Best Photography Winners: 2004 Awards [Nature’s Best magazine]
by Hope Katz Gibbs
Editor / Nature’s Best magazine
Fall 2004
While the regular editor was on leave, Hope was hired to be the editor / writer of Nature’s Best magazine’s “Best Photography Winners” Fall 2004 issue.
Responsibilities included sorting through hundreds of photos and entry forms so she could write a caption for each of the 175 spectacular shots that filled the 122-page magazine.
Following are some samples:
COVER PHOTO Winner: Louis Greene, Anchorage, Alaska (pictured above)
Self-portrait with Aurora Borealis
Hatcher’s Pass
Denali State Park, Alaska
There was no snow on the ground yet, and the 20-degree night didn’t bother Greene, a transplant from Long Island, NY who moved to Anchorage after vacationing there. He was camping out in Denali State Park to photograph the aurora—and maybe a spectacular sunrise. After shooting a few rolls, though, he got an idea. “I mounted my camera on a tripod, set the timer [took of his jacket!] and jumped into the shot.”
ANIMAL ANTICS Winner: Dr. Robert Franz, Cody, Wyoming
Sumatran Orangutan
Gunung Leuser National Park
Sumatra, Indonesia
During the dry season last May, Franz trekked through the hot mountainous jungle of Indonesia’s Gunung Leuser National Park to capture this humorous shot of a Sumatran orangutan. “Primates are great photographic subjects because of their similarities to humans,” Franz says of the creature appearing to blow him a kiss. “It is not too difficult to find these animals here for the large reserve of 950,000 hectares is a perfect habitat for them.”
ART IN NATURE Winner: Philipee Henry, Montreal, Canada
American Bison
Lamar Valley
Yellowstone National Park, Montana
On his first trip to Yellowstone, French-born Henry awoke before dawn to hike along the Lamar River. Meadows there provide important habitat for large mammals such as wolves, coyotes, elk—and bison. So when Henry glimpsed this massive creature grazing on the crest of a hill, he pulled out his camera. The very first rays of morning were rising behind the animal, defining it in perfect silhouette. “I wanted to capture the magic of the scene,” he says.
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