About us
In the bug-ginning...
Gone Buggo started from a very simple idea, but has grown dramatically over the last few years. In May of 2019 the very rare opportunity to photograph a recently born Death Adder arose, but given the risks of going near the snake there seemed to be no way to convey scale easily. After a bit of head-scratching the idea to introduce a minifig into the photo came up and the rest, as they say, is history.
From those inauspicious beginnings Gone Buggo has evolved and grown repeatedly to become an ambitious attempt to change the way people view the tiny creatures in their lives. It is an opportunity to connect with elements of nature that are variously hard to find, hard to see, hard to get close to and, sometimes, hard to find any value in.
It has been an education, and become an educational opportunity, a citizen science contribution and a call for citizen science contributors. Through a variety of projects, and across a few different social media platforms we hope to engage, inspire, inform and educate with a focus on blending science and environmental philosophy in a fun and accessible way for everyone.
Behind the lens
G'day, I'm Steve. I build the dioramas, handle the critters, set the cameras up and often press the shutter button. I'm also the one writing all the nerdy blurbs on bugs and featuring in all the videos.
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I've been a tour guide, interpreter and educator in the Wet Tropics and on the Great Barrier Reef for somewhere around ten years now, and throughout my time educating people about environments and wildlife one of the things that started to bother me was a disconnect between the modern scientific understanding of the world and the common understanding of the world: Science moves too fast for the education system to keep up! Even deeper still though is that, in my experience, most people don't see the wonder in the world around them, for one reason or another. Thanks to our insular, high-tech society most people have become disconnected from the incredible functions and forms of life that share this planet with us, and it's become my life's obsession to try and change that any way I can!
Behind the fool behind the lens
This is Sam. She's been unwavering in her support of this crazy adventure since day two, or maybe three (she wasn’t a fan of the Death Adder). Generally she doesn't play with critters herself, she prefers to be fascinated by them from a distance (which is definitely the better way to do it!). She has tolerated a number of dangerous creatures being in her bathtub (It's the safest place to photograph many things as they can't climb out!) and is only mildly unimpressed when creatures get loose inside the house, so long as they can't hurt anybody.
She does, however, LOVE pulling apart dioramas once the photos are done, which is fantastic because I do NOT. She also hasn't ever asked exactly how much we've spent on children's building blocks, which is great because I have a rough idea and it's best not to say it out loud.
The motivation
Nothing makes a person want to change the world quite like having someone to hand it on to.
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The first photos came while Izzy was still just a bump in Sam's belly but as she grew, so did the ideas behind Gone Buggo. She has grown up in the forests, on the trails, in the streams. She has spent all of her life surrounded by nature and up close and personal with critters. She is fearless, creative, imaginative, and makes everything more difficult and more fun at the same time.
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She is my best mate, my budding protege, and the biggest limitation I find myself up against when she'd rather be pushed on her swing than let me photograph, build, edit, or write. But the kid is an endless inspiration, and she'll always be at the heart of Gone Buggo.