The Photography of Paul Strauss by Jeff Glenn, North Florida Trail Program Manager
Juvenile Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis).... "Don't be fooled by this juvenile alligator's cute looks—alligators mature quickly, growing up to 14 inches per year", Paul says.
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aul Strauss came to Florida more than thirty-five years ago to pursue an environmental science degree at the Florida Institute of Technology. He soon fell in love with the Old Florida known to those adventurers who seek it out in places like the Florida Trail, or those who read about in the novels of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings or Patrick Smith. His passion for the outdoors, however, started in his home state of Pennsylvania, growing up in the country an hour north of Philadelphia. Coinciding with a love for the outdoors was an early affinity towards photography. In his parents’ basement, he built a darkroom so he could develop and practice his black and white photography while taking classes on the subject as a highschooler. In the mid-1990s when digital photography came to the mass market, Paul was a very early adopter and has been a huge proponent ever since. This ‘revolution’ as he calls it happened concurrently with his career development
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Florida Trail Association
in the environmental field and rekindled his passion for nature photography, with an emphasis on botanical subjects. Botany was a subject he studied in college and because of this, wildflowers and butterflies often came under the camera lens. Currently, Paul serves as the Director of the Environmental and Conservation Services Department for the Palm Beach County School District. Paul’s team oversees the environmental compliance of over 180,000 students. His department runs the largest school gardening program in the state and it is also one of the premier programs
of its kind nationwide. There are over 110 schools in Palm Beach County with gardening programs. These can be vegetable gardens, but more often than not, they are native plant gardens. His office oversees the design of these gardens and adheres to guidelines for which native plants are allowed. This knowledge and care for native plants is evident in his photography. His interest in nature photography has a very strong tie to the Florida Trail. At least once a week for the past five years, Paul finds his way to the trail. Living in the southeast portion of the state, he frequents sections
“IF YOU WANT TO SEE WILD FLORIDA, IF YOU WANT TO REALLY SEE WHAT FLORIDA IS ALL ABOUT, IF YOU WANT TO GET AWAY FROM THE STEREOTYPE, IF YOU REALLY WANT TO DIG IN TO WHAT THIS STATE HAS TO OFFER, THERE’S NO BETTER WAY OF DOING IT THEN GETTING ON A SEGMENT OF THE FLORIDA TRAIL.” FloridaTrail.org
