Art and AwarenessPhotography and Art Blog

Nature photography is really a magnificent way to share the natural world’s wonder and beauty with others who does not have the scope to watch a subject first hand. A perfect profit of the art is increasing awareness about as well as generating people’s knowledge for special species and landscapes. But too much love could be a very bad thing if natural landscapes are destroyed and wildlife is terrified-all in the name of leaving only footprints.

Photography as a machine for conservation goes back as far as photography itself. The snaps of William Henry Jackson from his tours with Hayden Expedition of 1860s to study the American West helped the convince the Congress to make Yellowstone National Park in the year 1872 and this played an important role in the birth of the movement to set aside special destinations as national parks.

After almost a century, Ansel Adams carried this job forward; opening people’s eyes to the luster of several iconic and beautiful western landscape. Wildlife photographers, more recently, have gotten up close to wild animals small and large so the rest of the people can appreciate its beauty.

United Kingdom based nature and wildlife photographer Niall Benvie told that the real problem with wildlife photography is not that there is too much of it but that photographers are failing to show natural diversity. Far from inhibiting productivity, it needs to be expanded greatly, telling the story of species and locations unknown to viewers and readers.

Now get a chance to feature your photograph at an exhibit. Well, this is the 6th Annual Wildlife Photography Competition of the Kent Wildlife Trust. The contest is targeted at encouraging local budding shutterbugs to venture out this summer and spring to capture snaps of natural assets of Garden of England.

The 4 categories consists of landscape, people, coastline, flora (lichens, fungi, trees and plants) and fauna (birds, insects and mammals). It also has a junior category and that is for aged seventeen and under.

People can take snaps at different places, including gardens, schools, parks, reserves and seaside. But all the places has to be in Kent. This contest is free and open to all. There are several prizes up for grabs. All the winning entries will get featured in the magazine called – Wild Kent as well as the website of the trust and it 5 visitor center.

There will also be an awards evening for the winners and that will take place at the sponsor’s premises in autumn – The Barnyard Restaurant at Upchurch near Sittingbourne. The judges’ panel will be headed by a Natural History Museum Photographic Unit’s representative.

The last date for submitting the entries is 31st July.

When Mike Brodie was seventeen years old, he had his very first train hopping experience in Pensacola, Florida, which also happened to be his hometown. Over several days, that same train would take him to Jacksonville in Florida and return again. It was a very short trip, but it sparked a lifelong love for train exploration and hopping in Mike Brodie.

After that Brodie would spend more than ten years exploring the whole United States through hitchhiking, walking and train hopping. Throughout his journeys, Mike would document the lifestyle of people in his photography. Pictures from 2006 till  2009 have been compiled into a image project named – “A Period of Juvenile Prosperity.”

Since the year 2002, Mike Brodie has covered over fifty thousand miles and visited forty six states of the United States on over hundred and seventy different freight trains.

Mike’s photography started in the year 2004 after he found a neglected Polaroid camera that was hidden behind a friend’s carseat. Pictures he shot using that camera turned to be very popular online, earning Mike the nickname – “The Polaroid Kid.” The time Polaroid film was discontinued, he switched to 35mm film as well as a more traditional camera. His pictures offer a magnificent glimpse into a subculture of camaraderie, freedom, adventure and simplicity.