The sound of wildflowers: Photographers’ audiobook lets visually impaired ‘see’ nature

AWARD-WINNING CONSERVATION PHOTOGRAPHERS Rob Badger and Nita Winter lived collectively lovingly for “one month short of 38 years” earlier than getting married underneath an enormous oak tree in a buddy’s again yard within the hills of Mill Valley.

“We had to make sure it was going to work out,” explains Winter mischievously.

Badger and Winter had for 3 many years photographed flora in pure environments for his or her ardour mission, Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change, a 2020 coffee-table guide that features 190 coloration pictures captured by pure mild.

A companion exhibit of 52 framed photographs, which preceded publication of the guide and has been touring for seven years, has already been seen by 100,000 individuals.

Now they’re wrapping up the elements of an progressive spinoff, Voices for the Splendor of California Wildflowers: A Descriptive Journey for the Visually Impaired, a labor-of-love audiobook that “will allow the visually impaired to see and connect with nature in their mind’s eye,” says Badger.

“We believe that no one has published an audio-described, beautiful coffee-table book where people can feel what it was like to be invited into our world and feel what kind of day it was when the images were shot,” he provides. “The poetically described photos can link directly with a listener’s imagination.”

The mission, which highlights essays by scientists, environmental leaders, and nature writers, was impressed by the need of a legally blind buddy to “see” the hanging pictures.

As a part of the ultimate phases earlier than publication, which Badger and Winter hope to occur within the first quarter of 2026, they’re writing in-depth audio descriptions of their multi-colored, floral pictures, they usually’ve gathered professionals on the planet of sound to brighten these pictures and their tales. Becky Parker, founder and CEO of Pro Audio Voices, the corporate that may produce the audiobook, will voice these audio-descriptions.

Braille and Talking Books Libraries plans to reformat the guide so it may be accessible to its 10,000 subscribers.

Peter Coyote lends his ‘iconic voice’

Actor Peter Coyote, famed for his roles in such traditional motion pictures as “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial” and “Erin Brockovich” and for his narration on Ken Burns’ multi-part tv documentaries, has narrated — from a studio in Sebastopol, close to his residence — “the personal short stories of seven male authors, the foreword, and ‘behind the scenes’ Badger-Winter text,” Winter reviews.

Annie Obermeyer, Coyote’s actress buddy, protégée, and what he labels “a force of nature,” reads 13 tales by feminine writers.

Winter and Badger typically echo one another’s ideas. Case in level: “It was surreal for us to be sitting in a control room listening to Peter with his iconic voice reading our words.”

Coyote, who says he’s “been an environmentalist since I was about 6,” alludes in a telephone interview to his “Buddhist philosophy about everything being interconnected.” He enjoys specializing in “the magical feelings I have about living creatures,” however maintains that human beings “are not different from water, from insects in the soil. You’ve never been free of the sun, of oxygen, of birds that are pollinating.”

Regarding his method to narration, he admits, “I go into the studio naked to the text. If I’m open, the text itself will engender the appropriate emotions. I never prepare. My technique is no technique.”

Winter and Badger spent lots of time fundraising for his or her exhibit, their coffee-table guide, and for his or her audiobook, which Winter says is aimed within the ultimate evaluation “at the visually impaired, the blind, the dyslexic, non-English speakers, the sighted community, and, well, everyone.” Specifics can be found on a crowdfunding page for the mission.

“… We’ve spent so many hours outdoors looking at beauty and environmental destruction, and it’s become important to us to promote the beauty and public land, whether it’s a national park or a local city park.”

Rob Badger, nature photographer

The authentic concept for his or her coffee-table guide, co-published by the California Native Plant Society, was birthed in 1992 after Liz Hyman, one other outside photographer, invited Badger to hitch her within the Mojave Desert’s Poppy Reserve for a shoot. It began out too windy to {photograph} something, however, quickly thereafter, Badger watched “waves of intense warm wind blow across the poppies, (and) witnessed this amazing spectacle of color and beauty.”

Their work is essential, he says, “because we’ve spent so many hours outdoors looking at beauty and environmental destruction, and it’s become important to us to promote the beauty and public land, whether it’s a national park or a local city park.”

Winter gently interrupts: “It’s always been about how can we make positive changes with our images — through visual storytelling.”

Relationship blossoms for Team Sweetie

Their personal story is as compelling as their quest for California wildflowers. Their unconventional, humorous marriage ceremony ceremony, as an illustration, was pulled off with out a hitch at a complete price of $610 by soliciting tables and chairs, plates and silverware, and flowers for every desk. “It was a real community event in the sense that people contributed to our wedding,” explains Winter.

The two haven’t restricted their curiosity in nature to distant websites. Winter says that “we’ve been “re-wilding our property, with 42 native plants, on a quarter of an acre on a hillside in Marin City, where there’s a steep slope with a lot of clay soil and where we have a really incredible view of the bay.”

Since they moved in 25½ years in the past,” she says, “we’ve taken down five or six big Monterey Pine Trees, which are fire hazards, when they got sick, and juniper. When we bought the place, there was one Coastal Live Oak tree in the corner of the property. Birds carried seeds and we now have 20.”

Badger gently interrupts — and smiles impishly as he reveals how they collectively understand their private/inventive relationship: “We are Team Sweetie.”