Cutchogue Photographer Captures Science and Nature Through the Camera's Eye

The scientist before an equation-strewn blackboard is a common photo in Brookhaven National Laboratory’s in-house bulletin, courtesy of the bulletin’s photographer, Cutchogue’s Roger Stoutenburgh. But in addition there is almost always a disarming nature photograph taken somewhere on the lab’s vast property: deer crossing a road, a bird perched safely in a bush.

These are the other subjects of Stoutenburgh’s photographic eye.

“Liz Seubert [editor at the bulletin] always told me there’d be room for a nature shot,” said Stoutenburgh, adding that the lab's thousands of acres of forest provide habitat for a wide range of local species

Recently the lab has granted an easement of 200 acres for a solar array, but with the provision that the habitat of the tiger salamander and old growth forests be protected.

Stoutenburgh, who grew up in Cutchogue in a home “where there were always animals and we were very conscious of nature,” has a father who has written about the environment for half a century.

“He was an environmentalist before you ever heard of the word,” said Stoutenburgh.

And now Stoutenburgh’s son Paul (named for his grandfather) is creating videos for the Nature Conservancy.

If the lab is a complex of buildings with some of the most up-to-date scientific technology in the world (such as The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider, and Center for Functional Nano Materials) most of the property north of Long Island Expressway at exit 68 is undeveloped.

“There are dirt roads at the lab where you can see a wide variety of Long Island's birds as well as other animals, like chipmunks and raccoons.

He spoke about a rare summer tanager that had nested at the lab recently. “It may have been the only one of Long Island.”

Stoutenburgh described his photographic process. "I walk into the woods ready to shoot. I throw the first few frames away on a leaf or a branch, just to make sure my speed, focus and exposure are right and ready for that moment that may be a last chance for a good shot today."

He added, "Some days you can't buy a good shot. The next day the images seem to create themselves. Like skin diving, there's a personal dream-like magical trance about it, you can't help but fall deeply into that search for that special moment in time only you can capture."

Stoutenburgh, who’s been photographer at the lab for 32 years, went digital about 15 years ago.

“That was driven by a desire to eliminate the chemicals used in photography and because the government was offering money toward a new sophisticated digital Nikon 460 — that cost $20,000 at the time,” said Stoutenburgh.

He added, “What’s great about digital is that you can shoot 300 images, go through them in ten minutes, pick out the best, instead of the arduous process of that film demanded."

Perhaps both Stoutenburgh’s “scientific” work and nature shots are effective because he genuinely appreciates the power of images.

“My father is 89. When he looks at photographs of the past it revitalizes him. He gets a glow — like when a woman holds a baby. I think all of us relate to something like that, especially a photograph of nature.”