FL State High School Nature Photo Contest Winners

Here I am today with the winners of the Florida high school "Ding" Darling &Theodore Cross" nature photography contest, for which I was one of the judges (as well as NY photographer Arne Svensen and refuge biologist Jeremy Conrad). There were 430 entries from 20 high schools in the state with a resulting 3 winners (from l., Emily Huffman, 2nd place, Mathew Boutelle, 1st place, and Savannah Crowe, 3rd place) and 12 honorable mentions. This a photo of the winning images which will reside in the visitor's center at Ding Darling NWR for a year. There were lots of nice prizes including a new Canon DSLR camera. Here's also a photo of Janet Del-Valle and her proud mom, she was one of the honorable mention photographers and here was her photo of birds in flight which she titled "Family is Love". The students were all wonderful and talented and it was such a treat for me to meet and talk with them. I got to speak and told them how great it was that they were showing how important the natural environment was through their photography. What a happy day!