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About Us
Rob Badger and Nita Winter
conservation photographers
Internationally acclaimed conservation photographers Rob Badger and Nita Winter have been life partners and creative collaborators for almost four decades. They have dedicated their lives to emotionally connect more people to Nature, and use their unique styles of visual storytelling to inspire hope and action, and create positive change.
In 1992, they discovered and fell in love with California's spectacular wildflower superblooms in the Mojave Desert's Antelope Valley California Poppy Preserve. This inspired their 30 year journey artistically documenting wildflowers throughout the West, and later, in 2011, their documentary art project, “Beauty and the Beast: Wildflowers and Climate Change.”
Their magnificent collection of “in the field” floral portraits, and superbloom landscapes features hundreds of native species. To more creatively interpret the beauty of the wildflowers, Rob developed two unique photographic techniques, the “Contact” and “Wrapped” series.
This project evolved to include "Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change," with a 12 time award-winning coffee table book and its companion educational, traveling exhibit focusing on California’s world renowned biodiversity. In 2022, the San Diego Natural History Museum created a custom, large print version of their exhibit.
In 2020 Nita and Rob received the Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography for their wildflower project and Rob’s 40 years of conservation and environment issues work.
Career Highlights ~ Rob's
Great stories coming soon.
Techniques
All wildflower portraits are created in the field with natural light. Rob developed two groundbreaking floral portrait techniques that go beyond any traditional approach. In the “Contact” series, the flowers actually touch the lens; in the “Wrapped” series, flowers are gracefully enfolded in delicate black or white fabric to complement their geometric forms.
Career Highlights ~ Nita's
Great stories coming soon.
"Photographing wildflowers opened up a new world for both of us."
Nita and I share an intense desire and commitment to use our work in ways that benefit both nature and humanity. For decades, Nita's photographic projects have celebrated human diversity and helped members of underserved communities feel a much-needed sense of pride.
My own work for many years focused on both land conservation and the environmental destruction caused by human activities such as development, logging, and mining. I was becoming discouraged and emotionally burned out by what I witnessed and documented.
Photographing wildflowers opened up a new world for both of us. It
allowed us to collaborate in many different ways and brought us closer together as photographers and as partners.
Our photography now included both the grand landscape and a variety of ways to capture the world of a single flower. Exploring new areas, developing new skills, and learning more about native plants and where they live consistently brought joy into our lives and really lifted my spirits. Searching for new places and flowers was like a magical treasure hunt, for it seemed that there would always be new wildflowers to discover, photograph, and share. ~ Rob
Jewett Gallery, SFPL
2016
The first exhibit of Beauty and the Beast: California Wildflowers and Climate Change opened in 2016 at the San Francisco Public Library. Joan Jasper, director of exhibits, invited us to create a collection of photographic prints of California’s botanical heritage. The one-hundred-image exhibit included a series of educational panels that told the wildflowers’ story and encouraged public participation in conservation and climate change issues. A traveling version of the original display is available through Exhibit Envoy (exhibitenvoy.org), a nonprofit organization that makes affordable exhibits accessible to small and medium-size venues.
California Blooming:
Wildflowers and Climate Change in the Golden State
2021-22
The San Diego Natural History Museum's custom, large print version of Beauty and the Beast's traveling exhibit, with images up to 12' tall.
What makes us different
100,000
Visitors Have Seen Our Educational Wildflower Exhibit at 17 Locations
31
Years Photographing Wildflowers and Superblooms
100
Years of Combined Photography Experience
58
Images Built into Architecture in Healthcare Environments
Awards
Awards - Rob Badger
- 2020 The Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography
- 2009 Wildlife Photographer of the Year Awards, BBC & British Museum of Natural History, “Wild Places” Highly Commended
- 2009 Avanti Award: $10,000 Individual Artist Grant, Joseph & Frances Brucia Foundation
- 2008 Best of Show: “The Good, Bad & The Ugly,” Environmental Issues Exhibit, Center for Fine Art Photography, Fort Collins, Colorado
- 2002 $10,000 Arts Grant from the Institute of Noetic Sciences for Eel River Watershed Project
- 1996 GRAPHIS Photo Annual Award (international magazine of design and communication), Antarctica Series
- 1994 Best in Journalism, Environmental Series: GRAPHIS Photo Annual Award
- 1992 Award of Excellence, Communication Arts Photography Annual
Ansel Adams Award
Sierra Club’s Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography honors superlative photography that has been used to further conservation causes.
The Sierra Club honored the couple with the 2020 Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography. Rob and Nita received this recognition for their wildflower project and Rob’s 40 years of conservation and environment issues work.
Awards/Grants - Nita
- 2020 The Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography
- 2008 Master Artist Invitation: Marin Art Festival at the Civic Center Lagoon, CA
- 2002 $28,000 Grant from the Marin Community Foundation for The Faces of Affordable Housing
- 2002 $45,000 Grant from the Marin Community Foundation for The Faces of the Canal
- 2001 $24,000 Grant from the Marin Community Foundation for The Faces of Novato ($45,000 Budget)
- 2001 $10,000 Arts Grant from the Institute of Noetic Sciences for The Faces of Novato
- 1999 $20,000 Grant from the Marin Community Foundation for The Faces of Marin City
- 1998 $4,300 Marin Arts Council Community Arts Grant for The Faces of Marin City ($52,000 Budget)
- 1994 Communication Arts Annual, Editorial
12 Book Awards ~ 2019-20
Rob and Nita received 12 awards for their “Beauty and the Beast” photography book (co-published by WinterBadger Press and the California Native Plant Society).
- Sierra Club's Ansel Adams Award for Conservation Photography
- Benjamin Franklin Books Awards
- National Outdoor Book Awards
- Foreword Indies Book Award
- IPA (International Photography Awards)
- “Prix de la Photographie, Paris” (P×3)
- Living Now Book Awards
Spectacular!!! Your pictures are wonderful!!! Beautiful!!!! How could you not win this award? The professionals that contributed to this book have written with their hearts!!! I was moved by Gordon Leppig's words!!! Your book accomplishes what it set out to do - make us all join in to preserve this wonderful natural world of ours!!!! Rank #1 ~ Gold Awarded for First Time Best Book - Nonfiction — Benjamin Franklin Book Awards Judge Feedback
Client Reviews
It is a beautiful and inspiring book and reading it really lifted my spirits. I have been wondering whether to say it is one of the most beautiful books I have or the most beautiful book I have. It’s the latter. ~ Stephen Blackmore, the Queen's Botanist and chair, Botanic Gardens Conservation International
I was amazed at the quality of the images, especially the seven, 8 feet high by 20 feet wide, lobby room dividers. It is clear that collaborating with Rob and Nita was the right decision. The images are magnificent and flawless. ~ Suzanne Frazer, Founder and CEO of A.R.T. Consulting Services
First and foremost is Nita and Rob's photographic art. They have been a couple and creative team for over 35 years, and thus have honed a form of artistic expression that takes on the qualities of an oft-rehearsed dance. They are skilled, creative, and passionate, and work in lock-step with each other. ~ Tom Peters, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Marin Community Foundation
