"LIFE LIST" PHOTOGRAPHY

“And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof. 
And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field.” Genesis 2:19-20

Since the time when Adam named all the animals, biologists, naturalists and amateur enthusiasts have enjoyed studying the design and variety in God’s living creations and recording their identifying characteristics. In the 1700’s, the Swedish botanist Carolus Linnaeus, the “Father of Taxonomy”, developed a practical method of classification. Linnaeus, an outstanding scientist, was also an excellent teacher and dedicated, outspoken Christian. He taught his students to appreciate the handiwork of a wonderful, loving Creator. Because he accepted the Biblical account of Creation, Linnaeus built his classification system on the foundational truth that the created kinds never alter enough to form new and different kinds. Thus he created the current classification divisions of kingdom, phyla, classes, orders, families, genera and species.

God has stocked our planet with an amazing variety of scenes, plants and animals; and it has been the “honor of kings” to search them out (Proverbs 25:2). King Solomon “described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish” (I Kings 4:33).  That love of Creation is still alive in many today. One way to participate in the appreciation of God’s Creation is to begin on a lifelong “Divine Scavenger Hunt” of identifying and listing a chosen plant or animal category, known as a “Life List” among today’s bird watchers.  

Many of the photographs below are "photos of record" documenting my "Life List" of animals I have encountered over the years. Some are scans of poor photographs from my college days taken with a Minolta 35 mm; back when my interest was more about the animals than photography. I have continued to photograph the wildlife I encounter on the job and on hikes with my wife and daughters, slowly replacing the older photos with newer, better photographs.  Dates and locations can be seen when clicking a photograph below.  

Life List Photography - Mammals

Life List Photography - Birds

Life List Photography - Reptiles & Amphibians

"Though alligators, snakes, etc., naturally repel us, they are not mysterious evils. They dwell happily in these flowery wilds, are part of God's family, unfallen, undepraved, and cared for with the same species of tenderness and love as bestowed on angels in heaven or saints on earth." John Muir

“THE animal creation also, excites our admiration, and equally manifests the almighty power, wisdom and beneficence of the Supreme Creator and Sovereign Lord of the universe; some in their vast size and strength, as the mamoth, the elephant, the whale, the lion and alligator; others in agility; others in their beauty and elegance of colour, plumage and rapidity of flight, have the faculty of moving and living in the air; others for their immediate and indispensable use and convenience to man, in furnishing means for our clothing and sustenance, and administering to our help in the toils and labours through life; how wonderful is the mechanism of these finely formed, self-moving beings, how complicated their system, yet what unerring uniformity prevails through every tribe and particular species! the effect we see and contemplate, the cause is invisible, incomprehensible, how can it be otherwise? when we cannot see the end or origin of a nerve or vein, while the divisibility of mater or fluid, is infinite. We admire the mechanism of a watch, and the fabric of a piece of brocade, as being the production of art; these merit our admiration, and must excite our esteem for the ingenious artist or modifier, but nature is the work of God omnipotent: and an elephant, even this world is comparatively but a very minute part of his works. If then the visible, the mechanical part of the animal creation, the mere material part is so admirably beautiful, harmonious and incomprehensible, what must be the intellectual system? that inexpressibly more essential principle, which secretly operates within? that which animates the inimitable machines, which gives them motion, impowers them to act speak and perform, this must be divine and immortal?”
         Travels by William Bartram, American Naturalist, 1791