The use of photography to record farm/farmer data was not part of the original proposal. It was added, however, as a way to further elicit from farmers their understanding of sustainability and its presence on-farm. Each farm collaborator was given a roll of film and a disposable (recyclable) camera and asked to photograph those aspects of their farming operations that exemplified, or were compatible with, their notion of sustainable agriculture, paying special attention to the role of birds as biological control agents. Farmers, in other words, were asked to frame reality in ways that made sense to them and not necessarily to the researchers. "The selection of objects and the nature of their grouping constitute nonverbal expressions of thought, need, conditions and emotions (Ruesch and Kees 1986). Anthropological and sociological research have used this technique very effectively to 'visualize' the dimensions of alternative world views value systems. To our knowledge, this has not been tried in sustainable agricultural research which still remains largely production-oriented and quantitative in nature.
An interesting observation was that the photographs could be classified into two categories: one was a human centered view of sustainability, the other reflected a physical and environmental world view. These photographs correlated highly with the farmer's expressed notions of sustainablity. Although the photography could have been of better quality, they provided a fine vehicle for discussion of the farmers orientation toward sustainable agriculture.