Austin Meyer

Whenever I am at the Center for Animal Protection & Education sanctuary I start with a search for my friend Charles. Here are some of the recent places I’ve found him.

Pigs are one of the most misunderstood animals on the planet. If only more people had the opportunity to meet someone like Charles.

Each spring I attend a very special program: Leroy’s Gardening Residency. It’s a full weekend dedicated to time spent with my dad, where I get to learn from him and help him plant his summer vegetable garden. We plant dozens of crops, go on field trips to visit gardens of family friends in Sonoma County, and enjoy acoustic jam sessions in the evenings. The residency program not only makes me a more confident gardener as I bring the lessons back to my home in Berkeley, but it helps me get closer to my dad. There is nothing like collaborating on a project with someone you love.

Here is a glimpse of Leroy’s Gardening Residency, filmed on the Sony Digital8 HandyCam that my dad used to film me with when I was a kid. Mixed in with the video clips are before and after photos of this year’s growth from the residency on April 26th to my recent trip home on August 2nd to enjoy the incredible harvest.

Chickens are the most exploited land animal on planet earth. In the US alone, over 8.1 billion chickens have been killed for food in 2026. It’s mass slaughter on a scale that is incomprehensible. The good news is that all you have to do to opt out of this atrocity is stop eating chicken and eggs.

These photos are of rescued chickens living at the Center for Animal Protection & Education sanctuary. I have a personal connection with each of them: Rusty, Alvin, Rita, Caitlin, and Rusty (again… he is always willing to put up with me and my macro photos). I am so glad they are safe.

You don’t have to look far to film or photograph incredible animals and natural phenomena.

The other day I made a little cut flower bouquet from our garden for the dining room table. When I sat down to admire the shapes and colors I saw someone crawling on the petals and snacking on the Zinnia’s florets. So I took out my camera, my irix 150mm T3.0 Macro lens, and a small light to snap some photos.

This is a katydid nymph.

Katydids are cousins of crickets and grasshoppers. You can tell them apart by a few features:

First, Katydid antennas are much longer than their bodies. Also, the bright lime-green color with dark speckles is typical of a katydid. Lastly, it appears to be a nymph (a baby) because it doesn’t look like the katydid has developed their full adult wings yet.

In the first photo you can see our friend snacking on the yellow disc florets in the center of a Zinnia flower. Adult katydids mostly eat leaves, but the nymphs love to eat pollen and sip on some flowery nectar.

Thanks for stopping by, Katy! So glad you are enjoying the flowers we grew. Send me a DM if you want me to tag you.

Join me in being awe-struck by flowers… In February I went to seed swap and got calendula seeds for my garden. Now that they are in full bloom, I spend hours observing their shapes, colors, and the creatures interacting with them, trying to better understand the process of pollination.

Check this out…

Photo 1: Here’s a current snapshot of my garden bed. At first glance, each calendula looks like a simple flower. But when we take out the macro lens, we see that what looks like a single blossom is actually a complex, community of hundreds of tiny, individual flowers.

Photo 2: As we move into the center of a newly opened flower, look at the dark maroon hexagonal pattern in the middle. It is made up of a ton of disc florets. That means every single tiny bud you see is actually its own complete, individual flower. In the Calendula genus, these center florets act as the pollen-producers (the male parts), while the outer petals are separate female flowers that will eventually form the seeds. In this photo, the disc florets are tightly coiled and asleep, waiting for their cue.

Photo 3: Just one day later, the disc florets are awakened, popping open with pollen from the outside edge moving inward. I love how you can see a dusting of pollen on the interior florets that are still waiting to open.

Photo 4: Three days later, it’s a pollen party. The entire center has erupted into a golden fuzzy sea of open florets. This maximizes the flower’s chance at pollination, which is basically when a visiting bug gets coated in the gold dust and carries it off to fertilize the next flower they visit.

Photo 5: A bug such as this Skipper butterfly, who stopped by to enjoy some nectar. As the butterfly sips, they get dusted with pollen and carry that onto the next bloom.

How cool is that?

PS: & , please correct me if I got anything wrong here. I’m learning! Also, thanks for the seeds!

Such a joy to transport & photograph Ned on his adoption day ♥️ Don’t miss the last photo to see what condition Ned was in just a couple months ago. Full caption from below.
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“Yesterday was a big day. Ned went home with his new family! ❤️

Ned’s life changed forever when he arrived at Muttopia as a medical transfer from . He was suffering from severe mange, painful skin infections, an old hip fracture, and a severe untreated fracture in his left femur (see the last photo to see Ned’s condition just a couple months ago).

Then came another heartbreaking discovery: X-rays revealed Ned’s body was filled with buckshot from a sh***un blast.

Through everything he endured, Ned remained incredibly sweet, gentle, and full of love.

After hip surgery, expert care, and months of healing, Ned is now almost fully recovered and officially starting his next chapter with a family of his own.

We’re so grateful to Fresno Humane Animal Services for advocating for Ned, and to  for the medical care that helped make this happy ending possible. This rescue was truly a team effort and because of it, Ned is finally safe, loved, and home. ❤️”

Apollo at the end of winter (today) ➡️ Apollo at the end of this past summer

In the winter, Boer goats like Apollo grow a dense layer of hair that acts like a thermal sweater, trapping air close to their skin to keep them warm during cold nights. As the weather warms, they naturally shed this coat by rubbing against trees and rocks.

Apollo’s winter coat (photo 3) can technically be called cashmere. Cashmere is wool from goats. However, most cashmere in the fashion industry comes specifically from a breed called the Cashmere Goat.

Through intensive selective breeding, cashmere goats produce massive yields of fiber. The annual harvesting of wool itself is a violent, high-stress process: the goats are pinned to the ground with their legs tied together while workers use sharp metal combs to rake the fiber from their skin. The moment their production wanes, around age four or five (cashmere goats can live 13+ years naturally), they are deemed unprofitable and sent to slaughterhouses to be killed for meat.

The best thing you can do for goats? Don’t buy cashmere. Don’t eat goat meat.