Nature Photography Day is June 15. To celebrate, FIU News sat down with just a few of the Panthers who love wildlife so much that they’re using photography to share the wonders of the natural world with everyone.

In this piece, we feature Postdoctoral Researcher Brandon A. Güell, whose photography sheds light into his research and provides a window for him to unravel and document discoveries about wildlife such as gliding treefrogs. Tune into FIU News this week to read the entire series, spotlighting various Panther photographers and the stories behind some of their favorite photos. Nature Photography Day is designated by the North American Nature Photography Association and is meant to promote an appreciation of nature photography and the role photography plays in helping people learn about wildlife. 

Can research be strengthened — or in some cases powered — by photography? For Brandon A. Güell, the answer is yes.

A postdoctoral researcher at the FIU Institute of Environment, Güell first began using photography as a tool to document his research. He used photography to study the behavioral and reproductive ecology of gliding treefrogs on Costa Rica’s Osa Peninsula.

Last year, one of his photos of the gliding treefrogs’ massive mating events earned him the student award in the 2023 Caputring Ecology Photography Competition, run by the British Ecological Society. 

“The Osa Peninsula is really an amazing place,” he says. “I worked at a pond in the middle of the jungle. What makes this frog really interesting is that they breed explosively, which means they come all at once in the thousands and lay eggs on these leaves over the pond. A lot of my photography has revolved around this massive breeding event. There’s just so much going on, even besides the frogs.”

Güell explains that caiman regularly lurk the waters underneath the trees, waiting for frogs to fall from the leaves and land right into their mouths (Güell himself waded in those same waters to take photos, by the way). Cat-eyed snakes have learned to prey on gliding treefrog eggs. There’s also the question of the embryo development itself — what happens when the Osa Peninsula experiences a dry spell? How does that affect the eggs? He has used photography to document, explore and learn more about all of these aspects. 

But he didn’t stop with gliding treefrogs.