Young Tucson photographers were recognized for their talent in the 2015 Adventures in Tucson Student Photo Contest sponsored by the Nature Conservancy in Arizona and Arizona Highways magazine. It was a statewide contest, but Tucson photographers grabbed all but one of the top spots.
First-place winner Mary Siml, 15, homeschooled, of Tucson, has enjoyed photography since she was 9.
โI have been hiking with my dad since I could walk and I really enjoy nature, especially the Sonoran Desert,โ she said. โI love all the wildlife, storms and odd plants that surround me. Photography has been a great way to capture that feeling.โ
The winning photo was taken from the roof of her home in Tucson with an Olympus E-PL5 camera and a 40-150mm zoom lens.
โMy Dad called me on his way home from work and told me there was a beautiful storm cloud by the Rincon Mountains,โ she said. โI went out to the front yard and thought โWow! That is an amazing storm, Iโve never seen anything like that. Iโve gotta get my camera!โ I pulled out a ladder and climbed up on the roof where I shot photos for over an hour until the storm dissipated.โ
Jordan Pavtis, a junior at Red Mountain High School in Mesa, took her second-place photo of a bougainvillea in her back yard in Mesa. She used a D3200 Nikon camera.
โI thought these flowers would be perfect for close-up photography โ to bring out all its details in the white flowered center,โ she said in an email. โI automatically took the picture right then and there because I saw its beauty through the camera lens and knew I had to capture it right away.โ
She has always been interested in photography, she added, but didnโt take a class or take pictures regularly until the past school year.
Third-place winner, Eliza Pew, a sophomore at The Gregory School in Tucson, got her first camera when she was 8. She started taking photography classes her freshman year. She photographed prickly pear fruit at night using a Nikon D60 with light from an electronic flash.
โI shot the photo at my house because I canโt drive yet,โ she noted. โI liked the color of the fruit. I took maybe 20 photos.โ
The honorable mentions included: Adrian Valenzuela, Amphitheater High School, for โMorning Dew.;โRoman Perez, Amphitheater High School, for โTonto Natural Bridge,โ and Allison Verbais, Saints Peter and Paul School, for โDesert Scales.โ
Contest judges were Bob Billups, Nature Conservancy photography volunteer; Jeff Kida, Arizona Highways photo editor; Rick Wiley, Arizona Daily Star photo editor; Mark Skalny, corporate and nature photographer; and Cecil Schwalbe, photographer, naturalist and University of Arizona professor. Judging criteria included technical merit, creativity, uniqueness, visual/emotional impact and artistic vision.
The Nature Conservancy in Arizona and Arizona Highways magazine published the photos on their websites. Gregโs Camera Shop in Tucson and Tempe Camera in Tempe contributed prizes.
