Hi, I am Ellen Woods!
My brother and me
I (will be) a 2010 graduate of Cornell University majoring in Plant Sciences and hopefully will have completed an honors thesis in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.
I spent my entire life up until college living in New Jersey. My experience with New Jersey strays from the popular conception of it being a collection of interstates and suburbs. While we have our fair share, our small state has plenty to offer.
Above is a view of metropolitan New Jersey from a plane flying into Newark Airport. The images below represent a small, isolated part of New Jersey I like to call home. They feature some of my favorite places located in Stokes State Forest and the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area. These images recall childhood memories of rainy October and May days when red eft salamanders would migrate across my road. My mom and I used to cross them such that they would not be run over by cars, though there were always casualities.
My first experience with cameras began when I was nine, and my dad taught me how to focus a picture using his Olympus OM. (I miss lining up the semi-circles in the old focusing screens.) I soon started stealing my mom's Nikon FM on vacations and at family gatherings. My inherent attraction towards the natural world soon met my interest in photography, and the two grew together. I had my very own Nikon FM 35 mm camera for about two years before I replaced it will a Nikon D50 in 2006. I've been shooting ever since.
While I have traveled extensively, I have not had the opportunity to travel outside of New Jersey, New York, or Pennsylvania for photographic endeavors. Most of my photographs are taken locally in Sussex County, New Jersey or Tompkins County, New York. I frequently shoot at my field site in Ithaca. I have also been working on photographing Cornell's Paleobotany Collection and am learning how to photograph slides. I hope to continue to merge my interests in science and photography as they feed off one another very well.
While nature is
my favorite subject, I am also a staff photographer for the Cornell Daily Sun. This is my primary outlet for branching out as a photographer. The Sun has also provided me with the opportunity to photograph several concerts and lectures, which are some of my favorite events to cover.
My next goal is to keep a blog to make my photographic process a bit more intimate and interesting. Thanks for visiting, and please keep visiting to check for further updates.
AWARDS/PUBLICATIONS
2010 North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) College Scholarship Recipient
Pictures of the Nine-Spotted Ladybug in the Associated Press:
ABC News - PHYSorg.com
RESUME