National Wildlife Photo Awards

[Flagman]

36th Annual Photography Awards - New Life



First Place/Amateur
Mark Bartosik, Least Tern Chick
Pearland, Texas



Honorable Mention
James P. Crotty, Baby House Finches
Kettering, Ohio

[Flagman]

36th Annual Photography Awards - Power of Nature



First Place/Amateur
Carrie Barton, Lightening Strike
Uncompahgre National Forest, Colorado



First Place/Pro
Hazel Erikson, Lightening in Clouds
Norris Lake, Tennessee



Honorable Mention
Daron Dean, Fox Creek Fire
Clam Gulch, Alaska

[Flagman]

36th Annual Photography Awards - Connecting People with Nature



First Place/Amateur
Lawrence E. Hauser, Finding Balance
San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve, San Diego, California



First Place/Pro
Michael P. O’Neill, Loggerhead Turtle Release
Juno Beach, Florida



Honorable Mention
Sharyl L. Beckett, Photographer
White Sands National Monument, New Mexico



Honorable Mention
Brian F. Call, Kayaking in the Keys
Near Big Pine Key, Florida



Honorable Mention
Nichole M. Roche, Stretched Out Over a Sunset
Waikiki Beach, Honolulu, Hawaii



Honorable Mention
John Blaustein, Granite Rapids
Colorado River, Grand Canyon National Park

[Flagman]

36th Annual Photography Awards - Youth



First Place
Justin Black, Lady Bug
Mckinney, Texas



Honorable Mention
Nick Burden, Bristle Cone and Flower
Mount Evens, Colorado



Honorable Mention
Justin Black, Tarantula
Mckinney, Texas



Honorable Mention
Mark Henspeter, Bald Eagle on Galcier
Shoup Glacier State Marine Park, Valdez Alaska

[Flagman]

36th Annual Photography Awards - Habitat



First Place/Amateur
Robert Servranckx, Snow and Ice at Sunset
Ile Bizard, Quebec, Canada



First Place/Pro
Tony Sweet, Pacific Madrona
Whidbey Island, Washington



Honorable Mention
David A. Dobbs, Smoky Mountain Fog
Smoky Mountain National Park, Tennessee



Honorable Mention
Alexandra Nemeth, Clouds Over Cliff
Logan Pass, Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park, Montana



Honorable Mention
Brian Bastinelli, Beaver Pond
Schwabacher’s Landing, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming

[Flagman]

34th Annual Photography Awards



John Morrow II
Glen Echo, Maryland
While out hiking during summer in Katmai National Park and Preserve in Alaska, Morrow spotted this subadult female grizzly waking up from a nap along the riverbank. I love photographing bears because they work me to death, says the construction executive. They're always on the move or back in the woods where lighting is marginal. To catch this bear in her playful pose, he used a 300mm lens with a 2x extender.



Frank Weston
Littleton, Colorado
Caught in a snowstorm in the Colorado Rockies while photographing aspens in fall, Weston says he was just about to give up when he turned a bend in the road and this dramatic scene eslammed me in the face. Standing on a slope to get just the right angle, he kept sliding down in the wet and sloppy snow. But the thimbleberry leaves didn't have a snowflake on them, says the geologist, because it was relatively warm outside and the snow didn't stick, making the orange on white absolutely stunning.



Dong-Hwan Choe
Riverside, California
Right - It shouldn't come as a surprise that this entomology student's favorite subjects to photograph are insects and spiders. Choe spotted this carpenter bee pollinating a native passion flower while he was en route to the library on the University of California–Riverside campus. Choe zoomed in on the busy bee at high noon using a digital camera with a 100mm macro lens.



Jerry James
San Mateo, California
To take this digital photo of an Anna's hummingbird feeding her two chicks near his patio, James only had to stand on a raised flower bed. He watched the bird build her tiny, head-high nest and then kept an eye out for chicks. When they arrived, the retired engineer focused in from 12 feet away using a 100-300mm zoom lens.



GRAND PRIZE
Gail Hansche
Norfolk, Massachusetts
Creeping along on her knees following a spoonbill on Sanibel Island in Florida, Hansche heard a splash, spun her camera around and started clicking. The result: this 8-foot alligator about to chomp a blue crab. It was a once in a lifetime photo, says the U.S. Postal Service worker. If I had looked to see what made the splash, I never would've gotten the photo. It was over that fast. To freeze frame this life-and-death struggle, she used a 500mm lens with a 1.4x teleconverter.



Kris Derdivanis
Venice, California
Giving what looks like a toothy grin, this gray squirrel appears curious about the camera, but it really was interested in the peanut in Kris Derdivanis's hand. Derdivanis zoomed in to take this digital photo from the front yard of her home. "I was reaching up to give him a peanut and he just gave me a smile," says the interior designer.



Wendy Kaveney
Carmel, Indiana
It was so cold outside Indianapolis the Super Bowl Sunday when Kaveney photographed this cardinal that she thought her shutter finger might end up frostbitten. To get the digital image using a 100-400mm zoom lens, the former nurse turned full-time mom took more than 200 images at a reservoir about 15 miles from her home. I like to go there during winter because the birds look so beautiful in the snow, she says.



Richard Demier
Princeton, New Jersey
Along the shoreline of the Myakka River in west-central Florida, Demier spotted a sandhill crane giving its two-week-old chick an early-morning foraging lesson. To avoid startling the birds, he laid on the ground and used a 600mm lens on his digital camera to photograph the pair as they moved close enough to touch. It was kind of worrisome because I've seen them spear frogs, toads and even snakes with their long, sharp beaks, says the retired corporate executive. I didn't want that to happen to me.



Robert Doles
Franklin, Indiana
Seeking shelter from a fierce wind blowing off the Peace River in Florida, this brown pelican buried its beak beneath a wing as Doles captured the pose using a digital camera with a 2.8-56mm zoom lens. Lashley Park in Punta Gorda is the retired school teacher's favorite spot to visit in winter and birds are his preferred subjects.



Mark Rasmussen
Galva, Illinois
In Oregon, you have to fight the rain and clouds an awful lot when you're taking photographs, but when it clears, there's a magic there that doesn't exist anywhere else, says Rasmussen, who makes the westward journey at least once a year. Encountering this tidal pool while walking along the beach in Bandon State Natural Area, the engineer noticed a similar cloud shape above. He took the photo using a 22-55mm lens at its shortest focal length.

[Flagman]

34th Annual Photography Awards



Mark Bartosik
Houston, Texas
After spending a couple of hours watching several Asian vine snakes at the Dallas Zoo, Bartosik captured this one on film sliding down a bamboo stalk at precisely the moment it glanced his way. The chemist, who has a degree in zoology and a preference for reptiles, used a 35-140mm zoom lens and an off-camera flash to create the soft lighting and perfectly centered shadow.



Kevin Doxstater
Port Orange, Florida
Doxstater photographed two laughing gulls courting during springtime on a beach near his home. He used a 500mm lens and 1.4x teleconverter.



Rob Palmer
Loveland, Colorado
Using a 500mm lens and 2x teleconverter, Palmer photographed a pair of American avocets at a pond near his home.

[Flagman]

33th Annual Photography Awards



Bernard Friel
Mendota Heights, Minnesota


Friel often travels to southwestern Florida to make photographs of birds, using an elaborate camera setup and an infrared light beam. "High-speed flash photography requires an incredible amount of planning," says the retired lawyer. Using a 120mm lens, he captured these two sparing male indigo buntings on film as they flew through the beam, tripping the shutter.



James A. Shadle
Valrico, Florida


Shadle, a salesman who is a passionate birder, photographed this least tern mother and young using a digital camera during one of several visits to a Sarasota, Florida, rookery last spring. "Hawks and herons come in and snatch the babies, but under that wing this chick is safe," he says. "It's a very simple composition, but to me it says a lot."



Robert E. Mumford, Jr.
Darnestown, Maryland


In his experience, says Mumford, "Animals usually have to be relaxed to do something out of the ordinary." The management consultant has made a number of trips to the Churchill area in northern Manitoba, Canada, to photograph wildlife. During a November trip, he captured this seemingly relaxed Arctic hare on film after slowly stalking it from a distance. He used a 600mm lens.



Andrei Sourakov
Gainesville, Florida


"I like to give familiar insects a new and unusual look by bringing them close to the viewer through macrophotography," says Sourakov, an entomologist at the Florida Museum of Natural History. He photographed these Tersa sphinx moth caterpillars during summer near his home. The caterpillars have large eyespots behind their heads. When disturbed, they tuck their heads, causing the eyespots to become more prominent.



Robert B. Haman
Solon, Iowa


Haman didn’t have to travel far from his home in eastern Iowa to capture these white pelicans on film. He photographed the birds at nearby Coralville Reservoir, a place he visits many times throughout the course of a year to see wildlife. "I really like the fluidity of lines and colors in this image," says the steel fabricator, who made the photo by panning his camera and 800mm lens to follow the birds as they flew past.



Bruce E. Lytle
Auburn, Washington


Lytle has a passion for taking photographs of Washington’s Mount Rainier National Park in every light, at every angle—even during the "worst" times of the day. "Most photographers put their cameras away in the afternoon, waiting for the sweet light of sunrise or sunset," says the Web developer. "I chose to break that rule, and I'm glad." He used a 500mm lens to capture this layered horizon of Rainier's foothills on film during midday.



Laure W. Neish
Penticton, British Columbia
GRAND PRIZE


"To me, a successful bird photo is one where I don’t disturb my subject," says Neish, who tiptoed up into the loft of an old barn not far from her home to photograph this barn owl on a November day. The nature educator planted her tripod about 30 feet away from the bird—the closest she could get because of the barn's disintegrating floorboards—and made this striking image with a 200–400mm zoom lens.



Steve Greer
Moorestown, New Jersey


"New Jersey landscapes are not known for their grandeur," observes Greer, an architect who spends time every year searching out the state's "subtle secrets." He says that wading out into this pond near Dividing Creek in southern New Jersey during spring, being surrounded by hundreds of fragrant water lilies, was an experience that he can only describe as "surreal." He captured this landscape on film with a 17mm lens.



W.L. Doyle
Heber Springs, Arkansas


A backyard wildlife enthusiast, Doyle always keeps the camera loaded with film and his bird feeders filled with seed in the hopes that he will capture an image like this. "This wasn't the first time this raccoon had visited our yard," says the realtor. "When I saw it, I crept around the corner of the house and took several photos before it noticed me." Doyle used a 35–70mm zoom lens to catch the masked "thief" in the act.



Steven Nourse
Big Lake, Alaska


"Winters in Alaska are long and cold, but its beautiful, simplistic scenes lift your spirits and brighten your day," says the pipefitter. While photographing in his backyard, Nourse noticed this redpoll resting on a branch. He captured the bird on film with a 500mm lens after a wind gust blew a cap of snow onto its head.

[Flagman]

33th Annual Photography Awards



Jack Smith
Parker, Texas
MERIT WINNER


"This is a very satisfying image for me," says Smith, who photographed this ladybug in a field next to his property. "It fulfills the vision I had when I went out to get the shot." The engineer fought difficult conditions - bright sun, wind and no tripod - to eventually capture this digital photograph with a 300mm lens at ISO 800.



Kim Steininger
Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania
MERIT WINNER


"When photographing nature, it pays to pick a spot and just sit," says Steininger. "You might have to wait a while, but it's usually worth it." The network administrator photographed this male bluebird feeding his young in her backyard, which she transformed into a wildlife habitat. She used a 100-400mm lens and a tripod to make this picture.



Scott W. Smith
Petoskey, Michigan
MERIT WINNER


"Ever since we built a small pond in our yard and added native flower beds and a large rock pile, snakes have become very common around our house," says Smith. The science teacher followed this snake to a patch of mosses, where it coiled briefly before slithering away. "I’ve never seen a snake make a shape like that before. The figure eight keeps the viewer's eye moving around the photograph." He used a 100mm macro lens to capture the reptile on film.

[Flagman]

32nd Annual Photography Awards



Noppadol Paothong
Joplin, Missouri


"During late May in Missouri, the weather is unpredictable," says Paothong, who made this photo of a Noctuid moth landing on a purple coneflower in Missouri's Diamond Grove Prairie Natural Area while heavy thunderstorms threatened to engulf the area. While lying on his stomach, the journalist used a 14mm wide-angle lens.



Eileen Fonferko
Estero, Florida


Fonferko, a security officer, had observed this tree frog several times near the boardwalk in Six Mile Cypress Slough near Fort Myers, Florida. "It seemed to rest everyday in this tree cavity and emerge at night," she says. After several attempts, Fonferko made this image with a 100-400mm zoom lens, a 1.5 teleconverter and electronic flash.



Robin W. Baird
Beaufort, North Carolina


While on a research trip to southeast Alaska, sponsored by the National Marine Fisheries Service, Baird photographed a killer whale tossing a Dall's porpoise into the air. "This is a 'transient,' or mammal-eating, killer whale," says the biologist, who used a 100-300mm zoom lens. "Dall's porpoises make up a high proportion of its diet."

Photo taken under authorization of NMFS Scientific Research Permit 926.



Steve Greer
Moorestown, New Jersey
GRAND PRIZE


"During cool weather, these three-day-old chicks took refuge in their mother's warm plumage," say Greer, an architect who traveled to Stone Harbor, New Jersey, to observe and photograph threatened piping plovers. "The females will move on after seven to ten days, leaving the adult male to care for the young." Greer used a 600mm lens to capture the birds on film.



Robert Jerry Hughes
Tucson, Arizona


"I find macro photography to be very rewarding," says Hughes, a retired retail worker who used a 200mm macro lens to photograph this Dolomedes spider near his home in Arizona. Fishing spiders are well adapted to aquatic environments, hunting for insects on the surface and diving underwater when disturbed.



Sigrid Vollerthun
Arlington, Virginia


For nearly a decade,Vollerthun has traveled to Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens in Washington, D.C., to take pictures of the lush water foliage. "My visits to the gardens have become annual pilgrimages," says the retiree. She used a 180mm macro lens to photograph this cultivated lotus bud and seed pod.



Andrew W. Wims
Detroit, Michigan


While photographing wildlife in the Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania, Wims noticed a mud-covered Cape buffalo standing still not far away. "The mud bath probably provided temporary relief from the insects and the hot sun," says the retired scientist. "Eventually, a fly landed on its muddy eye, and the buffalo blinked and walked away." Wims used a 100-400mm zoom lens.



Martin M. Bruce
Boca Raton, Florida


A retired psychologist, Bruce has traveled to South Africa 14 times to view wildlife. On one trip to a water hole in remote Kalahari Gemsbok Park, he used a 600mm telephoto lens to photograph this dominant-submissive behavior between two jackals as they hunted doves. "It was only ten o'clock in the morning," he says, "but it was already very hot out there."



Shelley Alger Fong
Napa, California


While on a trip in northern Zimbabwe, Fong came upon a small herd of elephants at a watering hole. "All of the elder elephants easily stepped up the steep bank," says the former business executive. "But this youngster, probably about two years old, struggled up the slippery slope." She used a 300mm lens to capture the scene on film just before the young elephant joined the others.



Garry Walter
Highland Heights, Kentucky


"I knew I would probably miss a morning of work to get this image," says the aquarium tour guide, whose persistence in getting a picture of these dew-soaked spider webs eventually paid off. "Finding four webs like this was just plain luck," says Walter, who used up two complete rolls of film to photograph the scene. He also used a 100mm macro lens.

[Flagman]

32nd Annual Photography Awards



Fi Rust
Boulder, Colorado


Traveling with a friend who leads photographic tours, Rust captured this view of Utah's Monument Valley on film not long after sunrise. The area is famous for its scenic sandstone rock formations, some of which rise as high as 1,000 feet above the desert floor. An administrative assistant, Rust made the photo with a 28-105mm zoom lens and a polarizing filter.



Herb Eighmy
Manhattan, Montana


At a loading dock beside a seafood market on the Gulf Coast in Pensacola, Florida, Eighmy noticed the crimson hues of a newly painted shrimp boat reflecting in the water. Several brown pelicans were floating nearby, waiting for scraps of fish to fall off the dock. When one swam into the center of the boat's reflection (right), the retiree used a 300mm lens to capture the bird on film.



Bill Carter
Church Hill, Tennessee


A pyrrhuloxia, or gray cardinal, was photographed in a water hole in Texas' Rio Grande Valley by photo-contest winner Bill Carter, a sales representative from Church Hill, Tennessee.

[Flagman]

31st Annual Photography Awards



L.F. Van Landingham
Coppell, Texas


For the past ten years, Van Landingham has traveled to Yellowstone National Park during late spring to photograph newborn bison. "It's one of my favorite photography locations because of the abundant wildlife, often near the road," says the Dallas-area home builder. After watching this calf and its mother for nearly an hour, he used a 500mm lens to capture the pair on film.



Jack Mills
Chesapeake Beach, Maryland


On a few occasions over the past year, Mills traveled back and forth between Maryland and a wildlife preserve in West Virginia to photograph a female red fox. So when he heard about her newborn kits, he headed out on a road trip to see the family. "The kits were shy at first, but they finally came out of the den and crawled into this log," says the retired government worker, who created this portrait of the youngsters with a 300mm lens.



Don Clary
Rancho Palos Verdes, California


This lioness stood alone defending her kill against a pack of hyenas in Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania. "They outnumbered the lioness, but she wouldn't budge. The hyenas moved in and she made a strike that I thought she might repeat, so I set my camera at a high shutter speed to record this confrontation a moment later," says the electro-optics physicist, who photographed the encounter using a 400mm lens.



Jim Quillen
Bayside, California


What appears to be a simple close-up photograph of a Clark's anemonefish actually required some advanced scuba-diving skills by the California physician, who was vacationing in Palau. Quillen positioned himself along a cave wall 60 feet below the surface, waiting for the other divers in his group to move on. "The anemonefish was somewhat manic with people nearby," says Quillen, whose patience and 105mm lens produced this winning entry.



Koh Kok Hwa
Johor, Malaysia
GRAND PRIZE


"Wherever I go, my camera is my companion," says Koh, a retired high school teacher. While strolling by a large pond near his house in southern Peninsular Malaysia, he came upon this adult male collared kingfisher feeding its four young. True to the warning sign, the bird had captured a lizard, not a fish. Koh used a 100-200mm zoom lens to capture the birds on film.



Tom Pawlesh
Jefferson Hills, Pennsylvania


Though he works as an airline pilot, Pawlesh didn't have to fly anywhere to take this winning photograph. Instead, his subjects flew into his backyard, where he often spends time with camera in hand. "In the fall, ladybird beetles are attracted to light-colored surfaces as they search for a place to hibernate," says Pawlesh, who used a 70-210mm zoom lens. "It's neat to see them return every year."



Thomas Cooper
Waukee, Iowa


"To get good results photographing wildlife, I've learned that you need a big, fast lens," says Cooper, an estate manager who took this image while visiting Wapusk National Park in Manitoba, Canada. "It was a little unnerving being just 100 meters from an adult female polar bear [with cub] that can run 35 mph over the snow," he says. Luckily, with a 600mm lens and his local Inuit guides, he didn't have to get closer.



Steve Greer
Moorestown, New Jersey


Greer, an architect, enjoys taking photographs most during the colder months. "I think there's something magical about winter," he says. "The splendor of the season is definitely worth the effort." In Alaska's Brooks Mountain Range, Greer tried different camera settings to capture the aurora borealis on film, using his 28mm lens and a 30-second exposure.



Eric Thompson
Princeton, Illinois


Thompson sometimes gets in trouble pursuing his hobby of wildlife photography. "My wife yells at me because I don't take enough pictures of our son," he jests. To create this winning photo, he placed seed on the snowman's hat in hopes of attracting birds. The carpenter then sat patiently inside a photo blind with his 400mm lens and camera until a male cardinal appeared.



James H. Jensen
White Bear Lake, Minnesota


Jensen, a retired communications technician, used a 70-210mm zoom lens and an electronic device equipped with an infrared beam to photograph this black-capped chickadee in flight. The bird tripped the camera's shutter as it flew through the beam.

[Flagman]

31st Annual Photography Awards



Lindsey Walls
Bellaire, Texas


While visiting a friend in a Houston hospital, Walls noticed this adult eastern screech owl perched on a tree branch just outside the room. "As the owl became aware we were looking through the window, it slowly backed down the branch until it was hidden in the leaves," says Walls, who works for a Texas television production company. She used a 200mm lens to create this image.



Jim Mahoney
West Palm Beach, Florida


Mahoney, a financial consultant, used a 600mm telephoto lens to capture this greater flamingo on film in Inagua National Park in the Bahamas. The winning image appears on the cover of National Wildlife's December/January 2002 issue.

[Joy]

Ооочень красиво

Добавлено через 6 минут
Спасибо за фотки - они живые!!

[Рамада]

Как красиво!!!... спасибо тебе большущее за фотки....
правда, единственный недостаток этих фоток - все они маленького разрешения так бы с удовольствим распечатала некоторые

P.s. эта фотка рулит http://forum.bratsk.org/attachment.p...2&d=1171529296

[Flagman]

Как красиво!!!... спасибо тебе большущее за фотки....
правда, единственный недостаток этих фоток - все они маленького разрешения так бы с удовольствим распечатала некоторые

P.s. эта фотка рулит

Пожалуйста Маш ;) Думаю если долго искать эти авторские снимки можно найти более высокого разрешения. Ракунчик прелесть

[Flagman]

February 2007, Week 2



Donald R. Montemorra

“After ten years of applying for a lottery-based McNeil River State Game Sanctuary permit, I was fortunate to receive such a permit allowing me to view and photograph Alaskan Brown Bears in a true wilderness setting., ” says Donald Montemorra, vice president and senior legal counsel from Swampscott, Massachusetts. “The image seems to capture their innocence and curiosity, ” he adds. Using his Canon EOS 3 with a 400mm lens, he captured these brown bear cubs on film.

February 2007, Week 1



Daron Dean

Daron Dean photographed the rising smoke from the Fox Creek brushfire, in Kenai, Alaska in 2005. Dean, photojournalist from Tallahassee, Florida used a Canon to capture this example of nature’s power and was a finalist from our 2006 National Wildlife Photography Awards photo competition.

January 2007, Week 5



Jay O’Brien

Opting for an alternate subject to photograph one evening during a fall photo workshop, Jay O’Brien scouted this spider making its web. “I was amazed at the transparency of the image, and the highlighted outline of the spider, ” says the photography store manager from Inlet, New York. Mounted on a tripod, O’Brien used his Nikon F6 with a sigma 180 macro lens to capture this scene.

January 2007, Week 4



Philippe Henry

Philippe Henry spotted this eastern gray squirrel on a bitterly cold winter day in the Montreal Botanical Garden, in Quebec, Canada. The napping squirrel was apparently protecting himself by “using his tail as a blanket” says the professional photographer from Quebec. Henry placed his Canon EOS with a 300mm lens on a tripod to capture this photograph.

January 2007, Week 3



Mira Fox

Mira Fox and her husband expected to see and photograph the walrus beaches on Round Island; a walrus sanctuary in Bristol Bay, Alaska, when they spotted these horned-puffins “landing on the ledge, and resting” says Fox, school bus driver from Chugiak, Alaska. “While my husband takes most of the photographs, I think of myself as the tag-along companion who enjoys the outdoors and takes pictures when the mood hits me, ” she says. She used a Canon 650 EOS with a zoom lens.

January 2007, Week 2



Jerry Segraves

On his drive home from work one evening, Jerry Segraves spotted a short-eared owl hunting for food in Quivira National Wildlife Refuge in Kansas. “Short-eared owls are really efficient aerial hunters and acrobats and are a great pleasure to watch, ” says Segraves. After pulling over to get a closer look, “it landed on the sign for a look at me”, the letter carrier from Stafford, Kansas says. He captured this amusing photo with his Canon EOS 200 with a 100-400mm lens.

January 2007, Week 1



Cheryl Ertelt

In a tundra buggy looking for bears on a photography workshop in Churchill, Manitoba, Cheryl Ertelt came upon a snow-covered polar bear. “I was surprised at how delineated the halo of snow was as the bear shook” says the physical therapist from Ft. Wayne, Indiana. “It’s not something you noticed as it occurs, but only if the exact moment is captured.” and that is exactly what she did, with her Canon 1DMII with a 500mm lens.

December 2006, Week 4



Laure Neish

“After days of cloudy weather,” says Laure Neish, “a weak December sun appeared and I hopped in the car to look for birds”. After driving only a mile out of town in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada, Neish saw a flock of cedar waxwings lined up on branches of trees, “making forays into the wild rose bushes to eat the berries”. Using her Nikon 601 with an 80-250mm lens, she shot this waxwing from her car window.

December 2006, Week 3



Joshua Henson

While camping in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, Joshua Henson awoke freezing. “After single digit temperatures forced me from the tent to the car” says the seasonal park ranger, “I was happy to get up before sunrise to capture this image. ” He shot this frozen landscape with a Canon EOS 3 with a 28-80mm lens.

December 2006, Week 2



An owl invasion to the Sax-Zim bog in Minnesota brought Jeff Moore to this scene. “I had been driving all over the area and had photographed another bird on this same perch earlier in the day, ” says Moore, Senior Controls Engineer from Roanoke, Indiana. He later returned to the same branch and spotted this Great Gray owl in the sunset. With a Canon 20D and a 500mm lens, he composed this stunning, peacefully colored owl portrait.

[masik]

Классные фотки, очень красиво ... выкладывй еше

[Barrera]

Оффтопик

смысл выкладывать в таком разрешении ? это ж разглядывать надо, а так ...

[Flagman]

December 2006, Week 1



M. Margaret Snow

One frigid morning on her way to work in Owosso Missouri, M. Margaret Snow took the long way and was “struck by the beauty of the scene” similar to the one shown here. Feeling inspired, Snow returned the following day to photograph what she saw. “I was nearly done and heading back to the car, when some of the geese started honking and challenging one another. I was thrilled to catch the peak of the action.” She used her Canon D20 digital camera with a 28-300mm lens.

Novemeber 2006, Week 4



Ralph Curtis

On a cold and icy Spring Wisconsin morning, Ralph Curtis was out with his camera and noticed these wild turkeys roaming the corn stubble field. The rising sun created the dramatic backlit scene for the pair as Curtis captured the moment with his Canon 10D with a 400mm lens.

Novemeber 2006, Week 3



Mark Kostich

Following an ice storm with several days of thawing and freezing temperatures produced this graceful ice sculpture wrapped around a leaf. “As the ice became thicker, it weighed the branch down causing the ice to curve” says Mark Kostich from Mebane, North Carolina. From his own yard, he used a Canon EOS 3 with a 100mm lens and a 550EX off-camera flash to create this backlit ice curvature.

Novemeber 2006, Week 2



Dan Walters

“This red fox was in the shade most of the time, ” says Dan Walters, warehouse worker, as he waited for the perfect moment in Wheat Ridge, Colorado where he was photographing that day. “Finally, he moved into a little patch of light and I got the shot”. He captured this portrait with a Canon EOS 1N, Sigma with a 500mm lens.

Novemeber 2006, Week 1



Jan R. Edwards

On a Mahale National Park Photo Safari located in Tanzania, Africa, one summer, Jan Edwards followed park trackers who lead her to a clearing, which revealed a temporary settlement for these mothers and baby chimps for “morning grooming” says the retired piano teacher from Los Altos, California. “This baby radiates supreme confidence as he nestles in his mother’s protective arm. ” Using her Nikon D2H with a 70-200mm lens, she captured this warm embrace.

October 2006, Week 5



Marsel Van Oosten

Marsel Van Oosten was hiking the rocky landscape in the South of Namibia when this quiver tree, a species of aloe indigenous to South Africa, popped out along a ridge making a fine opportunity for Van Oosten to create this dramatic silhouette. Using a tripod and a Nikon D70 digital camera, Van Oosten creatively adjusts his color temperature settings to act as a filter, producing a cool tone and showcasing the quiver tree’s “photogenic quality second to none”.

October 2006, Week 4



Mark McWilliams

“Peacefully swimming at approximately 22 feet deep, their curiosity to me was amazing.”, says Mark McWilliams, student, studying marine biology and photography submerged in the Pacific. Visiting the Sea Lion Rookery in the California Channel Islands, McWilliams was practicing and understanding the principles of photography while observing and shooting the whimsical nature of the inquisitive on looking sea lions.

October 2006, Week 3



Brian Ernst

The black sea nettle exhibit draws attention at the Monterey Bay Aquarium in Monterey, California, for its artistic flare and mystical qualities both nicely captured by Brian Ernst, school administrator from Rocklin, California. With the bare lens of his camera pressed right up against the aquarium glass, Ernst snapped this group dancing in frame with his Canon 20D with a wide-angle lens.

October 2006, Week 2



Joann Lysne

One late afternoon in November in Bosque del Apache NWR in New Mexico, JoAnn Lysne was watching sandhill cranes feed in the fields. Afterwards, the cranes began their flight to the ponds for the night, when she captured the dramatic departure. Lysne, Oceanographer from Los Alamos, New Mexico, wanted to show all aspects of the scene. Being particularly fond of the “graceful shape and curve of their wings in flight”, she made this image using a Canon 10D with a 100-400 zoom lens.

October 2006, Week 1



Natasha Mhatre

The monsoon season brings on more than gusty winds and rain on campus at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, India. For Mhatre, monsoons also mean a chance to photograph the colorful grasshoppers that make their appearance to feed on the freshly grown grass. “When I saw this individual hop onto a mimosa leaf.” says the graduate student, “the mimosa folded up as soon as the nymph touched it.” Using her Nikon D70 with a 50mm lens, she captured the interaction.