April Meeting

Richard is full-time professional nature photographer who’s been in the business of marketing and licensing photos and teaching photo workshops since 1990. He specializes in birds, butterflies, gardens, flowers, and dragonflies; as well as aerial, agriculture, mammals, travel, panoramic, and other outdoor images. His images have appeared in hundreds of major national and international publications including Audubon, Sierra Club, National Geographic, National Wildlife, and others. He also contributes over 100 images a year to calendars.

Richard has been teaching people how to improve their photography and to be a responsible, ethical photographer since the early 90s. He’s led workshops and taught seminars throughout North America and was a guide for Frontiers North to photograph polar bears in Churchill, Manitoba for 14 years.

Richard is an Adjunct Research Associate in Zoology with the Illinois State Museum and an Associate Research Scientist at the University of Illinois–Illinois Natural History Survey. He has conducted dragonfly, butterfly and moth research since 2005 for the states of Illinois and Missouri, including 18 years of research work on the Hines emerald dragonfly, a Federally Endangered species mostly in Missouri.

He’s an active member of the Dragonfly Society of the Americas, Illinois Audubon Society, International Association of Panoramic Photographers, and North American Nature Photography Association and American Society of Media Photographers. Richard is a FAA remote drone pilot.

He lives in the country on 63 acres in south central Illinois. The property is landscaped to attract wildlife with improvements including a 5-acre native grass and wildflower prairie and 2 shallow water wetlands and many of his photos come from the property.