Laura Landen
Born and raised in Columbus, Ohio, I have lived most of my life on the east coast, in Rhode Island since 1984. My interest in photography began when I was in high school. My father built a darkroom for me in the basement, and I tried my hand at black and white photography. I began with a Kodak “Brownie” camera, then upgraded to a 35mm camera (fully manual, of course) with a fixed 50mm lens. I shot black and white, and Kodachrome 10 (that’s not a typo–ISO 10), but played a bit with both black and white and color infrared film. I’ve now converted my Olympus OM-D EM-5 mark ii for infrared use, so will be posting results from that from time to time. For various reasons I had a long hiatus from photography until I came to Providence and taught a course in ornithology through the School of Continuing Education. I then began seeking record shots of birds to use for identification in the class. A few years ago my photographic interest shifted to more serious photography. I like nature, landscape, and macro photography, but will ply my skills at other things as well. I am a former Nikon shooter, having used a D850 full-frame body, a D500 crop sensor (1.5) body, and, to save weight, a D5600 crop sensor body. My lens selections are in some flux, although I love the 24-120mm f/4 Nikkor lens and the 70-200mm f/4 lens. For macro I generally use Nikon’s 105mm macro lens, both the older one and the newer VR version. I have both, since I dropped the older one once in Yellowstone, and cosmetically it is compromised. I use Nikkor’s new 300mm PF (phase fresnel) lens with the D500 for bird photography, occasionally with the 1.4 teleconverter. I also frequently use the Nikkor 500mm f/5.6 PF lens.
My love of nature started very early. My father built a canvas covered canoe when I was about 3 years old. My family owned a fishing cabin on Lake Bellaire in Michigan, and I spent summers canoeing to the north end of the lake looking for animal tracks and anything else that was around. Bellaire, MI is in northern Michigan (not the upper peninsula), about 40 miles from Traverse City. I’ve been back to Michigan a few times recently, finding my way to Paradise on the UP. So, I’ve been to Paradise (MI), and I live in Hope (RI).
I recently retired as an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Providence College, but spent several years teaching mathematics and physics prior to grad school in philosophy. Academically, my interests have shifted a bit over the years, not unusual for someone working at a relatively small liberal arts college like Providence. My undergraduate degree is in mathematics, although I took every philosophy course offered by my alma mater, The College of Saint Mary of the Springs, now Ohio Dominican University. I also hold a master’s degree in math from Notre Dame. My doctorate in philosophy was earned at Catholic University in Washington, DC, where I spent six enjoyable years. (If you’re not in politics, DC can be a great place to live.) I wrote my dissertation on Thomas Aquinas, but never was interested in pursuing specialized research on him, thus becoming a Thomist by trade. Rather, my interests have always been in the history and philosophy of science. Upon coming to Providence, that is what I taught, as well as Medieval Philosophy and a course on Aquinas. After a couple of years I became the director of the Natural Science Program, which offered non-laboratory courses suitable for students not majoring in science to fulfill their core requirements. After returning full-time to the Philosophy Department, I introduced a course in Environmental Philosophy. Student interest was very strong, so, working with a very generous group of colleagues from various departments, we developed a minor in Environmental Studies. I was the Director of the also newly created Environmental Studies Program. After student interest continued to grow, we developed a major. Due to lack of administrative support, however, the program ceased in 2002. Again I returned to full-time teaching in philosophy, serving as chair of the department from 2008-2011. My interest in philosophy of science evolved to include the fast-growing area of philosophy of biology. I am currently working on interfacing some of the basic insights of Aristotle with the work of Charles Darwin and of evolution in general.
Since retiring I have begun working with Dr. Joseph DeGiorgis, Professor of Biology at Providence College. Together we are photographing marine organisms in various formats, including macro photography and microscope photography.