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🇳🇬🇨🇦 Making the tiny impossible to ignore. Nat Geo | PBS | CNN | BBC
📘 My book Tiny Titans ↓

10/23/2026

What if protecting nature started with the little things we do every day? 🌍

Over the past week, I’ve shared some of the incredible creatures I’ve been lucky enough to photograph. From tiny pollinators and colourful frogs to spiders and other fascinating animals we often overlook. I even managed to sneak a kingfisher from Costa Rica into today’s collection!

But here’s something I’ve learned over the last six years. You don’t have to travel to a rainforest or be a scientist to make a difference for nature.

Sometimes it’s as simple as planting native flowers, leaving fallen leaves in your garden, avoiding unnecessary pesticides, or teaching your children to be curious about the little creatures they encounter rather than afraid of them.

That’s really what I hope to achieve through my photography. Not just showing people beautiful pictures, but helping them see why these animals matter and why they’re worth protecting.

It’s also what inspired my first book, Tiny Titans: The Silent Keepers of Our Ecosystem, which brings together six years of photographs and stories from across four continents.

As we wrap up this week’s COP17 takeover, I hope these photographs have made you a little more curious about the world around you.

And maybe the next time you come across a tiny creature, you’ll stop and take a closer look.

Thank you to UN Biodiversity for having me again and to everyone who has followed along this week. ❤️

Because protecting nature starts with caring about it, no matter how small.

10/22/2026

Would you protect something you’re afraid of?

I know spiders and other creepy crawlies aren’t everyone’s favourite. I’ve had people tell me they can’t even look at some of my photos, let alone imagine getting close enough to take them. 😂

But that’s actually one of the reasons I love doing what I do.

When you get close enough, you start noticing things you never knew existed. The colours, the tiny hairs, the incredible eyes, and all those little details we normally miss.

I’m not expecting everyone to suddenly fall in love with spiders or stop being afraid of them. But I do hope my photographs make people a little more curious.

Maybe the next time you see a spider in your home or a strange little creature in your garden, you’ll stop for a second and take a closer look instead of immediately reaching for something to kill it.

And to me, that’s already a step in the right direction.

Because even the creatures we fear have a place in nature, and they deserve our understanding too.

Which of these would you actually be brave enough to hold? 👀

10/21/2026

There’s a lot more going on in nature than we realize.

Over the years, I’ve photographed some pretty incredible moments. Spiders catching prey, insects mating and fungi taking over their hosts.

Some of these moments are beautiful, others might make you uncomfortable, but they’re all part of the natural world.

One thing photography has taught me is that biodiversity isn’t just about the animals and plants we see. It’s also about how they live, reproduce, survive and interact with one another.

And the more time I spend observing these tiny creatures, the more I realize just how much is happening around us without anyone noticing.

For today’s COP17 takeover, I wanted to share some of those incredible moments I’ve been lucky enough to witness.

Please swipe through and take a closer look. ➡️

10/20/2026

There is something special about finding a frog in the wild.

Some are smaller than your thumb. Some disappear almost completely against a leaf. Others have colours that seem impossible until you see them for yourself.

But frogs are much more than beautiful animals to photograph.

Because they rely on both aquatic and terrestrial environments at different stages of their lives, many amphibians are especially sensitive to changes in their surroundings.

For me, photographing them is another reminder of how connected everything is.

Protecting a frog means thinking about the water, plants, forests, food and countless other species sharing
its habitat.

Swipe through to meet a few I’ve been lucky enough to encounter.

10/19/2026

Some of the smallest creatures around us are doing some of the biggest jobs.

When we think about pollinators, bees usually come to mind first. But flies, beetles, moths and many other
small creatures also help plants reproduce and keep
ecosystems working.

Many of them will never receive the attention given to larger or more familiar wildlife.

But nature doesn’t measure importance by size.

That’s one reason I photograph them.

The more we understand about the tiny lives around us, the easier it becomes to understand why protecting
biodiversity means protecting the overlooked species too.

Small doesn’t mean insignificant

10/18/2026

Most people walk past this world every day without ever seeing it.

I’m Dara Ojo, a Nigerian Canadian photographer based in Edmonton, and for the past six years I’ve been
photographing some of the smallest creatures around us.

It started with curiosity during the pandemic while I was living in China. Since then, that curiosity has taken
me across four continents, from forests in Nigeria and the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador to my own
backyard here in Canada.

The more time I spend looking closely, the more I realize how much of nature we simply don’t notice.

And that matters.

Because it is difficult to care about something you never see, and even harder to protect something you
don’t know exists.

Over the next few days, as part of my takeover with UN Biodiversity during COP17, I’ll be sharing some of
this hidden world and the stories behind it.

Let’s look a little closer.

10/16/2026

Thanks for the feature 🙏🏽🙏🏽 you can read the full article here - https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/meet-the-edmonton-based-photographer-revealing-the-hidden-beauty-of-bugs/

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https://www.buymeacoffee.com/daraojot, http://www.explorewithdara.com/, https://www.amazon.com/Tiny-Titans-Silent-Keeper

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