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UF Animal Forensics Conference 2024: Forensic Photography with Heidi Nichols
Episode 4621st May 2024 • The Animal Welfare Junction • A. Michelle Gonzalez, DVM, MS
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We are in person at the 2024 Animal Forensic Conference in Gainesville, Florida! Dr. G will be interviewing several of the speakers to give our audience a bit of the knowledge gained through the presentations. We will be releasing each interview individually to allow our listeners to find topics of interest.

In this episode, Forensic Photographer Heidi Nichols from the Miami Dade County Medical Examiner's Department shares information on the use of pictures to document a crime scene and the evidence recovered.

We would also like to invite our listeners involved in animal cruelty investigations to visit and join the International Society for Animal Forensic Sciences https://isafs.org/

Mentioned in this episode:

Keep it Humane Podcast Network

The Animal Welfare Junction is part of the Keep It Humane Podcast Network. Visit keepithumane.com/podcastnetwork to find us and our amazing animal welfare podcast partners.

Transcripts

DrG:

Our next guest is Heidi Nichols from the Miami Dade County

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Medical Examiner Department.

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Welcome to The Junction and

thank you for being here.

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Thank you.

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Excited.

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So can you first start by telling us

your background and how it relates

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to the field of veterinary forensics?

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Heidi Nichols: Yeah, so I am a forensic

photographer for the medical examiners

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and how it relates is, you know, forensic

photography is, No matter whether it's

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humans or a crime scene or any sort of

evidence, it relates also with animals.

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We're doing the same thing, whether we're

doing necropsies or crime scenes or search

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warrants of animal welfare, uh, cases.

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DrG: So what is the importance

of forensic photography, both as

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it relates to the crime scene and

then, like, evidence photography?

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Heidi Nichols: So it documents, it

visually documents what may change later.

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Um, what, uh, we might not be

able to see to the naked eye.

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We can use different alternate light

sources to be able to see things.

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Macro lenses to be able to enhance

things a little bit better.

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Um, so whether it be at a crime

scene or in an autopsy suite or a

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necropsy suite, we want to preserve

the evidence and make it an accurate

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representation of what we're seeing.

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Um, so we want to make sure that

we are using the correct, uh,

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equipment, the correct, um, lighting,

the correct exposure to be able

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to capture those images correctly.

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DrG: So I love pictures.

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I take pictures of everything,

like my poor kid, right?

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Like I'll take 10, 000 pictures

of everything, but I'm the same

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way when I go to a crime scene.

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So is there such a thing as

having too many pictures or is it

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worse to have too few pictures?

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Heidi Nichols: Oh gosh, I think

it's far worse to have too few.

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Um, I, I, we used to have an

expression, film is cheap.

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Um, and that was when film wasn't cheap.

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Um, because, you know, you, Now, I would

say you also don't want to just take

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random things of, you know, and this

is where knowing your equipment and

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making sure, like, that you are taking

a properly exposed image, so if it takes

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you 20 photos, to get that properly

good exposed photo, I'd say, you know,

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practice a little bit more, um, but

definitely, I don't think you can go

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wrong with having too many photos in the

sense of having too little photos, yeah.

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DrG: One of the things that I have that

has been a little bit of an issue has been

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some animal cruelty investigators have

been taking video in lieu of photographs.

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So what would be the problem with that?

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Heidi Nichols: The problem is that

there's not great quality if you try

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to pull those stills off of a video.

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So if you want to try to do any sort

of enhancements of, um, evidence

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that's there, whether it be, um,

classification of evidence or, um,

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analyzing any of those, you don't

have the same quality from the video

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than you do from the still image.

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DrG: One of the errors that I

personally committed when I started

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doing photography was that I use my

smartphone for everything, right?

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Because it was so convenient.

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I had it there.

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I could take pictures and everything,

but why is that not a good idea?

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Heidi Nichols: It's not that, I mean, and

especially the, the smartphones have come

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a long way, but if it's ever going to

go to court, they could confiscate your

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cell phone, they, you know, and that's.

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That's everything, your self,

your, your personal photos,

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your text messages, your emails.

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So um, if you're using your cell phone

or the, your jurisdiction is giving,

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you know, cause I know in some places

patrol, they have cell phones, they

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have little point and shoots, but

it's, it's dedicated just for that.

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That's the only thing it's being used for.

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It's not your personal

phone and your cell phone.

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Um, and again, like that's great for

just maybe, documentation of something.

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But again, if you're taking a photo

of, uh, to be analyzed, whether

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it be a paw impression, a foot

impressions, blood spatter, any of

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that, that's going to be analyzed.

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Um, you're just not going

to have the quality.

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Yeah.

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DrG: So what kind of cameras should

investigators be looking at considering

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that there are some places that do

not have a huge budget and then there

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are others that have unlimited budget.

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Heidi Nichols: Yeah.

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So, I mean, you, You're the di the

price of digital s SLRs and the

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mirrorless cameras have come way down.

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So I would say invest in a, in a good,

um, digital SLR or a mirrorless camera.

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Uh, you don't have to

spend a ton of money.

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I mean, a couple hundred dollars would

be able to get you, um, a, a good.

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interchangeable lens camera.

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There are really great point and

shoot cameras as well that have

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the manual override, which allows

you to change your exposure.

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So your F stops, your shutter speeds, your

ISOs, you can have control over those.

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So it's just a matter of looking

at them, comparing them and, and,

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and then practicing with them.

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Yeah.

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DrG: Now I know that I, I personally

was afraid of all of the different

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manipulations that you can do in a camera,

so it's like set it on automatic and go.

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But how, how difficult is it to learn

and what's the benefits of using

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the manual settings on the cameras?

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Heidi Nichols: Yeah, so it's really, I,

I always kind of say, well you're kind

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of setting it and forgetting it anyway.

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So if you're using a flash,

like do you use a flash?

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I do, I try, yeah.

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Okay, perfect.

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Perfect.

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So then, essentially, when you

photograph in manual mode, is

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you set your shutter speed to the

fastest to what your camera syncs at.

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So what do you use, Nikon or Canon?

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I believe it's a Canon.

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Okay, so Canon, I think it might be

the ISO, I mean the shutter speed,

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the fastest sync speed is 200.

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So you just set your shutter speed to 200.

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Um, if you're mostly, um,

in darker environments, you

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might set your ISO to 400.

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Those are two things that

you're leaving alone.

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And then you have your aperture

setting of your lens at F8, F11.

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Those are gonna give you great photos.

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And I mean, and it's a manual setting.

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You've control, you have control over it.

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Now you can always make

changes if it looks too dark.

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You can open up, slow down your shutter

speed, increase your ISO if you need to.

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So it, it really isn't as scary

once you sort of understand,

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uh, the components of it.

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DrG: Um, I took the Forensic Science

Master's degree from University of

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Florida, so a lot of it had to do with,

like, the crime scene investigation

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and the importance of photography and

that kind of stuff, and it teaches

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you about, um, kind of creating

a story with your photographs.

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But I have received pictures from

animal control officers that you

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have no idea what's going on.

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So what, what are the issues

with like these chaotic scenes?

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Heidi Nichols: Yeah, I just think

that photography isn't taught

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nearly as much as it needs to be.

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I think that now that the world is

digital, we all carry phones or we

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all carry cameras in our pockets.

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We all like kind of think of ourselves

as photographers and we just sort of have

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to strip back to some of those basics.

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and the basics of really understanding

exposure, and then again, just

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working in a systematic manner.

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You have to remember, uh, that.

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people are looking at your

photos that were not there.

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And we may get so ingrained and like,

we know this scene so well because

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we're working this scene, but you have

to step back and realize like, okay, if

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I give these photos to somebody, like,

are they going to know where we are?

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You know, I know when I'm looking at

the photo or I know that if I'm taking

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the photo where I am on the animal,

but again, if it's not a wide enough

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orientation or there's no overall

than somebody looking at the photo,

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they may have no idea where you are.

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DrG: So is there any benefit of

taking photography lessons or what

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resources are there available for

individuals that are taking crime scene

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photography or evidence photography?

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Heidi Nichols: Yeah.

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Oh my gosh.

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There are so many different types

of, um, crime scene photo or in basic

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photography classes that are out there.

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Um, I mean, you can just Google forensic

photography classes and a lot of

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different agencies, tri tech forensics.

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Um, uh, gosh, there's so many.

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So many different ones that offer a lot of

different photography courses and classes.

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And then practice.

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I would say just practice.

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Practice using your equipment, whether

you're photographing your pets,

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your children, vacations, whatever.

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The more you practice with

it, the better you'll be.

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And then, uh, also just practice.

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Just slow it down mentally when you're

at a crime scene and just say, okay,

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let me work on my overalls and then

my orientation and then my close up

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with and without a ruler and just sort

of become like second nature to you.

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Just overall orientation, close up.

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DrG: Well, thank you so much for

sharing your knowledge and thank

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you for everything that you do.

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Thank you.

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And thank you for being here.

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Heidi Nichols: Oh, thank you.

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