Mark Egger's photostream  

I am a public school science teacher by profession, but I'm starting this Flickr page to share some of the 15,000+ images I've taken over the last 27 years of the vascular plant genus Castilleja or Indian Paintbrush. I've traveled over much of North, Central and South America in search of these plants and have photographed over 90% of the approximately 200 known species and varieties, as well as publishing five species new to science. I've written or contributed to numerous scientific publications on Castilleja, and I'm presently working on a manuscript covering this genus for the multi-volume Flora of North America. This volume is scheduled to be published in 2012.

I plan to post to Flickr gradually over the coming months as time permits. My sets will include one for each of the Castilleja species and varieties, though this process will likely take a year or so to complete. The order of posting will seem random but will actually be determined by the need to illustrate particular ID questions that come up or to make a particular ecological or taxonomic point. I will also be posting other botanical photos of related and unrelated plant groups that strike my fancy for one reason or another. I feel privileged to have seen the wild places I've visited and want to share with others the interest and pleasure I have gained thereby.

The coded photo names match those in my own much larger image collection. Using "egger295_pur_lin_11" as an example, "egger295" is the collection number of the actual specimen voucher collected as a scientific specimen and deposited in a university herbarium. "pur_lin" is a three-letter code for the species and variety, in this case C. purpurea var. lindheimeri. The final number, 11, is the sequential number of my photos for that particular species, in this case my 11th image of this variety of C. purpurea. Other images having the code "egger_n_c" are images for which I did not make a physical specimen voucher collection, usually for reasons of plant conservation, as in a rare species or when few plants were present in the local population.

NOTE: I don't have time to adjust the annoying date thingy on Flickr for every photo. Please be aware that the date "tag" on the Flickr interface is NOT accurate; instead, I include a date for each image on the primary written caption for each photo. I don't need to search my pics by date, and neither do you!

I am also happy to try to identify any and all Castilleja photos you might want to call to my attention, e-mail to me, or post on Flickr or other image sites. If you do so, please tell me when and where you took the photo -- that will often help narrow it down.

I intend these photos to be used widely by those interested in the genus, to help in identification, and for plant conservation purposes. I claim full copyright for all my photos, as well as for all texts posted herein, and I hold the original 35 mm transparencies in my archives. Almost all the photos I will post were taken with an old Minolta XD-5 35 mm SLR with a MD 50 mm close-up lens, using Kodachrome color slide film (mostly the venerable but painfully slow 64 and later selling out to 200). I never use flash photography (perhaps foolishly), because I hate the "flashy" quality of the resulting photo and probably because I don't know any better. The transparencies were scanned at moderate resolution with one of two Nikon Coolscan scanners I've owned. Except for cropping, sharpening, and simple "Levels" adjustments to my more recent uploads, I have done little or no digital manipulation with these images, as color fidelity is one of my primary goals in plant photography and because my time to work on such things is limited. Like most folks, I've switched over to digital in the last couple of years, and more of these are creeping into my photostream as time goes by.

It should be noted that some of the photos I will post were taken in very difficult to reach locations under less than optimal conditions (high winds, intense or low light, etc.) & so may not be of high technical merit. For various reasons, my time in one spot waiting for perfect conditions was often quite limited. However, the photos do serve to illustrate the key characteristics of the native species themselves in their natural habitats. All photos were taken in the field, usually hand-held, unless otherwise indicated.

If you want to use my images for any purpose, I ask that you contact me for permission first. It will likely be granted for any non-commercial purposes. I especially encourage anyone connected with native plant conservation and habitat preservation to use my images in support of your work. Conversely, developers, corporate resource extractors, Republican conservatives, bigots, imperialists, fundamentalist religious fanatics, and militias of all kinds are expressly excluded.

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