Photo Gallery of the Exhibit

Tiny Dancer: The Sally Lightfoot Crab, Grapsus grapsus, was named after a ballerina. These gorgeous red orange and blue crabs can be found dancing on point along the volcanic shores of the Galápagos.	Frigata Roja: Male Magnificent Frigatebird displays its scarlet throat during mating season. Photo taken in black, white, and red in the Galápagos.	Darwin's Friend: Galápagos Finch rests peacefully in the equatorial sun on the island of Santa Cruz…probably tired from evolving. His beak size and shape helps define his niche; it is sized perfectly for its favorite food.
Patas Azules: The Blue-Footed Booby can commonly be seendoing its unique mating ritual; lifting the feet, whistling towards the sky, and giving gifts of sticks to the female after copulation, it is a sight to see.	Baby Booby: Fluffy and white, a recently hatched juvenile Nazca Booby on the island of Genovesa in the Galápagos watches human strangers curiously.	Buceadores: Endemic species of algae-eating marine iguanas sun on volcanic shores of the island of Santa Fe in the Galápagos. Iguanas can also be seen diving underwater to feed.
Volcán: The Galápagos Islands are a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean. Beautiful rock formations, including underground lava tunnels and lava flows, can be found.	Grandpa's Snack: The few in number, but grand in size, remaining members of the Galápagos Tortoises slowly roam the island, munching on greenery.	Toucannette: After being lucky enough to catch a pair of mating toucanettes in a mist net, we measured parts of the body for data collection. Taken in black, white, and green at Intag cloud forest in Ecuador.
Man and Nature: Here in the cloud forest, man has developed a kinship with nature. Agriculture, such as these sugar cane fields, as well as coffee, bananas, yucca root, beans, papaya, and fruit, support the rural civilization.

From the Artist

I had the amazing opportunity to study abroad the fall of my junior year. I spent four months living in Ecuador, mainly based in Quito living with a homestay family. I chose Ecuador because in was the perfect program that combined my two passions and studies at college, biology and Spanish. I was able to practice my Spanish with my homestay family, classmates, in class (all my classes were in Spanish), and with my new Ecuadorian friends. I traveled around the country exploring various ecosystems, including the Galápagos Islands, the paramo (Andes Mountains), the cloud forest, and the Amazon rainforest. I completed a one-month independent research project at Tiputini Biodiversity Station in the heart of the Amazon on woolly monkey and spider monkey behavior and the relationship between the two species of monkeys and the spot-backed antbird. I did not think that while I was in Ecuador I would find a new passion: photography. I was inspired by the amazing unique creatures I came into contact with while in Ecuador, especially the Galápagos Islands. I started taking the photos to simply make documentation of my experience and what I saw; slowly it became a passion of capturing moments of interaction with the amazing creatures there. There was a special energy and relationship I felt with these exotic animals and photography was a means to attempt to capture that memory.

Stephanie Molina, Class of '09

 

---