Primeval Nature's photostream  

I've been on Flickr for a few years now and I think I've gotten a lot out of it. What is Flickr to me? Well, it's a place to share images, trade information, learn, and to foster personal and sometimes professional relationships; a point of convergence for people with common interests and expertise. As a nature photographer I have benefitted greatly from the huge database contained within Flickr; frequently, an image or some scrap of information posted on the site will set me on the path to identifying an obscure Neotropical invertebrate or reptile. It is of vital importance to me that the images I send on to my agencies are accompanied by the most accurate information that I can find. Flickr has become a valuable component of my image research process.

Yes, I'm happy to 'share' my images, but I'm not happy to give them away. I am a professional photographer, carried by several stock photo agencies, notably MINDEN PICTURES and FOTO NATURA. My business relationships are of course valuable to me, my place in the stock photo marketplace hard won, and I've absolutely no desire to endanger those relationships by casually distributing for free material that my agencies, in good faith, are attempting to sell for me. Therefore, I should not be expected to be receptive to any request for free imagery. I get many such requests, and I turn them down almost without exception, no matter the 'cause' or circumstances of the entreater. It has cost me time, silver, and effort - sometimes almost superhuman effort - to capture my images of the natural world. Please don't insult me by begging them for free. If you are being paid to request free imagery, do not ask me for shame. Unauthorised use of any of my photos will set corporate bloodhounds baying. I am passionate about conservation - above all things, in fact - but no matter how noble and urgent the cause, my effort to contribute to that cause cannot be sustained on air and fine feelings; it takes a few loaves of whole wheat bread to keep me on the trail.

That being said, I am of course open to serious inquiries and mutually beneficial professional undertakings. Call me, I'm a go-getter and will not be deterred by a few mosquitoes or 70° snow slopes.

Many, though not all, of my Flickr images may be found at MINDEN PICTURES and FOTO NATURA and associated agencies.

Please, no 'awards', banners, large photos, GIFs, etc., in the Comments - I'll delete them. Invitations to pools and groups are welcome, provided there are no onerous rules & regs. attached

All images © James A. Christensen/PrimevalNature.com

The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers;
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!
This Sea that bares her bosom to the moon,
The winds that will be howling at all hours,
And are up-gathered now like sleeping flowers,
For this, for everything, we are out of tune;
It moves us not.--Great God! I'd rather be
A Pagan suckled in a creed outworn;
So might I, standing on this pleasant lea,
Have glimpses that would make me less forlorn;
Have sight of Proteus rising from the sea;
Or hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn.

William Wordsworth