Photography is a way to capture beauty, to share what we see, and to record memories. It is a journey. Our journey began during our youth with drawing, painting, and taking pictures. During our respective careers as an academic physician doing biomedical research, teaching and clinical care, and as a public radio journalist doing stories on the arts, humanities and natural history, we were not able to pursue photography with much intensity or purpose. Now, thanks to our mentors and more time, it has become one of our favorite passions. 

We created Star Garnet Media to pursue projects that involve photographing landscapes and wildlife in locations throughout the American west, Alaska, Alberta, and Manitoba, as well as underwater photography of marine mammals. We also do work involving audio/video recording of conferences and interviews, notably a project to document important contributors in the effort to restore Mono Lake and the Mono Basin in California. 

Robert Vestal

After fellowships at the National Institutes of Health and Vanderbilt University, Robert joined the University of Washington faculty at the VA Medical Center in Boise. As professor of medicine and pharmacology and associate chief of staff for research, he was an academic physician doing biomedical research, teaching and clinical medicine for nearly 25 years. 

He is the author or co-author of 175 publications and 124 abstracts presented at scientific meetings. He has served on numerous advisory committees, peer review committees and editorial boards, and he was elected president of the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics.

After retiring from his academic career in 1998, he became senior medical director for early clinical development with Covance and then became an independent medical and pharmaceutical development consultant, both of which he still pursues part-time.

Now, much of his time is devoted to photography, videography, and other projects. In 2015, he received the Idaho Media Professionals award for still photography.

Jyl Hoyt

Jyl was a Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia, West Africa, and then in Guatemala. 

After completing her master’s degree in journalism, she began her career as an award-winning public radio journalist doing local and national stories on the arts, humanities and natural history. She worked at Montana Public Radio in Missoula for 10 years and then 22 years at Boise State Radio until 2009 when she retired. 

During this time she was a Fulbright Fellow in Peru and spent a month in Australia filing stories on the tropical rainforest and the Great Barrier Reef.

Currently, in addition to preparing to publish a definitive biography of famed Montana investigative reporter Joseph Kinsey Howard (see thesis here), Jyl loves photography, sketching, and watercolor painting.