Awards

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"The Sea for a Turtle" won Bronze in Wildlife at the One Eyeland World's Top 10 Black & White Photographers 2023 Photo Contest. It is an honor to be recognized. It was my first time playing with black & white. I knew the magnificent patterns on the carapace (top of the shell), fins, and face would register well in the black & white spectrum. This particular image is special to me because I got to experience this with my son in the Caribbean. We were suppose to go diving, but because we were congested and could not. We ended up snorkeling and this beautiful green sea turtle was grazing on some sea grass and kept coming up for air by us. It was a memory I'll never forget!

"Pollination in Flight" won the People's Choice award in the Adult category at the 36th Annual Photography Competition "Exposure: Montgomery" and 1st place for Adult Nature Photography at the Hamilton County Fair. This is one of my all-time favorite photographs. While at an East Salt Fork State Park conference, I wanted to spend some time in the woods taking photos. I found a spot to sit, and all sorts of birds and deer came out, and it started to rain. I ran back to my car to protect my gear. Not wanting to be defeated, I was able to find a patch of grass with dandelions and watch the bees for over an hour. When I got home, I noticed that I had captured the bundle of pollen on its legs- it almost looked too big for it to carry while flying!  

"Radiant Fungi Forest" won first place in the professional division for the "Wildcard" category at the Picture Hocking Hills Contest. This image required a bit of preparation beforehand: cardboard with a mushroom-shaped pinhole to cover the lens and twinkle lights behind the mushrooms to create the cool effect you see in the photograph. All that was left was to find the perfect bunch of mushrooms! I did not have to go far; they were at the home I was staying at in Hocking Hills, right along the woodline. This particular cluster is called "Oak-loving Gymnopus" and made the perfect focal point for this image!  

"Natural Window to the Woods" won first place in the professional division for the "Landscape" category at the Picture Hocking Hills Contest. This was one of the coolest contests I have ever attended! The rules are this- we had from 3 pm May 17th to 2 pm May 18th, 2024, to capture a photograph within Hocking County and the counties surrounding it. Competitors could only submit three images, and they could only have light edits. There were four categories- Landscape, Flora & Fauna, People & Nature, and Wildcard. When taking a shot for the landscape image, I knew I had to capture something unique, and here is the kicker- it was a nasty, rainy, cloudy day. I just didn't know when or where that was going to be. My husband and I chose to hike Rock House Trail because neither one of us had done it before. Along the way, we saw a baby raccoon. That image can be seen in the Picture Hocking Hills Gallery under all images submitted. When we went inside "Rock House", I knew that using the walls of the cavern to frame the woods was truly a unique perspective; I was able to avoid capturing the gray sky!

"Owl be Seeing You" won Best of Show at the Hamilton County Fair in 2023. This beautiful barred owl was out along a creek at Cade's Cove in the middle of the day. While on the loop, I saw many people gathered, and I asked, "What was going on? What do you see?" Many of them replied, "Ugh, it's not a bear," and continued to their car and on their way.  While the area is known for its bears, they have a lot of other amazing wildlife. I go to sit by the creek for over an hour, observing this magnificent creature- the way it moves its head around 270 degrees, its long, slow blinks as it stares into the water, and just how impossibly silent this bird is when it flaps its wings! 

"Sunset at Cade's Cove" won first place in the Adult Landscape Color Photography at the Hamilton County Fair in 2023. This image always reminds me to look all around. This stunning sky was only visible when I pulled off the one-way loop road and looked behind me. A reminder that magical moments are all around, you just have to look for them!

"St. Croix Sunset " won third place in the Adult Digital Art category at the Hamilton County Fair in 2024. This sky pulled me out of my seat at dinner to cross a busy road and put my feet in the sand and surf in order to capture this image! It is one of my favorites because the clouds almost seem to match the ripples in the water.

"Hummingbird" won second place in Adult 2D Visual Art at the Hamilton County Fair in 2024. This image is a powerful reminder that nature is around us! This little female is a frequent visitor of my feeder in my backyard (4 cups water and 1 cup organic white sugar, stir until dissolved- no red dyes!). If you look closely, you can see it's tongue sticking out! A reminder that magical moments are all around, you just have to look for them!

What an honor to be in the final round for the National History Museum's Wildlife Photographer of the Year. What I am most excited about is that it is in a category that I am truly passionate about, "Oceans: The Bigger Picture". This image was taken by drone in June of 2021 during one of Jean Beasley's (pictured sitting on the stool in the middle of the photograph) last sea turtle releases before she retired from the Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center. It is always exciting and a little bit emotional watching the turtles who most-likely would have died without intervention making their way back home to the ocean! Efforts like this create hope for the future!