For the 2013 Got Dirt? Photo Contest, we asked you to show us how you connect with the natural wonders we all work hard to protect. Your responses were as varied as they were impressive, and it’s been our pleasure to share some of our favorites with you over the last several weeks.
But picking just three winners out of so many great entries? That was no walk in the park.
It took a whole lot of staring, and even more deliberation, but we made our choices and here they are. These photos remind us why we work so hard to protect America’s public lands: because they’re the places where we forge our strongest connections to the natural world.
Grand Prize Winner—> “Wing to Wing” by Kaitlin Thoresen
As part of her internship at Kenai Fjords National Park, Kaitlin set out on weekly boat tours to document the local harbor seal population. On one such trip she found herself surrounded by over 30 whales and hundreds of puffins. Lucky for everyone, she had her camera.
If we could read that puffin’s mind, we imagine we’d find it thinking the same thing we thought the first time we saw this shot: “Whoa.”
2nd Place Runner Up—> “Pumpkin the Alaskan Red Fox” by Kelly Krueger
While Kelly was serving as a fisheries intern on Kodiak Island, Alaska, she and her crew were often shadowed on hikes by the curious subject of this beguiling portrait. Why hello there, Pumpkin!
3rd Place Runner Up—> “S’mores at Sunset” by Julie Ferris
