'Let there be light':
said the photographer, and there was light.
And the photographer saw that it was good.
No, I do not intend to be blasphemous (even though I'm not religious); please bear with this harmless joke. ;-)
Also, in the beginning there was a camera: it was which made me interested in fungi first, then plants, then botany and mycology, and a little bit of zoology.
Saying that, I am still, of course, an amateur only.
I bought my first camera in 1989. Back then, my interests mainly were fungi and landscape, and the occasional snapshot of other motives.
This changed only slightly when I went to town (Graz at first, then Vienna) - architecture was added. But over time, my interests drifted to plants.
At university, my subject was not biology but languages and history; but I was always interested in natural history, even when I was a child, and geology (and anthropology) too for that matter.
I only began studying botany (on a self-taught level) when my photographical interests shifted, and I am only now beginning to take courses at university - sporadically only, as I can't quite afford to give up my bread-and-butter job in book wholesales for a nice but still bread-and-butterless student's life (even though I'd love to).
Most of my photos were taken in Austria - and there, mostly in Vienna, Eastern Lower Austria and Northern Upper Austria (region of Mühlviertel).
There is no particular reason for this but that I am living in Vienna, and that I grew up in Mühlviertel: most of my excursions therefore take me through and around Vienna, and up to Mühlviertel where I visit parents and relatives every once in a while.
However, I hope to expand my excursion field beyond this rather limited area, both to other parts of Austria as well as neighbouring countries. (I am not particularly interested in overseas travels, as I hate flying.)
My ambition is to tag all my shots on flickr with correct scientific names; also I am interested in learning about plant communities (a field which I was only beginning to explore in 2011).
As a lover of nature I am of course also an active environmentalist; not as active as I'd like to be but I am working on it. :-)
It is rather unlikely that I ever will earn a living with botany (or some related field, like forestry, or national park ranger, or whatever), but this, ultimately, would be my main goal.
PS: The photos I appreciate most are not those of the rarest species, or those with the brightest flowers - but those which show basically ugly organisms in a way which even makes them attractive. Because everybody can shoot an orchid, and it will look more or less okay (in most cases); the art is to shoot pitch-black Craterellus cornucopioides in a way which is still nice!
PPS: Sokol is my web name (and this is my web log), Hermann Falkner my real name (and this is my flickr stream). I was born in 1967, and as of now (2011) I am living in Vienna, and in Danube National Park (extending from Vienna east till the city of Hainburg) where I spend a good part of my leisure time.
If you want to contact me then please do so through flickr mail (as this is a rather safe way to avoid spam): feedback is always welcome.
