 | | Trudy E. Bell, M.A. |
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A growing part of my work in both journalism and reports for nonprofits is photography. My goal: each image should tell the story, or a significant aspect of a larger story.
Increasingly, I am getting into nature photography - images below of Death Valley geology and southwest wildflowers date from photographic expeditions in 2008, 2010, and 2011. I also love portraiture. And I shoot subjects in action on assignment. My photographs have been published in Adventure Cyclist, Air & Space, American Archaeology, Sky & Telescope, The Plain Dealer, the Science@NASA website, and in several books and reports.
The image shown here is "circum-axial leaf trails," which I shot in 2007 from a child's merry-go-round to illustrate why circumpolar star trails reveal the rotation of the earth on its axis, for a spread in my children's book Earth's Journey Through Space (Scientific American/Chelsea House, 2007). This photograph was featured on Astronomy Picture of the Day and halfway down the page on Spaceweather.com - the latter including a short explanation how it was made.
All images copyright Trudy E. Bell |
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Updated May 2011 to include NEW images from 2011 expedition (March 25 - April 4), including this closeup of common fiddleneck near Arvin, California.
When I was out in Palmdale, California, in late March 2010 researching the NASA SOFIA story for Air & Space/Smithsonian, I happened to be there right when the desert wildflowers were starting to bloom. So, remembering the marvelous Death Valley wildflowers I'd photographed in 2008, I tacked on a couple of personal days to head to Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve northwest of Palmdale, as well as Carrizo Plain National Monument even farther northwest. At Carrizo Plain, entire hillsides were splashed with acres of yellow and violet. Enter the album to see just a few tantalizing pictures of the vistas and closeups of spring miracles in one of California's last native grasslands.
In 2011, I returned to all those places, driving 1,600 miles from Las Vegas to San Luis Obispo and back. About half the images in this album are from this most recent expedition.
All images copyright Trudy E. Bell |
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Updated with a dozen NEW images from my 2011 expedition (March 25-April 4), including this one of the mud hills of Zabriskie Point at sunrise, looking like sleeping forms under blankets.
By spring 2008, an unusual 3.5 inches of rain had fallen since the previous July--about double Death Valley's usual rainfall. Thus, in late March, I flew out west and spent five marvelous days camping and exploring, photographing the bizarre sliding stones of The Racetrack playa (dry lakebed), wildflowers, ghost town ruins, and other stunning wonders. Four of these photographs were published in my front-page feature of the Sunday Travel section of the Cleveland Plain Dealer on March 7, 2010 (story at http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2010/03/post_20.html ).
In 2011, I returned to camp and photograph geology and wildflowers, also capturing a portrait of a coyote that ventured to within 10 feet of me (acting very dog-like) and an intimate image of two flies locked in passionate embrace atop wildflower buds.
All images copyright Trudy E. Bell |
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In October 2010, three nonprofit organizations co-sponsored an all-day Science Education Summit to introduce some 400 science teachers to Ohio's new state standards for K-12 science education. I was contracted to attend the summit and write the report; I also ended up being the official photographer, and designing the layout for the 24-page report. Because the biggest change to Ohio's state science standards will be getting teachers to use empirical inquiry rather than lecture, the summit's afternoon breakout sessions gave teachers a chance to experience the method. Thus, in addition to the expected photographs of panel discussions, I wanted the images in the report also to convey the engagement of the teachers. The report, published January 2011, is online at http://www.smartconsortium.org/user-files/SMART%20summit%20report%20fnl%20ebk%201-18-11.pdf .
All images copyright Trudy E. Bell |
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Some 7,000 feet of floodwalls on both sides of the Ohio River in four states have been transformed into vivid windows into a scene beyond or back in time, thanks to the talents of cadres of artists. Three-quarters of the murals painted by just one man, Louisiana muralist Robert Dafford, who paints historical scenes with such three-dimensional freshness that you feel you can step right into the action. Since 2007, I have photographed all the murals in 13 cities in five states; a dozen of the images have been published in Ohio magazine "Concrete Canvases" (story at http://www.ohiomagazine.com/Main/Articles/Concrete_Canvases_4141.aspx ) and in the Cleveland Plain Dealer (story at http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2010/10/ohio_river_floodwall_murals_pi.html ).
All images copyright Trudy E. Bell |
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NASA's new Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) is just now (2011) beginning its full-up science research missions. In March 2010, on assignment from Air & Space/Smithsonian magazine, I visited SOFIA at NASA Dryden, both in Palmdale (where I was able to walk around inside the then-still-unfinished aircraft) and on Edward Air Force Base (where I captured this image of the mission controllers during a test flight - SOFIA itself is on the largest monitor). One article "Major Surgery" on the aeronautical engineering backstory of heavily modifying a 747SP to airlift a 106-inch telescope was published in Air & Space/Smithsonian and another article on how the 106-inch telescope was designed - including shedding 80+ percent of its mass - to be carried at 41,000+ feet appeared in The Bent.
All images copyright Trudy E. Bell |
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The dramatic Paw Paw tunnel - more than half a mile long of dripping darkness excavated straight through a mountain a century and a half ago - is one of the memorable features of the 185-mile C&O Canal towpath from Cumberland, Maryland, to Washiington, D.C. Some of these photographs were published as part of my front-page feature in the Sunday Travel section of the Cleveland Plain Dealer on July 25, 2010 (HTML version of the story is at http://www.cleveland.com/travel/index.ssf/2010/07/biking_along_the_co_canal_is_a.html ).
All images copyright Trudy E. Bell |
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Since the 1990s, my motto has been: whenever the sun and any type of clouds are in the sky at the same time, LOOK UP! Surprisingly often, you may see some amazing phenomenon - sun dogs, the parhelic circle, crepuscular rays, the circumzenithal arc, the circumhorizontal arc, and much else. I now take a camera literally everywhere and keep a weather eye alert. This photograph of dramatic crepuscular rays extending from horizon past the zenith was taken in July 2000 from Winona, Minnesota; raging forest fires in Arizona and Montana had filled the stratosphere with fine dust, which acted as a rear projection screen to produce dramatic spectacles like this. I also got very interested in dramatic weather events after lightning struck my house in 2003, resulting in a 2004 cover feature "Struck by Lightning" for The Bent on the physics and frequency of lightning strikes (sometimes greatness is thrust upon you!)
All images copyright Trudy E. Bell - check back from time to time for more images as weather happens! |
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New in May 2011, including this image I call "a young Joan Baez," which is actually a color digital image converted to black and white.
On request, I have begun to do some commissioned portrait photography. In this album are half a dozen of Tina and David, who requested that I take their engagement photographs in November 2010, choosing for their setting the dramatic Gothic stone Squire's Castle in the Metroparks east of Cleveland, and dressing in tuxedo and long dress for the occasion. Some images are tender, others humorous, as fitting their bantering relationship.
All images copyright Trudy E. Bell |
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In fall 2010, thanks to the support of a National Association of Science Writers career development grant, I was able to take a superb class in black-and-white film photography (yes, chemicals in trays) taught by Chris Holley-Starling. The entire semester was directed toward creating a portfolio of about 15 mounted prints, using fully manual mechanical film cameras (I used a Canon FTd that had belonged to my late father) with a 50mm fixed lens, and Tri-X film shot at ISO 200 to capture many of the advantages of Ansel Adams's zone system. Students also were to study the work of a b/w photographer of choice and produce an image in that style. I chose to study the work of noted Time/LIFE and Scientific American science photographer Fritz Goro; this image, in the style of Goro, shows the anatomy of a 19thC bicycle candle lantern.
All images copyright Trudy E. Bell |
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