Bulletin Board
MDC 75th Anniversary Photo Contest
To celebrate its 75th anniversary, the Missouri Department of Conservation is holding a contest in search of the best photos of Missouri's fish, forests, wildlife and outdoor recreation activities.
From February 1st to May 15th join the MDC 75th Anniversary Photo Contest” on Flickr™ and submit your best photos in the following seven categories: Birds, Insects and Spiders, Mammals, Reptiles and Amphibians, Plants, Habitats and Landscapes and Outdoor Recreation Activities.
A panel of judges chosen by MDC will pick the best photo in each category, and the public will choose the best overall photo from those seven category winners. Voting starts in July. The seven top-winning photos will appear in the October 2012 Missouri Conservationist, and they will be published as a slideshow on MDC’s 75th Anniversary Web page through November 2012.
For contest rules visit the MDC website . Be sure to review section six on Rights before you chose to enter the contest.
Webster Groves Nature Study Society Talk
The Webster Groves Nature Study Society or WGNSS has its next general meeting at the Powder Valley Nature Center on Tuesday, March 6th, starting at 7:30 p.m. Their featured speaker will be Tim Guetersloh, speaking on For the Love of Nature: Observations of an Appalachian Trail Thru-Hiker. Tim is a passionate nature photographer. In 2005, he fulfilled a life goal of backpacking the complete 2,200-mile Appalachian Trail, carrying a relatively light 4x5 sheet film camera of his own design built just for the trip. The trip had such an impact that he returned to the trail each year after for some short hikes and in 2010–2011 made a second complete hike of the trail. Tim will discuss his experiences along the trail, including some of the most beautiful places and things that he observed. He will also mention some of the resources available to those contemplating a visit to the region. This will be a rare opportunity to meet someone enthralled with the idea of wilderness who has gone to great lengths to immerse himself in nature.
Journey Through the Arctic
On March 7th at 7:30 p.m., the Saint Louis Zoo will be hosting a lecture and book signing by Debbie Miller, journalist, teacher, Arctic explorer, conservationist, photographer and award-winning author of Midnight Wilderness: Journeys in Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge. Debbie has explored the wilderness of Alaska for nearly 40 years. She most recently spent three summers paddling 600 miles of rivers in the western Arctic region for her forthcoming book On Arctic Ground. A passionate advocate for protecting the Arctic, Debbie has also written 12 nonfiction books for children about Alaska's wildlife, such as A Polar Bear Journey and Survival at 40 Below. Admission to the lecture at the Zoo is free. For more information call 314-646-4544.
MoNEP members, recent meeting presenters and Arctic conservationists, Richard Spener and Toni Armstrong will be hosting a private event with Debbie on Tuesday, March 6th. If any MoNEP member is interested in attending this private event, please contact Richard at 314-434-2072.
Camera Club Seminar
The St. Louis Camera Club will be hosting its annual seminar on Saturday, March 31st, from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The presenter, Jennifer Wu, is one of Canon’s elite Explorers of Light. She is an award winning nature, landscape and night sky photographer.
Jennifer will talk about the five elements of composition for nature photography, techniques for getting great shots, including using polarizing and neutral density filters, use of white balance settings and reflectors and hyperfocal distance focusing. She will also discuss maximizing Camera Raw, the tools and best practices when editing your images and how to make them pop. She will finish with a segment on the Amazing Night Sky and how to create images of the stars and moon.
Registration for this event, to be held at Maritz in Fenton is $25 and includes lunch. For registration information visit St. Louis Camera Club. To learn more about Jennifer Wu, visit her website.
NANPA Events
NANPA has announced its 2012 Road Shows and Regional Events. Regional Events are shooting events that take place in the field with five different field trip leaders at each event. Road Shows are one-day classroom-based seminars featuring one speaker. Upcoming Regional Events include workshops in the Great Smoky Mountains from April 26th-29th, 2012; Bend, Oregon, July 2012; and Acadia National Park, in Maine from October 4th-6th, 2012.
The Great Smoky Mountains Event will be based in Townsend, Tennessee, and will be led by: Bill Campbell, Jamie Konarski Davidson, Richard Day, Kevin FitzPatrick and Paul Hassell. Details about the Oregon and Maine Events will be available soon on the NANPA website.
