By D. Robert & Lorri Franz
It is 12:00 a.m. on April 1, 2006 I am sitting in a blind in the hill country of Texas anxiously waiting for a raccoon, opossum, skunk, gray fox, ringtail or any other creature of the night to venture on to my pre set stage. Twenty five feet in front of me I have placed a picturesque log baited with a smorgasbord of delectable treats including sardines, 2 kinds of cat food, and bird seed. I am gripping my Canon Eos 1D Mark II equipped with an infrared transmitter to trigger the 4 flashes wirelessly I had set up earlier in the evening and attached to my 100-400mm IS lens. At 12:19 a.m. Lorri, my wife and photo assistant, who is sitting in our cabin excitedly watching the whole scene, radios me "Incoming." At 12:20 a.m. I take my first image of a raccoon for the inaugural "Images for Conservation Fund" Pro Tour of Photography Contest.
With 80% of the western hemisphere privately owned economic incentives for landowners is key to preserving wildlife habitat. In 1987 John Martin, Tom Koeneke, Carol Rausch, and other concerned citizens of the Rio Grande Valley of Texas created the Valley Land Fund (VLF). The fund uses all of the tools of other conservation land trusts plus has gone a step further by developing the idea of using nature photo contests to increase public awareness of wildlife on private lands. With the help of these contests, which take place every other year, the VLF has become one of the largest land trusts in Texas . These photo contests also spawned a local nature photo-tourism industry through South Texas Lens and Land. So far seven ranches covering over 15,000 acres are involved. The ranches provide access to shooting locations and professionally designed photo blinds to nature photographers.
The “Images for Conservation Fund” (ICF) and their Pro Tour of Nature Photography is a non-profit group whose main goal is to preserve wildlife habitat on private lands. The ICF's aim is to take the concept of the VLF to all of North America through their flagship event The Pro-Tour of Nature Photography. Their hope is that the worlds top nature photographers inspire amateur photographers through these contests and also create economic incentives for private landowners to keep them from selling off their land to developers.
Our involvement began earlier this year when John Martin invited us to participate in this contest. With a purse of $200,000 and the chance to photograph on a private ranch in Texas it didn't take us long to agree. The first contest was held in the beautiful hill country of Texas , north and west of San Antonio . Wildlife habitat is being lost there at an alarming rate due to urban sprawl. On March 18, 2006 ICF held its Pro-Tour launch party on a ranch near San Antonio . During the evening the names of each of the 17 qualifying ranches were pulled from a hat one by one. A representative from the ranch was then called upon the stage to pull a photographers name from another hat. My name was drawn by Chuck and Sharon Knibbe. The Knibbe Ranch is a Texas Centennial Ranch which means it has been owned by the same family for over 100 years. It is located along the Guadalupe River and has a beautiful Spring Branch flowing through it.
The following day and for the next two weeks until the first day of the contest we were allowed access to the ranch. No photos taken before April 1 st could be used in the contest. Lorri and spent our time building blinds, setting up feeders, and scouting the ranch. The Knibbes were very helpful and did everything they could to help us to be successful. They provided us a very nice cottage to stay in on the ranch and an electric 4 wheeler we could use for the duration of the contest. The ranch covered 800 acres so the 4 wheeler came in very handy. We set up three automatic deer and turkey feeders, three bait stations for predators, several bird feeders, and a water drip feature to attract birds. By April 1 st we were confident we were well prepared.
Each photographer was allowed to turn in a portfolio of no more then 75 images at the end of the month for judging. Of the 75 images you could not turn in more then 15 images for any of the five categories which were: 1. mammals, 2. birds, 3. reptiles & amphibians, 4. insects, arachnids & arthropods, and 5. plants & landscapes. There could be no more than two images of any one subject or species. Lorri and I decided up front that our strategy would be to get the 75 images as quickly as possible and spend the rest of the time improving our weakest subjects/images.
Drought conditions made photography very difficult. The normally lush hill country was bone dry. Picturesque broad landscapes were impossible so we immediately started looking for macro subjects. Insects were plentiful as one might expect being Texas . The bird migration was not happening yet but we still had hope. In the beginning we had hoped skunks, ringtails, foxes, and coyotes would come into the bait stations but that never happened. The mammal category was by far the toughest to fill. The Knibbe ranch held quite a few whitetail deer but they were extremely cautious. They usually bolted at the site of us. It was tough, but we did manage to get some good deer images. Raccoons and opossums came into our bait stations nightly and we were able to get some outstanding images. We found cottontail and jackrabbits on the ranch and did some nice work with them. Fox and rock squirrels were common but not easily photographed. In fact, I believe the rock squirrels were the wariest mammals I've ever attempted to photograph anywhere in the world. Still, by working 16-18 hours a day and night we began filling our categories. By the end of the 2 nd week we had 75 images that could be turned in for the contest. We called these images the good, the bad, and the ugly.
At 11:30 p.m. on April 30 th I was as usual, in my blind. I squeezed the shutter to take my last photo for the contest; again of a raccoon. I spent the next 2 weeks going through the 7000 photographs I took trying to come up with the 75 best. The pictures had to be turned in by May 15 th . They were to be judged and scored by Art Wolfe (photographer), Steve Freiligh (editor Nature's Best Magazine) and Rosamund Kidman Cox, (editor BBC Wildlife Magazine) and the highest total score would win the $64,000 grand prize. On June 17 th at an awards banquet which was held in Fredericksburg , Texas we won the 2 nd grand prize $32,000 which was shared 50/50 with Chuck and Sharon Knibbe. To see more details about the contest and the ICF go to www.imagesforconservation.org .
It is 12:00 a.m. on April 1, 2006 I am sitting in a blind in the hill country of Texas anxiously waiting for a raccoon, opossum, skunk, gray fox, ringtail or any other creature of the night to venture on to my pre set stage. Twenty five feet in front of me I have placed a picturesque log baited with a smorgasbord of delectable treats including sardines, 2 kinds of cat food, and bird seed. I am gripping my Canon Eos 1D Mark II equipped with an infrared transmitter to trigger the 4 flashes wirelessly I had set up earlier in the evening and attached to my 100-400mm IS lens. At 12:19 a.m. Lorri, my wife and photo assistant, who is sitting in our cabin excitedly watching the whole scene, radios me "Incoming." At 12:20 a.m. I take my first image of a raccoon for the inaugural "Images for Conservation Fund" Pro Tour of Photography Contest.
The “Images for Conservation Fund” (ICF) and their Pro Tour of Nature Photography is a non-profit group whose main goal is to preserve wildlife habitat on private lands. The ICF's aim is to take the concept of the VLF to all of North America through their flagship event The Pro-Tour of Nature Photography. Their hope is that the worlds top nature photographers inspire amateur photographers through these contests and also create economic incentives for private landowners to keep them from selling off their land to developers.
Our involvement began earlier this year when John Martin invited us to participate in this contest. With a purse of $200,000 and the chance to photograph on a private ranch in Texas it didn't take us long to agree. The first contest was held in the beautiful hill country of Texas , north and west of San Antonio . Wildlife habitat is being lost there at an alarming rate due to urban sprawl. On March 18, 2006 ICF held its Pro-Tour launch party on a ranch near San Antonio . During the evening the names of each of the 17 qualifying ranches were pulled from a hat one by one. A representative from the ranch was then called upon the stage to pull a photographers name from another hat. My name was drawn by Chuck and Sharon Knibbe. The Knibbe Ranch is a Texas Centennial Ranch which means it has been owned by the same family for over 100 years. It is located along the Guadalupe River and has a beautiful Spring Branch flowing through it.
The following day and for the next two weeks until the first day of the contest we were allowed access to the ranch. No photos taken before April 1 st could be used in the contest. Lorri and spent our time building blinds, setting up feeders, and scouting the ranch. The Knibbes were very helpful and did everything they could to help us to be successful. They provided us a very nice cottage to stay in on the ranch and an electric 4 wheeler we could use for the duration of the contest. The ranch covered 800 acres so the 4 wheeler came in very handy. We set up three automatic deer and turkey feeders, three bait stations for predators, several bird feeders, and a water drip feature to attract birds. By April 1 st we were confident we were well prepared.
Each photographer was allowed to turn in a portfolio of no more then 75 images at the end of the month for judging. Of the 75 images you could not turn in more then 15 images for any of the five categories which were: 1. mammals, 2. birds, 3. reptiles & amphibians, 4. insects, arachnids & arthropods, and 5. plants & landscapes. There could be no more than two images of any one subject or species. Lorri and I decided up front that our strategy would be to get the 75 images as quickly as possible and spend the rest of the time improving our weakest subjects/images.
At 11:30 p.m. on April 30 th I was as usual, in my blind. I squeezed the shutter to take my last photo for the contest; again of a raccoon. I spent the next 2 weeks going through the 7000 photographs I took trying to come up with the 75 best. The pictures had to be turned in by May 15 th . They were to be judged and scored by Art Wolfe (photographer), Steve Freiligh (editor Nature's Best Magazine) and Rosamund Kidman Cox, (editor BBC Wildlife Magazine) and the highest total score would win the $64,000 grand prize. On June 17 th at an awards banquet which was held in Fredericksburg , Texas we won the 2 nd grand prize $32,000 which was shared 50/50 with Chuck and Sharon Knibbe. To see more details about the contest and the ICF go to www.imagesforconservation.org .