Welcome to the third rendition of our annual photo contest. When considering this year’s podium of winning shots, it really does feel like the third time is the charm. I don’t mean to take anything away from the 16 images that earned a prior spot on the podium over the years, of course. Just like those previous winners, these stunning shots embody the sort of photographic magic that can only be found in West Virginia.
As expected, the judges and I were once again impressed with the quality of submissions. We received a total of 102 entries (31 Adventure, 41 Landscape, and 30 Wildlife) from 60 individual photographers. As you can imagine, this field of photographs created some challenging decisions for the judges. While these eight winners earned a spot in the annals of Highland Outdoors history, there were many other great shots worthy of praise. I wish we had room to publish them all. But as they say in reality TV, it is, after all, a competition, and there can only be so many winners. I’d like offer a sincere thank-you to all the photographers who took the time and effort to submit your images; you are still an integral part of this process and I encourage you to submit images again in our 2025 photo contest.
Running a photography contest is quite an effort. From promoting the contest and organizing the steady flow of submissions to multiple rounds of judging and coordinating with the winning photographers, the full process took nearly eight months. This contest would not be possible without the talented judges who volunteer their time and expertise to help select the winners. I’d like to recognize this year’s panel: Karen Lane, Hannah Snyder, and Jay Young. Each of these professional photographers brings a unique perspective to the table. Their individual skillsets were invaluable during the judging process, allowing us to analyze photos at a technical level of detail that often resulted in some spirited debates. I highly encourage you to check out their respective bodies of work. Their contributions help make the West Virginia photography community so special.
Dylan Jones, Publisher
Overall Winner: “Fireflies and Star Trails” by Jesse Thornton
Green Bottom Wildlife Management Area, Cabell County
Typically, our photo contest judges deliberate quite a bit before choosing the overall winner. In addition to giving it a perfect score, the judges immediately and unanimously agreed that this stunning image was the cream of the crop. The hypnotizing star trails and bioluminescent glow of innumerable fireflies really make this one shine. Thornton set his camera to take successive 30-second exposures over an eight-hour period and stacked nearly 800 different images to create this masterpiece.
“These fields beside the Ohio River are abundant with fireflies, which like to be around water,” Thornton said. “I stacked the photos in a way that keeps the lightest part of each photo, so you’re seeing the accumulation of all the fireflies throughout the night stacked into a single image, along with the star trails moving around the North Star. This shows the passage of perceived time through the movement of the stars as the Earth rotates.”
Overall Runner-Up: “Allegheny Underground” by Nathaniel Peck
Private Cave System, Tucker County
You may recall that a cave photograph was last year’s overall runner-up, and here we are again for good reason. A crisply focused, well-composed, properly lit caving image shows technical mastery by the photographer, and Peck is certainly a master of his craft. This image captures the scale of the room, and the well-placed light sources serve to highlight the model and the stunning formations without producing any blown-out highlights.
“This cave was sort of forgotten, and it was rediscovered by the landowner and is now a preserve for the West Virginia Cave Conservancy. The passage currently ends in this gallery, which is one of the best displays of formations in Tucker County,” Peck said. “A lot of people come to Tucker County to experience the adventure and ecosystems of the big mountains, and they have no idea that there’s this whole ecosystem right under their feet.”
Landscape Winner: “Teter Barn with Star Trails” by David Johnston
Dry Fork, Randolph County
We debated whether we should feature two star-trail photos, but a winner is a winner, and this high-scoring shot was too good to pass up. The verdant meadow, moon-lit barn, mountainous background, and dark sky combine to create a quintessentially Appalachian image that just feels like home. Like Thornton, Johnston stacked various exposures to capture the individual elements and create a spectacular composition. If you stare long enough, you can smell the dewy grass and hear the crickets chirping.
“This view of the barn faces north, so it’s an ideal subject for star trails, which center around the North Star of Polaris. I waited until the moon was setting to the west and casting some softened light onto the field and barn,” Johnston said. “The star trails were created by stacking 15 successive eight-minute exposures, which were combined with the single foreground exposure to create the final product.”
Landscape Runner-Up: “Fall, Fog, and a Waterfall” by Eric Brumbaugh
Elk Lick Run, Tucker County
Waterfalls are a typical subject for entries in a photo contest, meaning the waterfall market is—pun intended—quite saturated. It’s pretty tough to make an impression on a seasoned photographer with a silky waterfall snap. However, this magical shot of Mill Run, a tributary to the Dry Fork of the Cheat, stuns upon first gaze. By including the mossy foreground, keeping the shutter speed low enough to add texture to the plunge pool, and incorporating the haze of the golden background, this photo checks all the boxes.
“I started shooting motorsports events in 2019, but during COVID, I started going out in the woods and found I really liked it,” Brumbaugh said. “I was planning to shoot this waterfall for several days but something would always come up, and finally made it out on the third day to get the shot.”
Adventure Winner: “A Senior Moment” by Kurt Schachner
Snowshoe Mountain Resort, Pocahontas County
Any adventure sports photographer will lament the difficulties of ski photography. Harsh lighting and frozen digits make nabbing the perfect shot a bit more challenging than shooting a summer sunset. Not to mention that good skiers are often going wicked-fast, like Hayden Smith in this snap that Schachner captured during Smith’s high school senior photo shoot. Schachner, who is Snowshoe’s in-house photographer, knows the slopes well enough to pick the right spot at the right time. Smith’s body position, eye contact with the lens, and powder spray off his skis are perfectly illuminated by the stripe of light beaming across the slope between the shadows.
“I had Hayden wait at the top, then I snowboarded down and waved my arms and pointed to the light spot on the slope,” Schachner said. “Shooting skiing is fast-paced work where you sometimes get one shot at a certain spot before having to find the next spot. It’s non-stop action and timing is crucial.”
Adventure Runner-Up: “Once Upon an Ice Time” by Tanner Henson
Bull Run, Preston County
A winning adventure shot should display some true grit and danger, like this snap of Mason Allen leading a water ice route deep in the Cheat Canyon. Ice climbing in West Virginia these days is about as ephemeral as it gets, and you must be able to drop everything to get out when conditions are in. Shooting climbing from above often means dangling in a harness for hours on end, which is what Henson had to do to get this well-framed shot, not to mention trying to stay warm while doing so.
“Hanging out like that definitely isn’t comfortable. I had my tree climbing harness and had to ascend a fixed rope,” Henson said. “There was an exposed crack I plugged a piece of gear into and used my rope lanyard so I could lean out and get out over Mason for the shot.”
Wildlife Winner: “Growing Up Feathered” by Kim Ayers
Milton, Cabell County
Ayers won our Wildlife category last year with a spectacular shot of a bald eagle, and she’s back on top with this amazing snap of a red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus) mother feeding her three-week-old eyasses (hatchlings). The camouflage bark and green leaves of the sycamore tree lend an interesting color palette to the intimate scene. A core tenet of wildlife photography is to get the animal’s eyes in focus, and Ayers nailed momma’s intense gaze here.
“I noticed the huge nest and finally saw her in it one day. I set up with my 500-millimeter lens and would spend about 45 minutes each session watching them,” Ayers said. “The coolest thing was seeing the different meals brought in for them: a groundhog, a frog, a rabbit, pretty much anything. Getting to watch them grow up from beginning to end was at the top of my list, it’s something you don’t get to do every day.”
Wildlife Runner-Up: “An Offering” by David Johnston
Dry Fork, Randolph County
This stunning capture of a giant blue cohosh (Caulophyllum giganteum) flower is aptly named by Johnston, who you’ve likely noticed is a regular on our photo contest podium. In macrophotography, it’s difficult to get an entire subject in focus due to the incredibly shallow depth of field of most macro lenses. To achieve the razor-sharp focus of this flower, Johnston used a technique called focus stacking, where the camera takes a series of images and slightly adjusts the focus from foreground to background so every aspect of the subject is crisp at some point in the series.
“While photographing spring ephemerals, I noticed this giant cohosh with its characteristic bloom looking like a hand offering its bounty,” Johnston said. “I photographed the flower using focus stack and combined 40 images with editing software to create the depth of field that extends over the full clump.”
