Defenders of Wildlife Photo Contest 2012

Defenders of Wildlife 2012 Photo Contest

The fourth annual Defenders of Wildlife Photocontest is under way. In addition to $5,000 in cash prizes, the grand prize is a photo tour this spring to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks with expert wildlife photographer Jess Lee.

Who wouldn't want to win that! Personally, that would be a dream come true.

Note that only North American animal species are eligible, and special focus is being given to the 25 key species and 15 areas of focus for landscapes.

Here are the lists in alphabetical order:

Species

Amphibians

Bats

Bees

Bison

Black-footed ferret

California condor

Desert tortoise

Florida panther

Freshwater fishes

Gopher tortoise

Grizzly bear

Jaguar

Manatee

Migratory shorebirds

Mussels

Parrots

Polar bear

Sage grouse

Sea otter

Sea turtles

Sharks

Sonoran pronghorn

Whales

Wolverine

Wolves

Landscapes

Alaska Gulf Mountains

Artic

Cascadia

Eastern Carolinas

Florida Panhandle

Great Plains Steppe

Greater Everglades

Mojave

New England

Northern Rockies

Sagebrush Sea

Sierra Nevada

Sky Islands

Southern Appalachians

Southern Rockies

Click here for the Defenders of Wildlife graphic of the key species and focal landscapes for the 2013 contest.

Click here for further details and to enter your submission. Good luck!

http://www.defenders.org/defenders-wildlifes-4th-annual-photo-contest

A blue ribbon hummingbird

Oil painting after one of my photos
of a hummingbird by artist Chris Barry.
The original photo can be seen in the "Birds" gallery
on my Facebook page.

Last year I was contacted out of the blue by someone called Chris Barry who was asking permission to use one of my photos of a hummingbird as a reference for a painting she was wanting to do for a friend. Since it is always so wonderful to encounter people who respect the copyright of my artwork I was happy to reply that I was ok for her to go ahead and use it.

 

Today I heard back from Chris who told me that the painting, which she described as a labor of love, turned out so much better than she had expected it to, and that it was awarded a first place ribbon by her art club. Congratulations, Chris!

 

You can learn more about Chris and her art at her website: http://chrisbarryphotographyandart.com/.

 

How to Recover Photos from a Flash Card Error

If you ever have a card go bad on you in your camera and you have photos you really want, then San Disk's Rescue Pro is awesome.

About half of the files on my card from a recent visit to the Huntington gardens did not show up when I came to download them, but I knew they had to be there.

When I first put the card in the card reader, Windows immediately told me there were errors on the card. At that point, only 5 photos appeared in the download import. After I ran check disk on the card as was recommended by Windows, there were suddenly about 130 photos, but I knew there were more.

A few years ago, a card had gone bad on me when I was taking photos of a wedding, and that worst week of my life ended well when after searching and searching for software that might recover the photos of the actual wedding ceremony itself I finally discovered Rescue Pro.

Once again it found and recovered all the missing photos. Thank you, Rescue Pro! Add it to your took kit!
 
Here's a site where you can download Rescue Pro. It should be free, or near to it, as I'm pretty sure it's distributed by San Disk as "freeware".

 http://www.lc-tech.com/pc/sandisk-rescuepro-and-rescuepro-deluxe/