Noppadol Paothong
Noppadol Paothong is an award-winning nature/conservationist photographer and a staff photographer with the Missouri Department of Conservation since 2006. His focus has been on rare and endangered species, primarily on grassland grouse and their fragile habitat. His images regularly appear in their publications, including Missouri Conservationist and Xplor. The national award-winning Missouri Conservationist magazine is one of the largest conservation magazines in the country with a monthly circulation of 460,000.
In addition, he has dedicated over 15 years to documenting North American grassland grouse and their fragile habitats. Those efforts resulted in two large format award-winning books, Save the Last Dance (2012) and Sage Grouse, Icon of the West (2017) what many consider to be definitive books on North American grouse. Many newspapers, major national publications, such as National Audubon and National Wildlife Federation, and experts praised both books, and both also won several national prizes including a grand prize for Indie Book Awards 2018.
He has received many prestigious national and international honors for his work, including "Best of the Best" at Outdoor Writers Association of America Photo Contest, Picture of the Year International, National Wildlife Photo Contest, Nature's Best, Audubon Photo Contest, and Missouri Photojournalist of the Year.
His images appear regularly on many national publications such as Audubon, Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Magazine, Ranger Rick, Sierra Club, Discovery Magazine, American Birds Conservancy, International Union for Conservation of Nature, WildEarth Guardians, Missouri Conservationist, Xplor, US Fish & Wildlife Service, Nature's Best Photography, Birding Magazine, Bird Watching, Washington Post, Field & Stream, High Country News, Montana Magazine, Montana Outdoors, Colorado Outdoors, New Jersey Outdoors, Texas Park & Wildlife, Brown Trout Publishers, Willow Creek Press, The Journal of Wildlife Management, Landscape Architecture Magazine and many more.
In addition to publishing books, he has consistently shared his work and passion through numerous programs and presentations across the country. He hopes that his programs and exhibits will help people connect, at a personal and emotional level, with nature and conservation issues that he deeply cares about.