Henry County Conservation to host second annual photography contest

MT. PLEASANT - Photographers with interest in nature are welcome and encouraged to enter the second annual photography contest at Oakland Mills Nature Center in Mt. Pleasant.

Danika Cox, assistant naturalist at Henry County Conservation, said the event is open to people of all ages and walks of life.

'It's a free-for-all. We don't want to restrict anybody from anything. Kids can take just as good of photos as adults nowadays,” she said, adding a youth won the contest last year.

For those interested, a mandatory meeting will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 3, at 6:30 p.m. in the nature center. There, questions about the contest will be answered and guidelines spelled out. The meeting will not be a workshop on photography, but an informational meeting about the contest.

For the inaugural year in 2018, the meeting had 13 registered and five participants. Photographers are eligible to submit up to four photos in four separate categories: Wildlife, plants, people and nature and landscapes.

The photos must be taken in Henry County and need to be new photos taken within the time frame of the contest and not previously submitted to any other contest. Getting people into the park is the whole idea, she said.

'We really just want to get people to the park because we always have people who show up (and say) ‘I've lived here my whole life and didn't even know you guys were here,'” she said. 'Also, we're trying to get people out in nature at the same time.”

Cari Nicely, naturalist at Henry County Conservation, said she is looking forward to the contest because she feels it will allow people a chance to appreciate nature more when they are able to look at the details through a lens.

'I think it nurtures more of an appreciation and maybe it causes people to see things we wouldn't have noticed,” she said.

The contest will be judged by three local professional photographers who will choose the top three winners in each of the four categories. Those 12 photos will then go on display on the Henry County Conservation Facebook page and the grand prize winner will be chosen by the public.

The prizes for winning range from camping certificates to a free cabin stay for the grand prize winner. The individual category winners will be announced on Oct. 2 and the best in show announced Oct. 18. Interested individuals can begin taking pictures right after the mandatory meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 2, and will have until Sept. 27 to submit photos.

Preregistration for the contest is required by Sept. 2 and can be done online at: mycountyparks.com under the events tab and by selecting Henry County. For more information, Cox can be reached at 319-986-5067, or additional details can be found on the Henry County Conservation Department Facebook page.