One beautiful fall day in October, more than 250 people celebrated the Year of the Bird at Grange Audubon Center. In a single day event, birders and photographers experienced the wonder of wildlife through a photographer’s lens.
Grange Audubon welcomed Canon, photographic industry leader and sponsor of the 2018 Audubon Photography Awards which were on view throughout the event. Midwest Photo, leading regional photography retailer, was an invaluable partner in planning and execution of the event. Equipment experts were on hand during the entire event to demonstrate industry-leading, image-capturing cameras and lenses as well as providing spectacular 11X14 images from a Canon Photo Printer.
Special guided photography bird walks were led by expert birders from the Columbus Audubon Chapter and Ohio State’s Ornithology Club, with hands on coaching from Canon photography experts, sharing their tips on how to capture memorable bird photos.
During the day Bob Davis one of Canon’s Explorers of Light, held workshops for the participants who were then able to photograph some phenomenally beautiful birds from Ohio Wildlife Center and Ohio Nature Education.
To cap-off the Year of the Bird Photography Experience, we again partnered with Midwest Photo to present our first photography contest highlighting Ohio birds. Over 100 photos were submitted. Judges, Bernard Master, renowned American birder and conservations, Grange Audubon’s Michael Goldman, and Midwest photography experts selected the three finalists: Grand Prize: Arnie Berger, Runner Up: Scott Horstman and Columbus Winner: Tim Jones. A number of the photo submissions and the winning photos are on display at Grange Audubon until the end of November. Winners of the contest will have their photographs feature in an upcoming issue of Bird Watchers Digest.
We would like to thank everyone who made the Year Of The Bird Experience Day and the Ohio Bird Photo Contest such a success: Midwest Photo, Canon, National Audubon, Columbus Audubon, Ohio State Ornithology Club, Ohio Nature Education, Ohio Wildlife Center, Bird Watchers Digest, and the Columbus and Franklin County Metroparks.