Heard Museum Awards 2004

Peyton Receives 12 Photography Awards in Texas at the 25th Annual Heard Museum Photography Exhibit and Competition......

The 25th Annual Heard Museum Photography Exhibit and Competition awards reception was an evening to be remembered for Slidell’s Jared Peyton. The Northshore High School sophomore had the opportunity to meet Texas nature photographer and author, Wyman Meinzer. But the excitement of the night was just beginning; Jared also collected 12 awards in the Youth Category (18 years and younger). He adds the following to his expanding resume of awards:

Nature Wildlife – 3rd Place “Red Fox Kitt” and Honorable Mention “Egret Chick Solo”. Nature Other – 1st Place – “Intruder on Tranquility; 2nd Place “Sunflower” and 3rd Place “Out of the Mountain Moss” Man-in-Nature – 2nd Place “No Wake Zone”; 3rd Place “On the Edge”, Honorable Mention “The Big Picture” and Honorable Mention “A Moment of Solitude” Nature Scenics – Honorable Mention “ Sunrise at Pine Island” Nature Artistic Impression – 1st Place “Dancing Lights”

I ahve learned there are two points of view to every photograph, the photographer’s and the viewer’s. Jared says, “Traveling to this reception was more than about getting an award, it gives me the opportunity to see other photographers work and show me how they chose to present a certain subject. There were 513 entries total in the adult and youth divisions this year, and by studying all those images, you can learn a lot. Last year, I saw images in the Nature Other category which featured images of natural objects such as flowers, rocks, trees and none of the award winning images were mine”. Jared decided he needed to work more on his macro photography skills and presentation and did a lot of research and working in the filed this past year on his macro photography. His hard work paid off with a “clean sweep” this year in the Nature Other category, which were all macro photographs.

He also managed to earn one of the competitions grand prizes “Best Environmental Journalism” for his work titled, “Cozy”. He photographed a sandwich tern chick which was only a few days old, in a shallow “scrape” in the sand. This scrape is the tern’s nest and Jared’s image shows the fragile habitat this shorebird must survive in before it learns to fly.