Nature Blog Network

Many of you already follow TR Ryan at his blog, From the Faraway, Nearby. For those who haven’t had the pleasure, let me introduce you:

TR has been managing corporate and special events around the world for two decades. He is also a photographer, conservationist, and “accidental birdist” who recently moved back home to the rolling prairies of Oklahoma.

In 1986 he walked away from a fledgling journalism career to take a year and “see a little something of the world.” Twenty-two years, six continents, and eighty-eight countries later, “From the Faraway, Nearby” is the photographic journal that celebrates both his native Oklahoma and the people, places and natural history he encounters as he travels the world.

T R, Thanks for joining us. Can you tell us what led you to begin blogging?

I first created a blog site in 2006 as a place to post pictures and keep in touch with family during a yearlong assignment in Italy working in conjunction with the Olympic Games. I had no idea what a blog was – all I knew was that it was free and provided an instant link for friends and family back home to keep in touch. That idea proved to be flawed as none of my family really came to the site with any regularity. However, much to my surprise, complete strangers started responding to the random photography I was posting from life in Italy and weekends traveling around Europe. In due time I started testing the waters with my own writing and sometime in the summer of 2007 I made a serious commitment to blogging.

Shortly after that I was in my neighborhood art gallery in Oklahoma admiring the incredible work of a “bird and nature” artist. While examining the printed piece that promoted the artist’s show I noticed a link to a website and on that website was a link to the artist’s nature blog – Drawing the Motmot. I was absolutely entranced by Debby Kaspari’s beautiful tribute to the natural world. And having long kept a nature journal, I realized then that there was an overwhelming appreciation in the blog world for natural history and began to incorporate nature blogging into an otherwise overtly travel related blog.

Why do you continue to blog?

As someone paid to travel around the world about 200 - 250 days a year, I ultimately blog because I have this unique opportunity to see and experience so many tremendous things in the course of my travels and so much of that I want to share. The blog seemed to be the perfect medium to engage my creative desires and experiment with both photography and writing in the safe company of complete strangers.

It was through From the Faraway, Nearby that my photography first got noticed. And it was because of positive visitor comments that I first started taking photography as an artistic expression of my travels much more seriously. And it was from blogging that I received my first magazine cover assignment from someone who randomly found my blog, liked my photography, and read that I would be spending time in China. That alone seemed a perfect reason to keep blogging.

What do you like best about blogging?

I love the creative process – I love communicating the absolute wonder and joy of things I experience out there in that amazing world through photography, writing or both.

There is a great quote by E.B White that says “I arise torn between a desire to save the world and a desire to savor the world. It makes it hard to plan the day.” One of the very best things about blogging is that it also provides an outlet for me to contribute in small ways to the conservation community – something I’ve been passionate about my whole life. With my blog I’ve had many an opportunity to lend a voice to various causes that are dear to my heart – whether it be macaw conservation in the Amazon; promoting a lesser-prairie chicken festival in my home state of Oklahoma; exposing vigilante-style coyote slaughter; addressing poverty; or simply celebrating the endless joy I experience from nature. It has become an unprecedented way to serve as a sort of Citizen Scientist – even when I am a thousand miles away from home.

What’s unique or different about your blog?

I like to think of From the Faraway, Nearby as an intricate weave of both travel and natural history and that in its most consistent form - celebrates the poetry of place. Ultimately it’s a travel blog – but one where the vast complexity of nature and the spiritual transcendence of landscape are constant themes throughout. In my travels I have come to understand that humanity and nature are never separate and somewhere in the middle of that idea is the heart of my blog.

Tell us about the name of your blog.

I lived in Santa Fe, NM for 15 years and when I would come home from weeks or months of travel – I would often disappear for a day or two into the fantastically colored chinle formations and sage hills of Ghost Ranch. Most attribute the phrase “From the Faraway, Nearby” to Georgia O’Keeffe – a phrase she used to describe her time at Ghost Ranch which she immortalized in many a painting.

Since my blog posts can range anywhere from rogue banana-stealing monkeys in Brazil, parrot geophagy in the Amazon or zebra conservation in Kenya to extolling the beauty of my backyard garden or a hike with my nephew in Oklahoma – I thought the phrase “From the Faraway, Nearby” an apt description of my blog. And since it’s not unusual for me to experience as much rapturous joy from the beauty of my beloved Oklahoma prairie as I might in some fecund forest half way around the world, those places both far and near receive equal time on my blog.

How do you promote your blog and attract readers?

Much to my surprise, both Facebook and Twitter have been an invaluable way of increasing blog traffic and readership. It is not uncommon for a Twitter tweet with a catchy subject linking to a photo and my blog to bring about 30 – 40 viewers in less than twenty minutes.

I also hosted I and the Bird in January and I can honestly say that I still get blog traffic from that post on a daily basis – not to mention that it was the catalyst to more meaningful contact with several other nature bloggers I now correspond with. Other carnivals and photography memes such as Skywatch Friday and My World Tuesday are an excellent way to expose a blog to several dozen new readers a week. When I find myself either short on time or words – I don’t hesitate to participate in either.

Any comments on being part of the nature blogger community?

I can’t even begin to describe how rewarding it’s been being part of the nature blogging community – in fact, I would say it’s been life changing. In addition to the significant and constant contact with like-minded people who are equally passionate about natural history, I have made some very special friendships that have transcended the virtual world of the Internet into real time; and some, like Debby Kaspari, are in my own hometown.

A few weeks ago, I joined a core group of eight other nature bloggers at the New River Birding and Nature Festival in West Virginia. This gathering had been nine months in the making. Even though only a few of us had ever met in person, all of us enjoyed a mutual exchange of some kind for nearly two years. There was something about this unusual gathering of folks that brought both birding, blogging and an appreciation for natural history to a whole new level. The camaraderie we shared with each other was, to my mind, unprecedented and we all enjoyed quality time with what many of us consider nature blogging gods like Julie Zickefoose, Bill Thompson, Jeff Gordon, and Jim McCormac. It proved to be a sort of Master Class in birding and natural history. You just can’t put a price on that kind of experience. I think this might well be a trend of the future where traditional birding festivals segue into nature blogging festivals. I think our little group of nine, including you, Wren, and the five others that eventually joined us, might have started something.

Has blogging changed how you think about nature? or how you write?

Before I blogged I looked through the lens and I saw a beautiful yellow flower, for example. The story ended there – a perfect image of a pretty flower. Now, after two years of nature blogging, I see everything in nature as having a beginning, a middle and an end, so to speak. Now I look at the flower and I want to know why it appears where it does, why it is yellow, what pollinates it, what eats it, how it survives and how its progeny carry forth. What does it mean that this flower or this bird or this tree or this rock exists where it does? These are the questions I now ask – and I find the answers much more compelling than the shear singular beauty of the subject. I’ve learned to see the extraordinary in the ordinary.

Any words of wisdom for new nature bloggers?

Early on it’s best to decide what your blog wants to be when it grows up and then stick with it. Ultimately, if you write about those things that provoke your curiosity and sense of wonder – you’ll have the makings of a good blog and in no time find like-minded readers. In the beginning, you should make some commitment to reading other nature blogs and leaving comments when moved by something the writer has shared. Nature writing should be an act both spiritual and political – don’t be afraid to share your passion.

Anything else you’d like me to ask you, or that you’d like to volunteer without being asked?

Thank you, Wren. I am elated at being a part of this wonderful community of nature bloggers and appreciate you having me here.

Here are some favorite posts to introduce you to TR’s photos and writing:

• Prairie Magic
• 525,600 Minutes
• Up the Tambopata, Backwards