NANPA Nature Photography Celebration 2018

Adventures in Conservation

NANPA Nature Photography Celebration 2018 took place this past weekend in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. It was a great gathering of like-minded people in one of the most beautiful places in all the west. Geoff York of Polar Bears International and I gave our talk titled Adventures in Conservation on the synergies of photography and science. It was a very curious and attentive crowd with lots of questions.

Geoff and Dan at NANPA Nature Photography Celebration 2018 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

NANPA’s Potential Role for the Future

Working with the folks at NANPA is something I always enjoy and this year was no different. Nature photographers have never been well organized, and NANPA has the potential to do that. There are so many important issues an organized group could lend their combined voices to. Things like overcrowding in our National Parks, delisting of the grizzly bear so western states can add them to their list of hunted big game animals, and many more.

Dan speaking at the NANPA Nature Photography Celebration 2018 in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Natural Exposures Explorers Gathering

It was another nearly full house, as was the Bozeman Camera event a week earlier. There were several of our Natural Exposures Explorers that made long distance trips to be a part of the festivity. That included Dave and Shiela Glatz from Chicago, Charlotte Kidd from North Carolina, Rosalis Estes and Rosanne Zapp from California, and Tom Dietrich and Marian Petersen from Laramie, Wyoming. I was incredibly flattered to have people travel from so far away.

Left to right: Shiela Glatz, Rosalis Estes, Tom Curley, Steve Freligh, Rosanne Zapp, Marlene Cox, Jack Cox

Other special folks included my mother and father, Steve Freligh, publisher of Nature’s Best Photography, and Tom Curley from Panasonic/Lumix. As those who know Tanya know, she worked her hospitality magic and gathered us all together for a wonderful evening at a beautiful restaurant called Gather in downtown Jackson Hole. The food was delicious and the company even better. Catching up with many of our Explorers who have become good friends was a lot of fun. Just not enough time, as always.

Panasonic’s Tom Curley looks on as Dan and Nature’s Best Photography publisher Steve Freligh discuss the old days when they first met in 1985 at National Wildlife Magazine.

NANPA Photo Trade Show

The trade show was not huge, but as usual Gary Farber from Hunt’s Photo & Video was on the job wheeling, dealing and making sales. I’ve never met anyone in the photography sales business that works harder than Gary Farber. He’s always there and is an ever present force at all NANPA events I’ve ever attended. Thank you Gary for supporting NANPA.

Other vendors in the room included Canon, Olympus, Sigma, and Tamron. As I said, it wasn’t a huge show, but the folks manning the booths were very attentive with a lot of one-on-one help. Being able to see products firsthand is extremely valuable.

Tom Curley unpacking the Pelican case full of Lumix gear.

I bought a new Shimoda carry-On roller bag and a Sennheiser MKE 400 small shotgun mic as well as the super bright, extremely mini LED LitraTorch photo and video light for my video work.

Shimoda carry-on roller bag. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, something new comes along.

As I’ve recommended in the past, support your local camera shop like I do with Bozeman Camera and F-11 Photo in Bozeman, Montana. If you don’t have a local store give Bozeman Camera, F-11 Photo, or Hunt’s Photo & Video a call.

All gear in this photo is available from all Lumix dealers including our friends at Hunt’s Photo & Video and Bozeman Camera.

Hunt’s and Bozeman Camera are strong Panasonic Lumix dealers. They’re both running special deals on many Lumix products this month.

That’s all for now. Until the next NANPA show have a great time getting out and taking pictures.