One of my jobs is to coordinate the Hill Country Photography Club‘s Annual Naturescapes Contest. This is the ninth year for the contest. Naturescapes is co-sponsored by two of my favorite organizations. Well, ok, I’m the President of both of them!

The Hill Country Photography Club is an informal group of photographers of all ages and experience who are interested in exploring photography as an art medium. HCPC strives to help members improve their individual photographic styles as well as to learn more about the art and science of photography. The club holds monthly meetings, periodic workshops, and field trips. To be added to the club’s email list, visit hcphotoclub.org and complete the form on the Membership page.

The Hays County Chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist program is an educational, non-profit, volunteer organization dedicated to developing a corps of well-informed volunteers to provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within Hays County. Visit the web page at haysmn.org to learn more.

We’re proud to have Chase Fountain as our juror this year. Chase is a Texas Parks & Wildlife Department staff photographer, and can be found most days peering through his camera in search of the perfect photograph that makes folks yearn for the wide-open spaces Texas has to offer. His passion for the outdoors began even at an earlier age, spending his summers exploring the marshes of west Galveston Bay and learning responsible hunting and land management at his grandparent’s farm in North Texas. His photography has been featured in many publications including National Geographic Explorer Traveler, Men’s Journal, Tide, Prime, Texas Highway’s and Texas Monthly as well as the Associated Press. He graduated from Stephen F. Austin State University in 1993 with a Bachelor of Applied arts and Sciences degree specializing in photojournalism and fine art photography.

The big change for the contest this year was that we added the surrounding counties, in addition to Hays, as photo locations. The complete list of eligible counties is now: Hays, Blanco, Comal, Guadalupe, Caldwell, and Travis Counties.

The contest deadline has passed and I’m working on notifying all the entrants of the results. We will have our opening and awards ceremony at the San Marcos Activity Center on September 21st from 5pm to 7pm. The Exhibition will be in the San Marcos Activity Center’s Walkers’ Gallery from September 21st through November 8th.

The reception is open to the public and you are all invited!

Here are last year’s exhibition images, at the San Marcos Greenbelt Alliance Flickr page.

These are the award winners from all previous Naturescapes.