Terria Clay Photography

Terria Clay Photography wildlife & wild places
conservation stories
📍NYC
Find more at terriaclay.com Freelance photographer based in New York City. Let's Shoot!

If you would like to schedule a shoot, work on a project together, or discuss ideas, please feel free to contact me at any time

Diverse Faces in Conservation Part V, Meet Shahela Begum “My name is Shahela Begum & I work for Restore America’s Estuar...
27/08/2026

Diverse Faces in Conservation Part V, Meet Shahela Begum

“My name is Shahela Begum & I work for Restore America’s Estuaries (RAE) as a Program Director for the LI Sound Community Impact Fund. I’m also a CUNY Earth & Environmental Sciences PhD student, serving as a Research Fellow at Jamaica Bay Science and Resilience Institute at Jamaica Bay . Through my role with RAE, I help communities improve the quality & accessibility of Long Island Sound, as well as manage/provide grant funding to various entities, allowing them to address environmental issues.

As a Research Fellow, I’m studying the efficacy of nature-based solutions (NbS) – natural features & processes that allow our coastlines to be more climate resilient. I’m particularly focused on when communities & stakeholders are built into the design and pre/post implementation of NbS projects.

Since I was a young child, I was very much connected to the environment & conservation. I was born in Bangladesh & moved to the U.S. when I was 3. Bangladesh has annual monsoon seasons that contribute to intense flooding
This personal background influenced & informed my understanding of the experience of frontline communities in a changing climate.

When I went to High School for Environmental Studies here in NYC, I began to understand that protecting the environment was beyond ‘just conservation’, but also found in the intersection of marginalized communities, rights, & inequities. This was a motivating factor for me in bringing science & communities together, trying to address a lot of these issues we find ourselves in as a society.

It is so important that communities feel supported to ensure their success towards a healthier, resilient, & more accessible coast. I’m grateful for the opportunity to work and research in this area that I am so passionate about, unearthing voices & stories from frontline communities that aren’t always highlighted. Creating a broader reach of programs & promoting inclusivity in project implementation is so critical. For a healthy coast, we will always need just distribution of resources & access that benefits all members of coastal communities, especially in frontline areas.

Diverse Faces in Conservation Part IV, Meet Zeke King Phillips of “My official title is Conservation Project Manager at...
25/08/2026

Diverse Faces in Conservation Part IV, Meet Zeke King Phillips of

“My official title is Conservation Project Manager at Seatuck Environmental Center, and my role is focused very specifically on barrier removal on streams & water bodies that empty into Long Island Sound.
There’s 400 years of history of colonization on the East Coast & for the last 200/300 years, it was just damming every river that people could find. What they did not know that we now know, is when you build a dam on a river, you don’t just hold back the water & prevent fish swimming downstream, you also prevent ocean dwelling fish that require freshwater for spawning from getting upstream. What we’ve seen as a result are these catastrophic declines in the population of these fishes like wild Atlantic salmon, river herring
What we really want to do as a conservation community is take out the small dams around the East coast that aren’t doing much anymore and aren’t needed, & restore these fish populations by providing them these habitats that have been basically destroyed over the last few centuries.

I was the only black person, I think I was the only POC in my graduate program cohort, & I think this [lack of diversity] is a problem across all environmental & earth sciences. Very often when you see people of color in conservation, you’re seeing people in other countries where they are the majority. You see a lot of conservation work going on in Africa, you see it going on in South America, but when you see conservation happening in this country, by and large, it’s white folks. I think it’s really important for folks of color who are in the field & doing work to be visible, specifically for kids to see themselves in us. If you can’t see it, it limits your imagination of thinking of your future in that way, the same way that Jurassic Park’s Laura Dern was incredibly important for getting women into paleontology. To be able to provide this image for kids of color who might be interested in science but don’t really see themselves in the field, it’s important to give them someone to look up to, & to give them a way to envision themselves in these spaces.”

A few more Atlantic Puffin portraits from Maine! It’s incredible to me how these football sized birds live out on the s...
12/08/2026

A few more Atlantic Puffin portraits from Maine! It’s incredible to me how these football sized birds live out on the sea for most of their lives. These mature adults spend most of the year out in the water but come ashore each summer season to breed and potentially lay an egg. The puddling chicks they’re raising however are in for a long sea adventure ahead. If new pufflings fledge successfully from their burrows, they head to sea and stay there for roughly 4 to 5 years until they’ve matured into adults themselves. Not only that, after all the time away they typically manage to navigate back to the same island they hatched on.
it’s wild and miraculous out there in the animal world.

Quick detour from my ongoing series for....Puffin content! After more than a year of plotting and planning, earlier this...
10/08/2026

Quick detour from my ongoing series for....Puffin content! After more than a year of plotting and planning, earlier this summer I had an awesome opportunity to finally see Atlantic Puffins right here in the States. Outside of their summer breeding season, Atlantic Puffins spend the majority of their lives in the open ocean far off shore, so the chance to see them on land was really special. These birds are truly as awkward and adorable in person as one can imagine.

Diverse Faces in Conservation Part III, Meet Tanasia Swift of BOP“My name is Tanasia Swift, & my title is Associate Dire...
06/08/2026

Diverse Faces in Conservation Part III, Meet Tanasia Swift of BOP
“My name is Tanasia Swift, & my title is Associate Director of Engagement Projects at Billion Oyster Project. In a nutshell, I manage many of our people programs & engage communities around our oyster reef sites. I engage them with designs, manage our internship program, our research associate technician program, I manage our exhibit on Governor’s Island, & I also support on the scientific diving team.
I initially got my [diving] certification when I was 17 years old, just thought honestly that it was a fun opportunity & actually didn’t realize that dive certifications are lifelong. So I got certified at 17, didn’t really use it, & then I went to Mexico one year. I did a refresher & thought, ‘This is absolutely amazing.’ So although I was certified over 20 years ago at that point, I didn’t really use my certification until 2016. I decided then to get my Advanced Open Water & it was so much fun I thought ‘Ok, I want to go & do Rescue’, the third [certification] course...I got that & started diving all the time. I was diving, basically anytime I would go away.
I realized then it was this whole world of local diving in NYC/NJ. I thought, ‘Wait, I don’t have to leave NYC to dive? I don’t have to go on vacation or pay for a flight?’ So I started joining a bunch of people who were diving locally around NY/NJ & eventually BOP said, ‘Hey, we need more support, if you want to do some scientific diving, let us know.’ I started supporting BOP ~2018 doing some of the scientific diving & I just fell in love with it.
Even though I was diving, I kept realizing I was the only black person diving in all these spaces. Eventually, I found NABS, the National Association of Black Scuba Divers. It’s the largest group of black divers in the world & they have different chapters. Searching NABS, I joined the Aquatic Voyagers Scuba Club, the NY/NJ based chapter. Now I lead some of their local diving. It’s amazing because when you’re diving, you get to see so many things. When you see the animals & things up close & personal underwater, it’s wild how beautiful & how lively you realize the water is..It’s phenomenal.”

Always a treat to have my work featured by National Geographic , sharing my Bronx Zoo image of a Toco Toucan’s eye that ...
02/08/2026

Always a treat to have my work featured by National Geographic , sharing my Bronx Zoo image of a Toco Toucan’s eye that was featured on the Nat Geo website as the July 31, 2026 Photo of the Day !

Interested in helping NYC’s migrating birds this Fall? New York City Bird Alliance Project Safe Flight info sessions are...
27/07/2026

Interested in helping NYC’s migrating birds this Fall? New York City Bird Alliance Project Safe Flight info sessions are coming up

Diverse Faces in Conservation, Pt II: Meet Neha Savant, NYC Parks Wildlife & Fisheries Ecologist“I’ve been doing wildlif...
23/07/2026

Diverse Faces in Conservation, Pt II: Meet Neha Savant, NYC Parks Wildlife & Fisheries Ecologist

“I’ve been doing wildlife conservation, with a focus on amphibians & reptiles, for a little over a decade now. My Baba tells this story about how he remembers me at 3, catching frogs & scaring boys when we were visiting his village in semi-arid Maharashtra, so it’s definitely been a lifelong curiosity. I’ve worked in habitat connectivity & with many species, but remained close to amphibians. The way they depend & rely on water, their relationship to water, is really what keeps me going, because it helps me better understand how water moves, how it’s regulated, & how freshwater is the most important thing for humans & many other species.

In my current role as a Wildlife & Fisheries Ecologist, I [still] focus on amphibians & reptiles, but I also work in fisheries management, with alewife, eel, and [the] Bronx River. My work varies from community engagement events to advising on ecological restorations & doing environmental reviews for projects that can impact wildlife habitats across the city. My work ranges widely, but it’s always inspired by amphibians & reptiles.

I feel that being a woman of color, being Hindu, being q***r, affects the way that you see things in the environment. I’ve found that one of the most difficult things about being a marginalized person in these spaces is, not having the way you see things be uplifted; it always has to be translated into the language of science or the language that the other person can hear. And I don’t think that’s a negative thing per se, but when you’re constantly doing it, it just takes a lot of energy. There’s not as much familiarity with my identities, my background, & it takes a lot more effort to be understood when you’re trying to communicate something you notice, or some idea you have about the natural world that you’re observing. It can be exhausting. Amidst this challenge, I’ve found a lot of great mentors & champions. I wouldn’t be here if not for them. So it’s like two sides of the same coin. Having the experiences that I’ve had has actually made me a much stronger ecologist. So I think it’s a strength now.”

How do you envision yourself pursuing a career in conservation or science if you don’t often see those that look like yo...
21/07/2026

How do you envision yourself pursuing a career in conservation or science if you don’t often see those that look like you in the field? How do you engage with your audiences in these areas if you can’t actually connect with their perspective, their identity, or their voices? In an effort to shift the narrative on these questions, I’m sharing Part I of a series I’ve been working on this year, with the aim of amplifying diverse faces working in the conservation, science, & ecology space.

Introducing my first feature, Myles Davis:
“I am the Senior Manager of Green Infrastructure . Our green infrastructure program studies how birds use habitat in the built landscape, so think of integrated greenery like green roofs, vertical gardens, & smaller, understudied green spaces like pocket parks or green street medians, like the Broadway Malls. I manage these projects, design the studies, staff them w/ our expert bird surveyors. I then collect all the data & analyze that, & then work with our partners to understand how important these habitats are for migratory birds & sensitive species.
I’m from New York, so the work I do here has a personal feel. Some contracts I have are in projects I used to play in as a kid, & I see people from my community caring about the work I do & seeing me in my role. It’s great to be visible to New Yorkers of color & have them see me [here], because no one thinks that you can really do Wildlife Biology in the middle of NYC.

I’m Caribbean, also a black person, and I just enjoy, when I’m doing outreach or speaking to a public audience about my work, I enjoy not really feeling like I need to code switch, like I can bring a little bit of myself into what I’m talking about, into how I perceive the work I’m doing, and even the words I use. I enjoy seeing how that is a draw to people. People really appreciate my uniqueness & my perspective.

For example, a lot of the migratory birds that we’re seeing here, when I’m talking to people in my neighborhood, I’m like, ‘That bird is in Jamaica during the winter. And in my community, everyone’s a first gen American, or the parents, they were born in Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana.

So these are birds back from home, they’re doing the same thing as you. Coming here, and then going back. And it’s really just such an interesting way to make the people that are part of your life care about this other part of your life that they might not see that much connection with before. They might be like, oh that’s [just] a brown bird. But no, it’s a migratory bird, it’s an immigrant. That’s making the same route you did."

From Queens, NY to Puerto Rico đŸ‡”đŸ‡·These tiny, Puerto Rican Crested Toad tadpoles were such a challenge to photograph, but...
05/07/2026

From Queens, NY to Puerto Rico đŸ‡”đŸ‡·
These tiny, Puerto Rican Crested Toad tadpoles were such a challenge to photograph, but worth the effort to share the incredibly cool conservation work out of the Queens Zoo. In collaboration with partners, they’ve worked to breed endangered Puerto Rican Crested Toads and release these tadpoles (and thousands more) into the wild. From the Queens Zoo:

“We’re excited to share that thousands of Puerto Rican crested toad tadpoles have safely arrived at several locations in Puerto Rico! The Queens Zoo has played a key role in protecting the future of this species, and in 2026 alone, we’re hoping to send close to 5,000 tadpoles to reintroduction sites.

Tadpoles from Queens Zoo and other AZA accredited partners are released into two primary reintroduction sites on the north and south of Puerto Rico where they complete metamorphosis into toads.
The sites are protected and closely monitored by the Puerto Rican Crested Toad Conservancy (PRCTC).
Since 1984, the PRCTC, a consortium of zoos, government agencies, universities, nonprofits, and individual landowners working together for the long-term survival of the Puerto Rican crested toad in the wild, has released hundreds of thousands of tadpoles.”

Have you ever seen a tadpole like this? Swipe to see photos of the tadpole’s final adult shape, Puerto Rico’s only native toad species

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