Hi all! I don't think I've posted on the wildlife forum side of NPN before, but I'm hoping you'll forgive a very proud dad and let me share some great news with you all. While the images in question are actually avian, Brad Hill suggested I could post it here as well because Jenaya is most active in the wildlife gallery.
Anyway, on to the news at hand: two weeks ago we received a call informing us that Marlise, my 11yr old daughter whom you have yet to "meet," won her age category of a HUGE national art and photo contest, the Robert Bateman Get to Know contest. This contest is promoted heavily on TV, in outdoors stores, national parks, etc. and to every student of every school in Canada! In fact, many schools choose to use this contest as a major art/photo project for art students.
Well, last week we learned Jenaya won the Jr High category of the same contest with one of her Northern Hawk Owl images. As an extra affirmation, we didn't even enter ANY of Jenaya's best images because of the open-ended publication release that is part of this contest!
This is actually the SECOND time my daughters have "swept" a major competition...last fall Marlise won the overall wildlife category for the Canadian Wildlife Federation's "Focus on Nature" contest, and Jenaya won the overall landscape category! Jenaya also came in as runner-up for the prestigious Canadian Geographic "Wildlife Photography of the Year" contest, and in January her work appeared in four separate national publications at the same time (took me several years to accomplish that back in the 90's when I was shooting professionally!). She also just learned this week that three of her images are being considered for Canadian Geographic's "Best Wildlife Photo's of 2011" publication. I'm obviously a very proud dad.
Perhaps the highest honour came in May, however, when Jenaya and Marlise were notified they had made it through to the final round of the annual Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest (Young Photographer division).
If that wasn't enough, both of Jenaya and Marlise's siblings are taking some pretty incredible images themselves (ages 6 and 9), so I think I'll be doing a LOT of post processing in the years to come, and hopefully a little more bragging as well!
It's a great passion to share as a family, and I'm sure you've noticed we have a lot of fun with it.
Anyway, thanks for letting me "gush" a bit! I've posted Jenaya's and Marlise's winning images on the "Get to Know" contest below.
Thank you also for helping to develop Jenaya's skills and "eye" as a photographer. She and I are both very grateful for the community here.
Marlise's picture of a Black-Capped Chickadee, taken during one of our outings to a favourite place of her's, Inglewood Bird Sanctuary in Calgary, Alberta (birds are completely wild and free to come and go...it's just a nice forest and wetland area in the city of Calgary).
As you already know John, I'm a great admirer of Jenaya's wonderful work, and I hope it won't be too long before I'll be seeing more of Marlis's images as well as those of your younger daughter and son :^)
While your children obviously have a natural eye for an image and photographic talent, I think credit is also due you, as I can't imagine four kids in the same family naturally developing a passion for wildlife photography without a huge amount of enthusiasm, encouragement, and support from at least one if not both parents. The Launstein's sound like an ideal family to be born into :^)
Discussion
4 repliesAnyway, on to the news at hand: two weeks ago we received a call informing us that Marlise, my 11yr old daughter whom you have yet to "meet," won her age category of a HUGE national art and photo contest, the Robert Bateman Get to Know contest. This contest is promoted heavily on TV, in outdoors stores, national parks, etc. and to every student of every school in Canada! In fact, many schools choose to use this contest as a major art/photo project for art students.
Well, last week we learned Jenaya won the Jr High category of the same contest with one of her Northern Hawk Owl images. As an extra affirmation, we didn't even enter ANY of Jenaya's best images because of the open-ended publication release that is part of this contest!
This is actually the SECOND time my daughters have "swept" a major competition...last fall Marlise won the overall wildlife category for the Canadian Wildlife Federation's "Focus on Nature" contest, and Jenaya won the overall landscape category! Jenaya also came in as runner-up for the prestigious Canadian Geographic "Wildlife Photography of the Year" contest, and in January her work appeared in four separate national publications at the same time (took me several years to accomplish that back in the 90's when I was shooting professionally!). She also just learned this week that three of her images are being considered for Canadian Geographic's "Best Wildlife Photo's of 2011" publication. I'm obviously a very proud dad.
Perhaps the highest honour came in May, however, when Jenaya and Marlise were notified they had made it through to the final round of the annual Veolia Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest (Young Photographer division).
If that wasn't enough, both of Jenaya and Marlise's siblings are taking some pretty incredible images themselves (ages 6 and 9), so I think I'll be doing a LOT of post processing in the years to come, and hopefully a little more bragging as well!
It's a great passion to share as a family, and I'm sure you've noticed we have a lot of fun with it.
Anyway, thanks for letting me "gush" a bit! I've posted Jenaya's and Marlise's winning images on the "Get to Know" contest below.
Thank you also for helping to develop Jenaya's skills and "eye" as a photographer. She and I are both very grateful for the community here.
While your children obviously have a natural eye for an image and photographic talent, I think credit is also due you, as I can't imagine four kids in the same family naturally developing a passion for wildlife photography without a huge amount of enthusiasm, encouragement, and support from at least one if not both parents. The Launstein's sound like an ideal family to be born into :^)