Presentation: Wild Love Affair: Essence of Florida’s Native Orchids is inspirational, informative, deeply spiritual and passionate. Based on her book of the same name, Connie immediately WOWS the audience with the jazz guitar sounds of Santana and the vocals of Dave Matthews singing “Love of My Life.” Up beat and fun, sounds merge with digitized images of orchids and their habitat to take audiences on a wild ride, a wild love affair, with orchids and wilderness. She then moves to readings from her book, poetic prose, science and stories melded again with flowing, dancing images. This is followed by a lecture exploration of native orchids and their Florida habitat, scientific material dispensed with a spoonful of sugar. She closes with a foot-stomping ride through the swamps with Cindy Hackney’s “Gator in the Slough” or a similar piece.


“In my photography and in my life I try to capture the emotion of what I see, to capture the essence, to involve all the senses, “says Connie about the passion underlying her work. “I look for ‘soul.’ I feel exquisite joy in the presence of forest, swamp, prairie and sea as if they were a single living, breathing entity, and see the plants and critters and our boundless diversity as its soul.”


Connie credits Jane Goodall as being one of her greatest inspirations. “She advised me to follow my own vision, to be unclouded by what others think my work should be.”


Other presentation topics:


Sea, Mountain and Rainforest: Indonesia 2004. On assignment for the Wildlife Conservation Society – Indonesia. and ten years of exploration.


Madagascar, The Lost World. A unique land, a world apart, the deepest reaches of Madagascar revealed to Connie a new species of lemur and a key to preserving a vital part of Madagascar’s culture and natural history.


All Creatures Here Below. Connie looks at nature’s astounding diversity and explores her own spirituality in the face of its power.


  WOMEN OF THE WORLD
A 30 YEAR PERSPECTIVE Who can’t love a baby? They are made to be loved. Mammals, birds and even many reptiles care for and nurture their young. But how many are enough? Travel the world with me and meet some of my friends and acquaintances, human and non-human. We will travel in the Americas from Mexico and Guatemala to Peru and Chile, then to Africa – Ivory Coast, Kenya, Uganda, Botswana and one of the poorest of the poor, Madagascar. Then we go to Asia and find some good news from Indonesia and China. Images dance with music appropriate to the location and come alive with poignant stories from my personal experiences, along with the research on conservation of our planet.

 
Coming Events
  • October 5, 2005 - SADABE - New Lemur found in Madagascar -
    Breakout speaker
    ‘Images with Passion and Purpose’
    VIII International Wilderness Congress
    September 9 – October 6, 2005
    Anchorage, Alaska


    In the past Connie has presented programs at the Smithsonian's Museum of Natural History twice, at the School of Environmental Science, Policy and Management at the University of California at Berkeley, at the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, FL., at the Cummer Museum in Jacksonville, FL., three times at the Sanibel-Captiva Audubon Society, at the Explorers Clubs in Washington, DC and in Naples, FL, and has been on the major speaker series at The Conservancy of Southwest Florida, among other venues.
All contents copyright Connie Bransilver© 2001-2005 -Concept and Design GVI-