'Technically Excellent' Photos from Palm Beach Post Contest Earns Center Court at the American Orchid Society August 31, 2008

Moments of beauty from South Florida’s natural environment will be on display this fall at the American Orchid Society, where winning shots from The Palm Beach Post 4th Annual Focus on Nature Photography Contest will grace the lobby.

The free exhibit, which runs Sept. 1-28, will feature the 16 winning photographs culled from more than 4,000 entries from amateur photographers.

“I thought The Post’s nature photography contest would be a good partnership with our botanical garden,” said Valerie Smith, the AOS director of special events and community relations. “And local artists will be showcasing their work.”

The 2008 contest, judged by members of The Palm Beach Post photo staff, featured digital entries in five categories: oceans, plants, animals, landscapes and close-ups. While there were thousands of shots to wade through, the winners weren’t hard to spot, said John J. Lopinot, The Post’s deputy director of photography.

“In any nature photo contest, the potential winners jump out immediately at you because the pictures are outstanding and have good lighting, strong composition and a strong center of interest,” he said. “They are technically excellent.”

But that doesn’t mean they have to be taken with complicated and expensive equipment, Lopinot added. For example, the grand-prize winner, an image of a tri-colored heron taken from the boardwalk of the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, was made with a point-and-shoot Sony Cybershot camera.

While the winning photographs were published in The Palm Beach Post in May, this is the first year the prints will be on display out in the community, where there has been robust interest in the images, Lopinot said. The pictures are currently on exhibit at the Lighthouse Center for the Arts in Tequesta and are expected to move to the Pine Jog Environmental Education Center in West Palm Beach after spending September on display at AOS, 16700 AOS Lane in western Delray Beach (www.aos.org).
“I think since more people are going ‘green’ that there is more media attention on the environment,” Lopinot said. “And everyone loves gorgeous nature photos.”

ABOUT THE AMERICAN ORCHID SOCIETY:
The nonprofit (501c3) organization was founded more than 85 years ago by a handful of growers from the northeast part of the country. It was housed at Harvard University for nearly 60 years. In 1984, the AOS moved to West Palm Beach to a six-acre estate owned by former AOS president Lewis Vaughn. The organization broke ground on its new headquarters in Delray Beach September 1999. With nearly 18,000 members around the world, the AOS is recognized as the leader in orchid education, research, and conservation. It is the largest special-interest horticultural organization in the world. Learn more at www.aos.org.