• 7-9 p.m., Thursday, April 4, 2024
• UNT Health Science Center, 3500 Camp Bowie Blvd., Fort Worth; view a map.
• A Visit to the Galapagos Islands, presented by Dick Dodds
• Above, Galapagos land iguana, by Dick Dodds.

The Galapagos Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean west of Ecuador, are best known for their pristine environment, with plant and animal life found nowhere else on the planet. The islands are home to the iconic Galapagos tortoise, Darwin’s finches, and are known as the place which inspired British naturalist Charles Darwin to formulate his theory of natural selection and evolution in the 1830s. 

Dick got his first 35mm camera, a Voigtlander Vito B, which he still owns, in 1957. He eventually accumulated 12,500 35mm slides and prints taken with the Voigtlander and a Canon film camera, which he scanned electronically and imported into Lightroom. Dick says he has a quarter million images in his Lightroom catalog – not all of them good and not all of them keyworded – on a 5TB external drive. He now uses a Canon 6D.  

Dick is a native of Yorkshire, England, who received engineering degrees from the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and UCLA. He worked for Bell Helicopter for 36 years, retiring in 2004.  

Dick and his wife Jean have visited all seven continents, frequently traveling with National Geographic/Lindblad or Natural Habitat, which offer photography seminars and guidance from professional photographers. He is a former member of Fort Worth Camera Club.