The Center for Environmental Education and Discovery (CEED) in Brookhaven will be unlocking the mysteries of nature photography with a workshop on Friday, April 10, designed for both beginners and novices.
The class will be taught by Calverton resident Chris Paparo, also known as Fish Guy Photos, whose experience spans both land and ocean, the latter as a marine biologist. The time is 7–8:30 p.m. at 287 South Country Road. Sign up on the CEED website, at 631-803-6780, or via email at info@ceedli.org.
“I will talk some about the basics of photography and what makes a good picture. You don’t need a $1,000 camera,” Paparo said. He suggested that even a cell phone could take a good shot if properly composed.
Nature photography can be a challenge with the unpredictability of wildlife, but Paparo teaches how the “woods come alive” when one slows down and really looks. “The longer you just kind of sit still, you’ll start seeing things come out from hiding…or maybe it’s tiny mushrooms or some lichens growing on the bark of a tree.”
Getting low to the ground—one time he got down on his belly and crawled up to a frog—makes for the best vantage point. “I got level with the beast and looked right into his eyes when I took the picture,” he said. “It just makes it a much more interesting image.”
Photography was never a first love for Paparo. For him, it was the ocean, so he pursued marine biology and today manages the Marine Sciences Center at Stony Brook University, Southampton Campus. He got into photography to enhance his many talks on marine life.
Today, he’s also known as Fish Guy Photos, and he’s on a mission. “My business is to get people to slow down and appreciate wildlife around them,” he said. It also makes for great photos.