The Dallas Morning News offers a column by a mensch named Steve Blow two or three times a week. Most good daily papers in America have something like it — a column by a reporter or former reporter, or sometimes just someone in the community who can write, that covers the beat of being alive in This Town, wherever this town is.
About half the time the columns stake out positions on issues that make a few people angry enough to write letters demanding the column be burned and the author be dangled by the toes from the flagpole jutting out of the third story window of the newspaper building. The rest of the time, to careful readers, these columnists tell stories of the city, or talk about people you ought to know.
On July 12, Steve Blow wrote about a guy who takes pictures of birds at Dallas’ White Rock Lake. Texas has three major bird migration flyways coursing through it, offering opportunities for Texans to see hundreds of different species through the year. J R Compton takes advantage of this, photographing birds and then posting the photos at his website.
These are great photos for use in geography, biology and environmental science classes. Heck, a Texas history course ought to note Texas’ great bird viewing, too, since it’s an important industry (if somewhat smaller than oil or auto customizing).
Most kids I see in school know almost nothing about birds. Following bird migration routes is a fun and sneaky way to get kids thinking about geography, about paths of commerce for economics and history, and just to get them looking around their world to see what’s going on.
Particularly for Dallas and North Texas, these photos offer kids a chance to see what they should be looking for, literally in their own backyards.
Compton’s photos can also be found at his websites, such as J R’s Birds, and Addlepated Birder. His chief site is www.jrcompton.com.
Especially with digital cameras so common, it is likely someone in your town is recording natural events, or pictures of the city that you can use in your classroom, too. Be sure to credit them, to set an example for your students.
- Photo of egret in flight and night crowned heron both taken at White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas, photos copyright by J R Compton.
- Update, April 19, 2010: Mr. Compton wishes to be contacted before you use his photos (see his note in comments); if you’re using these in a classroom PowerPoint, drop him a note. Students can probably claim fair use for papers, but you should encourage them to ask, too.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
My regrets and apologies. Generally I send a note to people whose work I use, but checking, I didn’t send you one. I did include the copyright notice, however.
I’ve changed the “spelling” of your name. Good luck with your photography.
P.S. – Was there something more you wanted?
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Interesting title, “Use the work of local photographers.” Perhaps you should add “with their permission,” which you did not get to use my photographs. I gave permission to The Dallas Morning News to use those photographs with their story without my usual copyright notice. You did not even ask. Why is that?
I probably would have done so, because your purpose seems benevolent, but perhaps you should also add copyright information to your story.
Also, I do not sign my name J. R. Compton. My mother calls me “J R,” and that’s what’s on my checks. I do not use J. R. as my name, so I wonder why you are. It’s a little thing, I know, but it concerns me a teacher is teaching people to steal photographs.
The proper link to my photographs of birds would be http://www.JRCompton.com/photos/The_Birds/J/
Thanks belatedly,
J R Compton
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