In just three years, the Adventures in Nature photo contest, sponsored by The Nature Conservancy and Arizona Highways magazine, has grown from 84 submissions from Tucson-area students to 1,200 from students throughout Arizona. The top winners got sizable cash awards this year, thanks to Cox Communications.
The annual contest was open to all high school-aged students in Arizona. The winners ranged from Flagstaff and Prescott, to Tucson to the Phoenix-area.
It was clear to the judges this year that students have a commanding knowledge of the newest digital camera equipment, coupled with a deep appreciation for the subtleties of light and composition like Impressionist-era painters.
The first-place winner, Randy Davidson of Prescott, scouted the area for his photo, “Under the Stars.” “I’ve done a lot of hiking and exploring around Granite Mountain and I knew that the area wouldn’t have a lot of light pollution,” Randy said. He liked the rock features of Dosie Pit in Prescott National Forest. After a 30-second exposure with his Nikon D3300 and cooperation from his friend standing lower left, he had his picture of the Milky Way. “The most challenging thing I found was actually trying to keep my dog from going all over the place and getting in the shot or him knocking down my tripod with my camera on it,” he added.
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Tucson’s Wyatt Mendez took second place for his photograph of a praying mantis. Mendez captured the image in the Chiricahua Mountains. He said the praying mantis “objected very much” to the giant lens.
Wyatt Mendez of Tucson, the second-place winner for “Praying Mantis,” is comfortable around insects. But getting the mantis, “who objected very much to a giant lens being shoved in her face,” to strike the pose on a red flower in the Chiricahua Mountains also meant a few nibbles on the end of his finger. He used a Nikon D3S camera and a 105mm macro lens. The Chiricahuas are Wyatt’s main photographic campus, noting “there’s nothing like getting out into the backwoods, miles from any trail, and seeing what you can find.”
Third place went to Tanner Charnstrom of Mesa for “Afternoon Glow,” shot in Upper Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona.
Two days of hiking in Antelope Canyon on the Navajo Nation yielded the perfect shaft of light to get Tanner Charnstrom of Phoenix a third place for “Afternoon Glow.” He convinced his guide to help him find the right spot. “I went to Lower Antelope Canyon first then the next day I went to Upper, so I knew what to expect the second day and exactly what I wanted (light beams),” Tanner said. He used a Canon 7D camera and 24mm lens
A monsoon storm over the Santa Catalina mountain range earned Tucsonan Mary E. Siml a fourth-place nod.
Mary Siml of Tucson, whose photos finished fourth and sixth place, was last year’s top award winner. She climbed on the roof of her family’s home to capture the clouds moving around the Santa Catalina Mountains after a summer storm. She used an Olympus E-PL5 mirrorless digital camera.
The contest judges were Jeff Kida, photo editor at Arizona Highways magazine; Rick Wiley, photo editor of the Arizona Daily Star; Mark Skalny, corporate and nature photographer in Arizona and Bob Billups, long-time photo volunteer with The Nature Conservancy in Tucson. Judging criteria included technical merit, creativity, uniqueness, visual/emotional impact and artistic vision.
