Remembering Bill Thomas: Nature Photographer, Author, and Educator Extraordinaire
In retrospect, it seems obvious that 21 months spent poring over my professional past for two major retrospective projects would end at the beginning, with a story package about nature photographer Bill Thomas.
As detailed in this four-part series, Bill is the one individual most responsible for the half century path that led me to Andy Mahler and the Hoosier National and Indiana University acquiring my professional archive — 50 years of my nature images and my Bill Thomas files among them.
He is also one of the most influential nature photographers of his generation, one who is largely unrecognized and underapreciated.
BLOGS
- Part 1: Telling National Geographic ‘No’? – Leaving a Trail of Footprints to Follow
- Part 2: From Newspapers to Books to Photo Seminars to Safari Adventures
- Part 3: Natural Trailblazer, Friend, Mentor, Muse
- Part 4: Following Bill Thomas, from Brown County to the Amazon and Back
Photograph the Amazon River – Colombia, Peru, Brazil
My mission to photograph the Amazon River began at the same moment as my exploration of the Hoosier National Forest, exactly one half century ago – though it took that long to actually materialize.
Indeed, I’ve long said the estimated 10,000 photographs I have of my home state’s only national forest were mere practice for the 1,000-plus I captured with my Nikon D600 during a week on the world’s most biodiverse river environment in June 2024.
PHOTO ALBUMS
- BRAZIL: Amazon River Sunset; Tabatinga, Brazil; Mirador Komara
- PERU: Santa Rosa, Peru, Amazon River
- COLOMBIA: Leticia, Colombia
BLOGS
- To the Amazon River: Plan Colombia ’74 – Part 1, Wall Hangings and Cartegena
- To the Amazon River: Plan Colombia ’74 – Part 2, San Jacinto, Barranquilla, B&W Photography
- Hoosier National Forest, Half Century Detour to the Amazon Rainforest
- Pursuing the Half Century Dream of Leticia, Colombia
- Lunch in Santa Rosa, Peru — Or is it Colombia?
- Sunset on the Amazon River: Tabatinga, Brazil; Mirador Komara
Andy Mahler and the Hoosier National
Released Oct. 1, 2025, this 8.5×11, full color coffee table book chronicles the remarkable life and career of Southern Indiana forest activist Andy Mahler and one leg of his family’s two-generation journey from Nazi Vienna in the 1930s to a life surrounded by the Hoosier National Forest in the 2020s.
Along the way, Andy helped organize concerned citizens in Indiana and the Central Hardwood region and ultimately got off-road vehicles banned on the Hoosier National and commercial timber harvesting shut down on millions of acres of national forest land, from Missouri to Pennsylvania to Alabama.
The 120-page book also profiles the 204,000-acre Hoosier National’s 350-million year tectonic migration, from the Amazon Basin to today’s Southern Indiana hill country, and its 15,000-year human history, from the Ice Age to the early 21st century.
PHOTO ALBUMS
- Sierra Club Hike, Lazy Black Bear, Young’s Creek
- Vintage Family Photos
- Andy Mahler and the Hoosier National
BLOGS
- Andy Mahler and the Hoosier National – Project Update, Limited Edition 250
- Speech Preview: Andy Mahler and Me
- Andy Mahler and the Hoosier National’ Available 9/26; Public Events in October, November
- Limestone Post Article: ‘Andy Mahler: Folk Hero of the Forest
- Andy Mahler and the Hoosier National: Book Unveiling August 15 in French Lick
- Buffalo Springs: Andy Mahler’s Last Stand
Photograph Europe: Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Spain
Exploring Europe was never pert of what became my Retirement Travel Trifecta until my Colombian friend Luz found me on Facebook in the spring of 2023. I hadn’t seen her or sisters Estella and Patricia, who now live in Europe, since they were teenagers in Barranquilla, Colombia, in 1976.
Nearly 40 years later, after retiring from 27 years teaching journalism at Indiana University in 2022, I followed my Nikon for a magical three weeks that took me from Villach in the Austrian Alps to the Alicante Spain on the Mediterranean Sea.
PHOTO ALBUMS
- Trieste, Miramare Castle, James Joyce, Duino, Rainer Maria Rilke Thinking Path
- Slovenia – Bovec, Soca River, Kanal, Smartno
- Italy – Predil Pass Battery, Palmanova, Aquileia, Grado
- Villach, Klagenfurt, Lake Worthersee, Pyramidenkogel Tower
BLOGS
- From the Adriatic’s Trieste to Duino; from James Joyce to Miramare Castle to Rainer Maria Rilke
- Italy and Slovenia: Following History and the Soča River Valley Through the Mountains to the Sea
- An Undreamed Trip to Villach and the Austrian Alps
Photograph Indiana Natural Areas
From 2014 to 2019, I traveled Indiana’s back roads exploring publicly accessible natural areas for a pair of travel books I produced for Indiana University Press: A Guide to Natural Areas of Southern Indiana and a companion on Northern Indiana.
In the near future, I will post here photographs, descriptions, and directions to my favorite natural areas where the public can photograph, hike, birdwatch, camp, motorboat, float, fish, hunt, study, or otherwise enjoy and appreciate what’s left of Indiana’s natural heritage.
