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Adrian Riley: "All of my photos for the butterfly book recently published were taken using a compact Nikon 4500." Photo: Enterprise Io

You don’t get to discuss photography in the context of crop protection that often, but Google can really throw up some interesting details that enable you to join the dots.

While googling for the photograph of Dr Ian Denholm to illustrate Dr Jackie Bird’s article on the EU agrochemical plans, I came across a very interesting website called Enterprise Io.

It so happens that Dr Denholm is one of Enterprise Io’s panel of experts which also include researchers John Bater, Dr Jason Chapman and bird photographer Gary Thoburn.

Founded in January 2007 by former Rothamsted scientist Adrian Riley, Enterprise Io offers tailor-made trips or single days out to see butterflies, dragonflies, and also birds.

It also offers other services such as a comprehensive online photo library of butterflies, dragonflies, moths, birds and orchids, identification surgery, ecological surveys, editing and proof-reading, database services, and the monthly Enterprise Io magazine.

The online photo gallery is currently being used as a ‘shop window’ to promote the tours. I asked Riley what camera he uses for his photography. “All of my photos for the butterfly book recently published were taken using a compact Nikon 4500,” he said.

“Yes, really. Even with the most basic of equipment, success can be achieved if you understand how, where and when to 'hunt' your quarry. Bird photography is something I am not qualified to talk about. It is also an extremely competitive field. Thank heavens we have Gary Thoburn on board.”

There is a similarity, I find, in scientists and photojournalists. They observe and gather visual information. And they like their cameras.

I asked Riley if he agrees with this, and he said: “Scientists have enquiring minds and like to collect as much data as possible before drawing conclusions.

“I took about 100 shots of an orchid today (on the day of the interview) so that I could identify which form of which species I was dealing with. It worked!”

Aris Chloridis, Dow AgroSciences project leader, is an accomplished photographer Photo: Salina Christmas

Another scientist I met who is really into his photography is Aris Chloridis, one of the project leaders for Dow AgroSciences.

At last year’s Agrow Awards in Glasgow, we spoke at great length about camera models, lenses and such. Chloridis said he observes and gathers plenty of visual information on plants for his job, and that occasionally, in his spare time, he holds photo exhibitions of his personal works in Greece.

Considering that scientific research and photography are closely linked, you would think there are many life science photography competitions out there.

The annual Wellcome Image Awards is one such event, backed by a very famous organisation. And then there is the British Council Greece Science Photography competition for kids aged 15 and below.

Last year there was the Annual Nexxus Life Science Award in Scotland. But none of these competitions have the same eminence as, say, World Press Photo.

But why not? Life science photography is still photography – a form of portraiture if you like – and when used to support a piece of news, not just a research paper, can still be considered as photojournalism.

A very busy Registration of Agrochemicals Conference

Panel Session-Terry Tooby JSC International, Wolfgang Reinert European Commission, Anne-Cecile Cotillon, European Commission, Hurbert Deluyker, EFSA Photo: Ryan Thomas

Two very unusual things happened at this years Registration of Agrochemicals in Europe conference that took place earlier this week in Brussels............

1- The grey skies and rain that we normally associate with holding a conference in Brussels at this time of year were replaced with blue skies and brilliant sunshine

2- The chairman (Terry Tooby from JSC International and a regular fixture at the event) when summing up the conference finished with a cautionary but optimistic note (even more surprising than the blue skies and sunshine!)

This year's conference was once again very well attended and at times had over 170 people in the sessions. This is the 5th year that I've been involved in organising this meeting and it was good to see a number of familiar faces at the event in addition to people attending for the first time. A number of delegates commented at the end of the event that this was the best conference that they could recall on this subject and so I'd like to thank all of the speakers who contributed to this event.

The conference kicked off with updates from the EU Commission and EFSA. Our Commission speakers were made to work very hard as in addition to taking questions on the papers they presented they were also on hand for the majority of the event where they were able to answer a number of questions that arose in later sessions.

Panel Moderator Terry Tooby, JSC International. Panellists - Vibeke Bernson, Swedish Chemicals Agency, Kostas Markakis Ministry of Agriculture Greece, Claudio Mereu, Field Fisher Waterhouse, Mathias Uteb BVL & Diane Castle Syngenta Photo: Ryan Thomas

The session that generated most discussion on Day 1 was a panel made up of speakers looking at the European Parliament Recommendations and Impact on the Agrochemical Industry. With speakers covering a range of topics including cut off/hazard triggers, zonal approach , parallel trade and options for data protection and sharing there was certainly plenty for attendees to discuss with a number of different points of views exchanged between industry and member state representatives.

At the end of the session attendees continued the discussions over a cool glass of beer/wine in the networking drinks reception which thanks to the sunshine we were able to hold on the hotel terrace.

Day 2 opened with an update from Prof Tony Hardy, "Central Science Laboratory on Progress with Revisions to Guidance Documents", with industry representatives once again keen to find out why industry seems to have less input in the development of these documents.

Chris Orpin, Dow AgroSciences and a new speaker for 2008, gave some real industry insight with a case study on Mancozeb which was well received by all attendees.

In the afternoon regulators, from Spain, Finland, Czech Republic and France gave updates on the zonal approach (this is a topic that we have included the past few years but this yea,r due to a number of projects taking plac,e real life examples were discussed).

Chris Orpin, Dow AgroSciences presents to a full conference room Photo: Ryan Thomas

The event finished with talks from Syngenta, BVL and EFSA on MRLs which once again promoted a number of questions from industry to both EFSA and Member State representatives.

As always, there was as much discussion going on during all of the breaks as in the conference room. We'll be notifying all conference attendees about this blog so if there are any themes that you'd like to keep the discussion going on or if you have any feedback on the conference then please leave a comment.

So that was the beginning of the week and now that I'm back in the office my attention is turning to the next big Agrochemical event Agchemforum. This event is being held in Berlin in September. This weeks meeting showed there's a lot to discuss in the area still, so hopefully I'll be seeing some of you in Berlin.
Ryan