| Biography Hello, my name is David Kratville. I live approximately 20 miles south of Sacramento. My current location in the fertile Central Valley of California lends easy access to numerous outdoor playgrounds. The beautiful San Francisco Bay Area is a little over an hour to the west. An hour's drive to the east and I can find myself amongst the flowering foothills of the Sierra Nevada. The beautiful beaches of southern California and the North Coast's magnificent Redwood Forests are all within an easy day's drive. During the winter the Central Valley's wildlife refuges and flooded agricultural fields become inundated with migratory birds. I am lucky to live minutes away from the Consumnes River Preserve which gets inundated with Sandhill Cranes each winter. Overall central California is a fabulous place for photography. I have a Bachelor's degree in Environmental Studies with a minor in Biology from Sacramento State University. I have also had the pleasure of working with the University of California Davis, Center for Spatial Technologies and Remote Sensing using Hyperspectral analysis (a very fancy digital camera mounted on a plane or satellite) to map invasive species in the Sacramento/San Joaquin River Delta. I have recently applied to the UC Davis Graduate Group in Ecology with the hopes of earning a Master's degree researching the effects of non-native plants on the displacement of native plants and the wildlife that utilize them. For the past five years I have worked for the California Department of Food and Agriculture's Integrated Pest Control Branch. The Integrated Pest Control Branch is responsible for detection and control of non-native species, specifically noxious weeds. Currently I spend my summers driving an airboat looking for aquatic weeds amongst the tules and cattails of the Delta. For several years I worked on terrestrial weeds throughout northern California. Part of my duties involved being one of the guides on the Northern California Noxious Weed Tour. The Weed Tour involved driving two vans of Biologists around northern California, southern Oregon and western Nevada for a week showing them noxious weeds in the various habitats they inhabit and their distinguishing characteristics. The tours were always fun, I had the pleasure of meeting a lot of interesting people and seeing a bunch of beautiful country. My interest in photography started at a very early age when I got my very first 120mm camera for Christmas. I later moved on to a simple point and shoot 35mm that had three settings indoor, outdoor and flash. My mom quickly grew tired of paying for the development of yet another roll of "Dog Sleeping". I have since embraced the digital age and the freedom that comes with it. The ability to see in the field what works and doesn't combined with an infinite number of photographs with no cost of development greatly improved my photography. My other hobbies include my first love playing electric guitar, backpacking, and surfing. I am about to set off on the next great adventure of my life, being a dad. I'm sure there will soon be thousands of photos of "Baby Sleeping" to join my vast portfolio of "Dog Sleeping". I will continue to work to protect wild places through my photography and work controlling invasive species. Hopefully there will be wild places for my son and his children to enjoy in the future. Perhaps someday they will take up my love of nature, wildlife and landscape photography. Thank you for visiting my site. David Kratville Equipment |
| Kratville Photography Specializing in Nature, Landscape and Wildlife Photography |
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