All language subtitles for Learning.to.See.The.World.of.Insects.2016.1080p.BluRay.H264.AAC-RARBG

[music playing]

ROBERT OELMAN: What is real?

'Cause there's no instructions,
there's no guidance.

You can't follow the culture
to tell you what to do.

A person can open their
eyes to change their life

and change themselves.

Spectacular things
exist on this earth

that we don't really
know too much about.

There is some purpose
that we're intended

to follow and do something.

But I'm exploring
the very little

known world of exotic insects.

I'm using this modern
technology of macrophotography...

new cameras, new lenses...

to magnify something that is
normally very difficult to see.

[music playing]

I've spent a lot of time
traveling throughout the Amazon

basin, searching for insects.

And it all started
here in Colombia.

You can find a lot of
insects in one place.

You can find nothing.

And yet there's no
explanation for it.

Very little is known about
insects, and where they live,

and their populations.

I can't go and look anywhere
for a specific insect,

because nobody knows
it's there or not.

Youse look, and you
see what you can find.

And some of these
are extremely exotic.

I was seeing things that
I never noticed before.

Pretty... green legs,
green-and-brown legs, red eyes.

What was noticeable to me
was the instinct to survive,

to not be killed and to
survive, is extremely strong.

Oh, look at the... look at the...

the black drop coming out.

That's a toxic substance.

It's used for self-defense.

It's not like the intelligence
of a human being that's

all connected with a big brain.

It's just something organic.

Every time I would
look for an insect,

I'd find some kind
of spectacular thing.

And eventually, I got hooked.

Mhm.

Nice.

[jungle sounds]

[music playing]

ROBERT OELMAN: Ever
since childhood, I've

been interested in psychology.

I've always had empathy for
what people are feeling.

It was easier for me to
understand other people.

And the same time, I was
trying to figure out a way

to understand myself
and what had happened

to me as a child
with the aim, really,

eventually, to cure myself.

We grew up in southern
Ohio, in Dayton, Ohio,

in the southwestern
part of the state.

This was a pig farm.

And I don't know whether
you've ever been to a pig farm,

but you don't really
want to be in a pig farm.

ROBERT OELMAN: My
childhood was tough.

It was really more than tough.

So it was either 100% perfect.

You were 99%, you got it.

You got whacked.

ROBERT OELMAN: I was a therapist
approximately 20 years.

I helped some people.

But the help that
people receive really

is not through what I did.

It's through what they do.

I think he took very seriously
the concerns and upsets

of his patients, to
the extent that it

was starting to bother him.

Sometimes, when we
would visit with him

during that period of time,
he was lost in another world.

ROBERT OELMAN: At
some point the energy

that I was feeling
in doing this work

was not the healthiest energy.

As most people that
are in therapy,

they're depressed in
some way or another.

The depressed energy
is something that

has an effect on other people.

So it was pulling
my energy down.

My brother thought
that during his practice

he was feeling his patients and
his patients were feeling him.

So that was a great
source of frustration.

ROBERT OELMAN: In
essence, they're

putting the responsibility
for their lives onto me.

And I didn't like that too much.

It's an unpleasant
thing, because then I

didn't know what to do.

Do I just wait for them
to work through this,

or do I need to call the police?

And this happened many times.

Very bad experience for me.

ELIZABETH OELMAN: He was
really in a state of quiescence

for a while.

I think he wanted to
start something new,

but I don't think
he knew what it was.

BRADFORD OELMAN: My
brother stopped practicing

psychology in the early '90s.

He was about 50 years old.

ROBERT OELMAN: It's
a lot of stress.

You're in a situation with
just a lot of negative energy.

So it was time for me
to go do something else.

And I felt I was just going
into totally unknown...

an unknown life.

[thunder]

I had a girlfriend once,
and she gave me a book

by Garcia Marquez called
"Love in the Time of Cholera,"

a very strange book
about Colombia.

I was impressed by his writing.

I was impressed by
the life view that...

that's reflected in the book.

I thought, hmm, this Colombia's
got to be a lot more loose

and freer kind of environment.

That's when I started
visiting Colombia.

What impressed me most was the
friendliness of people there...

friendly, open people
wanting to engage with you.

[speaking Spanish]

[speaking Spanish]

ROBERT OELMAN:
People are not racing

around as fast as Americans.

They're not as competitive.

They're always eager to
talk and really be friendly.

Here in the United States, I
could call a friend and say,

let's have lunch.

And she might say to me,
well, I can have lunch

in three weeks at 12 o'clock.

You don't find that in Colombia.

Life in Colombia is very
different from the life

in the US.

I thought to myself,
why not take this leap

and move to Colombia?

MARGARET TUTWILER: The
Department of State

warns that due to recent events,
Colombia's security situation

is unsettled and
likely to remain

so in the indefinite future.

REPORTER: Escobar was
notorious for killing

anyone who posed a threat to his
overwhelming power and riches.

ELIZABETH OELMAN:
Kidnappings, terrorism, drugs,

all sorts of things loomed, and
I kept thinking that Bob would

not be able to go unscathed.

BRADFORD OELMAN: I didn't
know anything about Colombia

until six months
after he'd gone there,

and my parents told me that
Bob had gone to Colombia.

And I had absolutely no
idea why he had done so.

He was brave from day
one, different and brave,

because that's brave
to go against the...

the expectation.

I think he was
following an instinct,

see where it would lead.

In order to progress, one
has to overcome a lot of fears.

And that's what I did.

BRADFORD OELMAN:
About the same time

Bob decided he would
go to Colombia,

a terrible thing
happened, because one

of our sister companies, one
of their executives in Colombia

was kidnapped, and held
for over a year for ransom,

and was eventually released.

Naturally, we were
very fearful, scared,

and I was kind of upset
that that was his choice.

I did know that Colombia
was a dangerous place.

It didn't bother me at all.

If you get stopped
at a roadblock,

you could be kidnapped,
taken up into the mountains.

Somehow I just thought, that's
not going to happen to me.

Somehow I knew, if
I go to Colombia,

I have no idea what's
going to happen

to me after that, no idea.

I just saw it as a possibility
for a new way of life.

Danger... there's danger, but
there's danger everywhere.

To be bored in life and to go
through the motions, to me,

is living a form of death.

So if something new is
dangerous, so be it.

I was robbed at several
times, taken advantage of.

And then I learned quick.

I learned quick to be
much more vigilant, not

so friendly, not so trusting.

There'd be terrible days that I
just felt terrible being there.

And then the next day
would be a wonderful day.

I started getting
to know people,

started learning Spanish.

It's like the old
person died, and it's

time to create a new one.

Eventually, I saw
a piece of land

in the mountains
outside of Cali.

And it was just like
a wasteland really,

a lot of garbage, a
lot of dead trees,

but it had a certain form to it.

I saw the potential
for this place.

And I said, oh, I could
live here and write a book.

It cost, like, 40,000 bucks.

And I bought the land.

I mean, this is a big leap,
a leap of faith, really,

that I could have a
good life in Colombia.

Really, I didn't know.

Maybe I would have a
terrible life in Colombia,

but it seemed like
a good thing to do.

And I think it did become
a project, special project.

A "finca" is a
house in the country

with some land attached to it.

I became a custodian of
this piece of the earth.

And this changed my psychology,
because now it was not just me.

I was me and this land.

Created some stability for me,
because I had a place to live.

I had the earth.
It was part of me.

I had these projects to do,
and then other projects began.

It was right about
that time when

I began taking photos of
all these aspects of life

in Colombia.

[music playing]

I began to take
photos of flowers

that existed where I lived.

One day I saw a
hummingbird at the flowers,

and I just thought, I wonder
what would happen if I

put out hummingbird feeders.

There was one
hummingbird that came.

And then for three years,
new hummingbirds would come.

All these hummingbirds
just kept pouring in.

And that really was the
start of serious photography.

You could take a photo
of a hummingbird.

And you look at the photo, it's
terrible... terrible photo...

because you can't take a
normal photo of a hummingbird

and have it be a good photo.

So one has to think
of, how do I do this?

So I studied this,
and I learned how

to take a good photo of a
hummingbird, which means,

how do you stop a
movement of a wing that's

going 50, 60 beats per second?

Then I set up my own
hummingbird studio.

And eventually, I could take
a good photo of a hummingbird.

And this led to a
kind of a confidence

that if I could take a good
photo of a hummingbird,

I could take a good
photo of anything.

I was in the north
of Colombia one

day, doing a travel
photography project.

And that's when it happened.

I saw a beetle on a bush.

With a normal lens, I took
the photo of this beetle.

Then afterwards, I'm
looking at the photo.

And I see that this beetle
has his hand like this,

and out of his hand is a...

like a chord that leads
to two prongs like this.

So in effect, he's
got two hands in one.

And I realized, I'd
never seen that before.

I'd never seen an
insect really up close.

That just started
a kind of trigger.

I mean, it just... that
was like a trigger...

take photos of insects.

[music playing]

I got a macro lens and started
going out, looking for insects.

Soon as I began
that, I discovered

a lot of fantastic phenomenon.

But I realized that I couldn't
do this work by myself.

A

Christian is my assistant
in the photography.

He's also the
[Spanish] in my finca.

A [Spanish] is a person
who administers the finca,

does all the
physical work there.

He lives there with his family.

And through the
years, I've become

very close to this family.

He came to me by accident.

I hired him, and then
I said, Christian,

let's go and look for insects.

And then after a very short
time, he became an expert.

ROBERT OELMAN: We started,
like, eight years ago.

And then through the years,
the eyesight of Christian

has developed so
much that he can

see a lot of things
that are basically

invisible to other people.

He learns to recognize
small movements,

see small things at a
greater and greater distance.

It's a training of the
eyes that takes place

over the course of many years.

[music playing]

ROBERT OELMAN: To develop
the techniques has

been a process over 10 years.

So during that 10 years, it's
just improvising every year...

improvising,
analyzing the photos.

What works?

What doesn't work?

How can make it better?

You do anything to reduce.

Now it's too much light...

too much, too little.

OK.

Ugh.

See, this is too hard, so
we need a third person.

Not bad.

It's constantly evolving.

The idea is always trying
to make the photos better.

So I try different things.

You just allow a
process to take place in

and experiments to happen.

A lot of people are very
afraid of handling insects.

Some of them are actually
aggressive, can bite you.

The majority are not.

He's trying to eat my...

my finger.

Spiders... you got to figure
out, you know, which ones are

aggressive, which one's not.

So are we sure?

CHRISTIAN: Mhm.

ROBERT OELMAN: So
this spider, you

get him to walk over your hand.

He won't do anything.

Not that I'm going to try that.

Ooh, nice.

Get real close now.

I don't know what kind
of a spider it is, but...

because there's so
many kind of spiders.

It could be... oh...

this one here is a
Brazilian wandering spider

and has the ability to kill
a person rather quickly.

It bites you, and you lose
the ability to breathe.

It's the most toxic
of all the spiders.

We don't want to
get bitten by it.

Took a process of years of
learning what's dangerous

and what's not.

What I was learning about
the life force in insects

was they're formidable.

You know, they're spectacular
creations of evolution,

of some kind of
very long process

that's been going on millions
and millions of years.

It's a stressful
situation for an insect,

because an insect
assumes that anything

big or bigger than it has
an aggressive intention

toward them.

So we try to offset that
by showing them that we're

not trying to hurt them.

We're just trying to do this
strange thing of flashing

a light and taking a...

taking a photo.

Ooh.

I'm trying to convince that
that's what we're doing.

We're just taking a photo.

And then after that, then they
can go about their business.

What you doing?

What you doing?

Do you want to say here?

Do you think this
is your new home?

Sometimes you can see an
insect change his behavior,

and after 10 minutes,
let's say, looks

to be posing for a good photo.

I started just where I
lived in Colombia, just

around the house.

Found everything we could find.

After a while, we didn't
find anything new.

Then I went further
and further afield

and went into a
rain forest which is

three hours from where I live.

[chuckling]

As you're driving
downhill, this is going

west toward the Pacific coast.

And it's like you're
entering into a place that

looks like Jurassic
Park in the movie.

It's a magical kind of place.

[music playing]

Found a lot of stuff there.

[speaking Spanish]

[music playing]

We did that for a couple of
years, traveling close to home,

finding cool things.

But after a while, I
decided we needed to go

further into the rain forest.

We're exploring the
very little-known

world of exotic insects.

They're insects
that have developed

within the Amazon forest.

And some of these are
extremely strange.

There was a recent
estimate that came

out of 8.7 million animals.

But if you look at the
proportion of those which

are insects, all
of the estimates

say there should be about 80%
of all animal life are insects.

We know almost nothing
about these things.

And yet you think
about what they do.

They're a food source for
virtually the entire food web.

So all those species of
insects are feeding everything.

We wouldn't have birds.

We wouldn't have
a lot of mammals.

We wouldn't have bats, if
we didn't have the insects

that they're feeding on.

They are the foundation
for everything

we see around us out there.

If you want to
study biodiversity,

you need to study insects.

They're dominant in the world.

They've always been
dominant in the world.

And there's estimates
that we know

just a fraction of the number
of species that are out there.

I think we can
increase that diversity

quite a bit by just
investigating a lot

of these different groups.

ROBERT OELMAN: So we're going
to take a trip from Cali

to Manu National Park in Peru.

And this is a long trip.

We get up early in the morning.

We drive from the
finca to the airport.

We fly from Cali to
Bogota, Bogota to Lima,

and Lima to Cuzco,
Cuzco to Puerto

Maldonado, which
is a frontier city

that's on the edge of the...

of the jungle.

So now we have to
try to find a...

a large taxi.

But look at the size... look
at the size of the taxis.

[interposing voices]

[speaking Spanish]

[interposing voices]

[music playing]

I think that one
of the most important

things that Robert's
work does is

gives these animals a dignity.

And even if it's
just having people

appreciate their beauty more...

I mean, when I look
at some of his photos,

I can't believe that they even...

a creature like
this even exists.

They're insects that
are really have developed

within the Amazon forest.

Ooh.

There you find the
most elaborate things.

GAVIN SVENSON: Photographers
that are out in the field

capturing a lot of
diversity do a great service

getting information out in terms
of what's really out there, all

the cool different things
and the different forms

that people aren't
usually exposed to.

Having images of life on Earth
of that nature inspires people.

It really raises the
awareness of what's at stake.

ROBERT OELMAN: What
I'm doing is using

macrophotography to
magnify something

that's basically small.

And if something is
small, human beings can...

can ignore it, and
that's a big problem.

DOUGLAS INKLEY: How many
insects have you walked past

because you never saw them?

When people see these
creatures that they'd

never possibly believed
existed, it's amazing to them.

And they become
interested in nature.

They become interested
in wildlife.

And they become interested
in conservation.

That is so important
that they do that.

SUZANNE PELLETIER: I started
looking through Robert's work.

And I remember feeling
a little embarrassed.

I had spent my
time in the forest

looking just at these
big things and not

realizing the majority
of life around

me was something that
I'd never seen before.

ROBERT OELMAN: We are
looking for the weird ones,

the strange ones, the beautiful
ones, the ugliest ones...

really, the most interesting
and photogenic ones.

There are so many
incredible insects out here,

but some of my favorite ones
to find are the katydids.

So you have these two
different branches of katydids.

One wants to be undetected,
wants to be invisible,

and the other, who
wants to be visible.

The visible one, he
wants to advertise

that he is not good to eat
or that he's a fighter.

He's going to possibly hurt you.

The hard part about that
is, some of these guys

are so quick and agile.

Ooh.

He's aggressive.

Whoa!

You can hold it like
this, and it will escape.

It will fall down or
escape in some way,

turn over, and bite your
finger at the same time.

CHRISTIAN: [speaking Spanish]

So as I was saying...

CHRISTIAN: [speaking Spanish]

As I was saying,
he bites very hard.

The bright colors
are an indication of,

you don't want to fool with me.

I taste bad, or I'm
going to bite you bad.

So I get the shot
that's like this open,

and but she can go like this.

She can do it so
wide that she can

get to your end of your finger.

This has a name.

You know what the name is?

Spiny devil.

This is all deep
rain forest creations

that are more elaborate
so they can escape

detection by the predators.

This is dun, dun, dun, dun.

It's a female baby katydid.

So it has these appendages
around the joints of the legs

to make it look like
just kind of a mess.

But when you look at it closely,
you know, you can... ooh,

that's a good one.

I'll get the head right there.

The other katydids that
want to be invisible,

they're probably
pretty good to eat.

And they developed
extreme camouflage.

The camouflage
technique is something

that becomes incorporated
into its physical structure.

One of the tricks of
the leaf-mimicking

katydid is there's...

there can be a line
that runs right up

through the center of the eye.

And that sort of
changes the perception

that there is an eye.

There's a central
vein in the leaf.

There are all these different
details in the leaf,

including rotten out
spots, mold spots.

Whatever a leaf can be, these
guys are imitating them.

And since there's an
infinite number of leaves,

and different shades and colors,
there are a infinite number

of leaf-mimicking katydids.

It's a process of
evolution over millions

of years, a perfect disguise.

This has so many different just
subtle tones, different colors.

The highly disguised
insect is hard to find

but is easier to photograph,
because it's programmed not

to move very much,
because movement

means that it can be detected.

This is really the most extreme
leaf katydid in terms of,

the part that looks
like it's been eaten

goes very deep into the wing.

And it crosses the vein
in the middle of the leaf.

We've never seen anything
like that before.

BRUCE STEIN: It's
just remarkable

when you see the way in which
so many of these insects

have been able to develop body
forms that absolutely mimic

their backgrounds,
whether they're looking

like dead leaves, or the
tree bark on which they

perch, or like little twigs.

ROBERT OELMAN: They've hardly
been studied, very few photos,

because somebody not
familiar with these insects

will never see them.

And yet they're dependent
on their unique environments

in order to live and survive.

BRUCE STEIN: And as we
see decreases in habitat,

either complete loss through
conversion to other land

uses or degradation
of the habitat,

then essentially it
undermines their ability

for a long-term survival
in those places.

It's economics.

It's money.

I mean, whether it's on a very
small scale or a larger scale...

I mean, government
creates policies

for economic growth, which often
affects their environments.

Most people do not resist.

You have a chance to
make a lot of money,

gonna make a lot of money.

What happens to the forest,
the natives that live there,

the animals?

You're gonna forget about that.

If the price of oil goes
up, oil extraction increases.

There's an incredible
amount of oil extraction

right now in the Amazon.

Over 70% of the Peruvian Amazon
is leased out to oil companies.

STUART MCKAMEY:
With deforestation,

we're losing species before
they're being discovered.

There have been times when
I've been collecting in an area

where ashes are
literally falling on me.

ROBERT OELMAN: In the jungles
on the eastern part of Ecuador,

below the Earth is just
vast sources of oil.

The president of Ecuador
has decided, you know,

sell these lots off to
the big oil companies.

SUZANNE PELLETIER: We
know that these animals

need their habitat to survive.

You know, we're losing
tens of thousands

of species every year, most
of them in the tropics,

because of deforestation.

ROBERT OELMAN: The
cutting down of the trees

for illegal logging is
really out of control.

I just try to go to places
that are farther away

from this kind of activity.

ROBERT OELMAN: You
know, there's a lot

of things that are already here,
but we just don't see them.

They're hidden from us.

They're on the other
side of that leaf.

ROBERT OELMAN: Woo.

ROBERT OELMAN: We
can see just how

remarkable this young
man, Christian, is,

because he sees everything.

Christian, he goes out at night.

He comes in maybe at 2:00 AM.

He goes to sleep.

I don't know what he's found
until the following morning.

And then he gets up, and
he notices I'm awake,

and he says they found
a super champion.

Wow, wow, wow.

- [speaking Spanish]
- OK.

Oh, wow.

When he says, super champion,
we know he's ecstatic.

And we go to work.

Turns out what he's found
is a new type of treehopper.

We've never seen
anything like this.

It's a special feeling.

The fossil record
for treehoppers

is, like, 40 million years.

A treehopper was found in
Amber and dated back that old.

So they've been
around a long time.

Taking a photo of a small
thing with a macro lens,

the lens is maybe this
close to the insect.

Treehoppers are from
one millimeter in length

to 10 millimeters,
which is a centimeter.

So I get nervous.

The nerves are, will I be able
to take a good photo of this,

or will it escape?

You don't have any
depth of field,

so you can't get a
clear focus unless all

the parts of the insect are
equal distant to the lens.

Over time, you know, the
steadiness in holding this kind

of apparatus is pretty good.

[deep breathing]

Ooh, look at that.

This is the ant,
that's the treehopper.

This is a big ant, this
is a little treehopper.

The treehopper eats
the phloem, the liquid,

that's inside the stems here.

And then it excretes
drops of liquid,

and the liquid is sweet.

So the ants like
the liquid, so they

take care of the treehoppers.

They protect the treehoppers.

Hoppers

His eye is black so we got to
get more light from Christian's

flashlight through there.

They can be tough to work with.

Treehoppers are
difficult, because they're

very sensitive to
vibrations in the air.

We're working with a
special treehopper.

And it jumps, and flies,
and then you lose it.

And you lose it
inside the studio.

And you look.

30 minutes you look for it.

You can't find it.

The adventure really is
finding things that are new,

that we've never seen before.

No, I don't have
anything like this one.

One of the tools for
discovering new species

is actually looking
at photographs

that people have
taken, because the more

eyes that are on the
ground, the more things

are going to be discovered.

It's great to see
photographs of things

that have been photographed
live for the first time.

This could very well
be a new species.

And here's a slide.

OK, we got the weirdest
treehopper in the world here.

The variety of treehoppers
is really infinite.

Those that have been classified,
maybe there are 3,000.

But actually in reality,
how many are there?

Maybe there are 10,000,
maybe there are 20,000.

Nobody knows.

And that's partly why
rapid habitat loss

and mass extinction
events are so

alarming, because
we don't even know

how many species we're losing.

[music playing]

Christian and I have traveled
throughout the Amazon basin,

and we've found some
incredible things.

ROBERT OELMAN: How did I find
Christian in the first place?

By chance?

I don't think so.

He has an understanding of this.

It's a kind of a
spiritual kind of thing

that we're guided to
find these things.

That's probably true.

We spend a lot of
time and effort

looking for things that very
few people are looking for.

GAVIN SVENSON: In the early
days of natural history,

the people that were
doing insect taxonomy

were people that could
go, and get on a ship,

and spend three or four
weeks getting to a location

to see an environment
and be able to sample

that environment.

We can be there in a few
hours now on an airplane,

so field photography
has become more

and more paramount and goes
hand-in-hand to systematic

biology.

Maybe somebody takes a
picture of something that's

never been photographed before.

And then 10 years later
somebody else takes a picture,

but in a different context.

Over time you start to accrue
pictures of the same species

in different contexts, and
different environments,

and doing different things.

And really, you
can imagine a time

when you can look back
over 200 or 300 years

of photographic documentation.

Seeing the real
specimen is great.

But seeing a photo
of the specimen,

you can reach
millions of people.

ROBERT OELMAN: I
think that there

is a path that's given to us.

I believe our purpose is to
find and document as many

of these strange and
beautiful insects as possible.

You see that?

We find so many different
types and species of insects,

but one of the most
captivating are the mantids.

One thing they do that
no other insect does

is that they can rotate
their head from side to side.

And one gets the feeling that
they can be looking at you

and studying you as you
are looking at them.

When you hold them in your
hand, they look back at you.

Why they're doing that...

they're predators.

When you look at a spider
creeping along a tree trunk,

it is not doing
anything that we do

or we think of as human
behaviors, types of movement.

But mantids seemed to have
captured or embodied that sort

of predatory aspect of
perceiving the environment just

a little bit more.

They feel comfortable hanging
upside down under leaves

when they're all bunched up.

When I take a photo of a
mantis in that position,

it's hard to make them out.

The texture and the
color merges with all

the leaves around them.

GAVIN SVENSON: Survival
for many of these groups

depends on their
ability to blend in.

It's not so much them
crafting themselves.

It's they are crafted
by the environment.

You have, for example,
green leaf mantids.

They look just like
leaves with veins.

You have bark mantids
living in tree trunks.

These characters evolve
through natural selection.

And they are hard to
find, because they

are really difficult to see.

GAVIN SVENSON: You have birds.

You have lizards.

You have monkeys.

You have lots of other
different animals.

They're all gunning for you.

They all want to eat you.

It's this whole
environmental shaping

that seems to have
driven a lot of diversity

within praying mantids.

His

ROBERT OELMAN: The gray, dark
brown... that's mostly gray.

It's really hard
to see, so he's...

he knows his best
defense is not to move.

GAVIN SVENSON:
Photography really

has a focusing capability.

And if you want to diagnose
this species from that species,

photography allows you to focus
in to the particular thing

that you're trying
to communicate

about the uniqueness
of that species.

ROBERT OELMAN: Get the face.

Can you get the face?

OK.

I got the face!

All of these
photographs and images

can really help us to understand
so much more about what

these things are doing.

No, but look at the color, you
know, the color on the abdomen.

Well, that's what I'm
trying to do, you know,

just show the
spectacular creation

that happens in the insect
world so people understand it's

not just elephants and lions.

I mean, there are all kinds of
creatures that are equally as

special that have
been here a long time

and have undergone
amazing evolution.

And they deserve our
respect and protection.

A few years ago, I realized
finding the insects

and taking the photos
was just half the job.

I started seeing that this
is something that would be

good to show many
people, so many people

can see this and learn about
what's really out there.

For that reason,
you know, I started

creating the website so that
people can really see this.

And it started.

More and more people,
they're seeing the photos.

They're making comments.

But still, it's a
small amount of people.

And I started looking for
ways to get the word out

to a bigger audience.

BRUCE STEIN: The
power of those images

to display these
amazing creatures

and their evolutionary
adaptations

are really going to be critical,
because until you value

something, you're not going to
really see meaningful action

to protect it.

DOUGLAS INKLEY: Every
habitat has a wide diversity

of species in it.

And what's really interesting is
that every one of those species

is important for that habitat.

If you were to think
about all of those species

as individual bricks in a home,
and let's say that you take

one brick out of the home, oh,
OK, the home still functions,

but probably not as well.

A little bit of
cold air gets in.

You take another break,
gets a little bit worse.

You keep on going.

What eventually happens?

The house falls down.

ROBERT OELMAN: We have to
assume that many insects are

being lost, because the
habitat is being lost.

Human beings are
actually destroying

animals at a very fast rate.

All these other animals
feed primarily on insects.

Many species will be
lost before people

ever know that they've existed.

Got you now.

That's a good one.

The photos really,
they have a message.

To me, the message is,
we're special creatures.

We're special
creatures, and we've

been around for a long time.

They're much more
advanced, much more

intelligent than people know.

To me, it's important to show
that, because they represent,

as human beings do, the
creations of the life force

that's in everything.

It's something we
should respect.

What I try to do now
is to not only show

that the insects exist but
to put it in a context,

in a field of light, that really
is an artistic composition.

How does one get
an artistic eye?

When I think about
it, this has been

developing over years and years,
seeing, just seeing things.

Try to make this insect
photography into an art form,

so I thought of ways
to combine photos.

You can see the insect.

You can see how it blends
into the background.

Then I look at the
best images that I

have for a certain insect, and
I try to think of a concept

how to present that.

[music playing]

I like the idea of composites,
because you can see,

for example, there is
one of a certain katydid

that opens its wings
and looks like a moth.

Right?

So then there's one
composite where you see it

from the front, when its
wings are open from the back;

and from the side; and then
when its wings are closed.

What Robert's
work does is it's

an entryway for many people
that maybe don't know very

much about tropical
forests or don't

know very much about insects.

It's so fascinating and
captures your fascination

and your imagination that
you want to learn more.

ROBERT OELMAN: But first I was
just happy to take the photos

and enjoy doing that.

But after a while, I
realized, you know, this

is something really
that should be...

should be seen by other people.

About that the same time, I
received a invitation to have

a gallery show in New York.

SUZANNE PELLETIER: Hi,
I'm Suzanne Pelletier,

I'm executive director of
the Rainforest Foundation.

Thank you so much
for coming tonight.

Gonna be a great way to
showcase Robert's work to people

that not only are supporters,
that are not only art lovers,

but also really care about
the subject of Robert's work...

these beautiful,
beautiful insects

and the forest where they live.

When you see this,
these are the most

fantastic, strangest, most
beautiful things you can find.

It's extremely
difficult to find these,

because they don't
want to be found.

You know, at this
show, I'm nervous,

because I'm not used to talking
about, really, the work.

I'm just a person
that's in action.

OK.
I'm in action.

I'm taking photos.

I'm working on the photos,
and so on, and so forth.

I'm not talking.

Uh, my name is Robert Oelman.

I'm a photographer,
insect hunter.

As I get more into
the... into the flow,

I'm happy, because I'm
sharing with other people.

And some of these people
are genuinely interested.

Many of the people are.

So the thing about these,
this is all very rare insects.

Depends.

This is 1 millimeter.

Oh my gosh.

ROBERT OELMAN: It's a katydid
that looks like a leaf.

And this is one of
the more perfect ones.

When you put yourself
in a certain state

of mind and then this...

then the ideas just...
they just come out.

He thinks these
pictures are wonderful

and that people will like to see
them, not because he took them

and these are wonderful
things that he did.

But look at these wonderful
things that there are.

And I want to share
them with you.

ROBERT OELMAN: So
this starts here.

It's all bunched up here.

Yeah.

ROBERT OELMAN: So nobody
knows that it's a insect.

So the telltale sign of what
it is is the shape of the head.

So that's a mantis.

How could this be?

I mean, this is some kind of...

what you learn is
something about evolution.

You learn about the
nature of life itself.

This is Colombia and
jungles in Colombia.

And others are from
Peru and Ecuador.

ELIZABETH OELMAN:
He's very open,

and that openness is, I
think, a very rare thing.

So... and I do this, and I
just feel like a young person.

So does everybody know
what a treehopper is?

GROUP: No.

WOMAN 3: No idea.

ROBERT OELMAN: These
are treehoppers.

These have been around
for 40 million years...

WOMAN 4: Wow.

ROBERT OELMAN:... much
longer than human beings.

My brother has
become centered.

That is, he has discovered
something that he loves.

He likes doing it.

He feels fulfilled.

And he's getting recognition.

And that is really a

ROBERT OELMAN: I get a lot
of satisfaction from it.

I'm working on
this day and night

and trying to communicate
with a lot of people.

It's a great job.

Thanks for coming.
I mean, there's a lot of people.

That's great.

[applause]

What I'm looking at
now and what I see are,

in the insects or the animals,
they're all like little people.

They're not so
different from us.

As I see that, I feel
more empathy for them.

[music playing]

[speaking Spanish]

Yeah, I know.

You see everything, right?

You see everything, OK.

When you know what's
here, you want to kill it?

Or do you want to preserve it?

You got to make a choice.

If you don't make
a choice, you're

going in the direction of, OK,
let's kill all these things

and not be conscious
that we're doing that.

I'm just doing my part.

Whatever that
force is is saying,

well, you get a job to do.

And do it.

And do it well, so
people will notice.

Let's be conscious
of what exists here

and then not kill them,
not kill the insects,

not kill all the animals,
not kill the forests.

[music playing]

I'm a part of nature.

I'm just part of
the life force and

trying to do something
that will create

more harmony in the world.

Hopefully, working together
with more and more people,

we can preserve nature
for future generations...

for our children, for our
grandchildren, and all

those yet to come.

[music playing]

[MUSIC PLAYING - ALIXCIA, "ALL
OF IT"]