708,12507],"tags":[11856],"feature":[17427,17426,17241],"class_list":["post-46725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-biology","category-chemistry","category-digest","category-environmental-sustainability","category-faculty-and-staff","category-sustainability","category-vaca","tag-steven-johnson","feature-emu-home-page-feature","feature-myemu-feature","feature-news-feature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A photographer&#039;s quest to document the ephemeral world of vernal pools - EMU News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2020\/a-photographers-quest-to-document-the-ephemeral-world-of-vernal-pools\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A photographer&#039;s quest to document the ephemeral world of vernal pools - EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Professor Steven Johnson is pushing the frontier of conservation photography \u2013 by entering \u201ctoad time.\u201d He explains: a toad could sit on a rock for six or seven hours, seemingly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/2020\/a-photographers-quest-to-document-the-ephemeral-world-of-vernal-pools\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EMU News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/EasternMennonite\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-08-18T14:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-24T21:35:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/emu.edu\/now\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/43\/2020\/08\/20200308-_DSC9981-2.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"724\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Randi B. 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