Eco/Photo Fest

Eco/Photo Fest 2021: 8/28/2021 Kick Off

Last year, Eco Fest merged with Photo Fest kicking off a virtual conference that focuses on the connection between photographic instruction and relatable topics in the environment, ecological systems, and outdoor tourism. Thanks again to all the fantastic speakers. Their presentations are archived here: https://www.smithvilletx.org/eco-photo-fest-2020/

This year, we again have some truly remarkable presentations that will help showcase the world around us and how we can become better observers and photographers of everything we see and experience.

Many thanks to our SPEAKERS! You can watch their videos below. We are also grateful to them to participating as panelists on the Q&A sessions that were recorded live.

Of course, the Photo Fest side is still hosting a photography contest. After having learned something through the photography instruction, you can submit photos for prizes and recognition. The official end of the program is 9/12/2021 at midnight, when the photo contest will end. Send any photo entries to Cory Kadlecek at cory.kadlecek@smithvilletx.org between 8/28 and 9/12-midnight -- INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION HERE. - registration closed

We also hosted a brief live event on August 28 from 10AM to noon to kick off the program. You can see a photo album of some of the activities here: Eco/PhotoFest2021Event. Many thanks to everyone who had a hand in organizing and hosting the day’s event!

If you enjoy and learn something from these videos, we hope you will consider making a small donation. All proceeds will become part of the Keep Smithville Beautiful programming for 2021, including a Clean Street program, the Youth Banners, and Sculptures on Main, among others. THANK YOU for helping to keep Smithville clean and beautiful!

TITLE SPONSOR: WJC CONSTRUCTORS

The Lake Sebago Watershed provides drinking water to one sixth of Maine's population, yet only 11 percent of this watershed is currently protected from development. The Sebago Watershed Protection Investment Program will work with landowners and local municipalities to protect 10,000 acres of forest, improve aquatic organism passageway, restore wetlands, improve forest management, control aquatic invasive plant species, and educate landowners. Success for this project will include maintaining water quality levels, protection of critical forests, and spatial analysis of biodiversity.

From Bryan Hummel: Mary, a carbon sequestration project that improves groundwater and endangered species just won a multi-state award. Contact is Lisa and Jim O'Donnell. Emily King, Urban Forester is super sharp on carbon sequestration too.

From Bryan Hummel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNlHfyVdePs&t=5s

From Bryan Hummel: The City of Austin Project on the BCP and the Vireo Preserve just won an EPA Green Infrastructure award, while it is turning flooding liabilities into groundwater assets and pollinator habitat.

PHOTO CONTEST

(Photo contest runs from 8/28-9/12 at midnight):

REGISTER FOR PHOTO CONTEST HERE - registration closed

DOWNLOAD PHOTO CONTEST INFORMATION HERE

Photo contest winners will receive prizes - be sure to participate and have fun!

KIMBERLY RIDLEY - SCIENCE WRITER AND CHILDREN'S BOOK AUTHOR

KIMBERLEY RIDLEY: "BEYOND THE FRAME"

Kimberly Ridley is a science writer, essayist, and author of award-winning nature books for children, including The Secret Pool and The Secret Bay. Tilbury House will publish The Secret Stream, her third book in this series about wetland ecology, in 2022. She is delighted to be writing a nonfiction book for children about the birdlife and ecology of Matagorda Bay to be published by Texas A&M University Press.

Kimberly’s articles and essays have appeared in The Christian Science Monitor, The Boston Globe, and other publications, as well as in anthologies including Visualizing Nature: Essays on Truth, Spirit, and Philosophy. Her forthcoming book for adults is Wild Design: Nature’s Architects (Princeton Architectural Press, November, 2021).

An avid naturalist, Kimberly’s passion is “inciting wonder” through her books, programs, and writing workshops for children and adults. She lives with the painter Tom Curry and their sassy cat Andy in Brooklin, Maine. Kimberly finds astonishment, renewal, and hope in getting to know the birds and other wild neighbors around her home and further afield. She dearly loves the Gulf of Mexico and all its creatures.

To find links to Kimberly's books, including preorder for Wild Design go to her website www.kimberlyridley.org

JEFF PARKER - AUSTIN AUDUBON

"BIRD HABITAT"

Jeff Parker is equal parts pro photographer and naturalist.  He was captivated by nature’s big screen long before he developed a passion for capturing it with the camera.

Jeff enjoys encouraging others to photograph and marvel over nature’s wonders.  He believes nature photography has the power to bring deeper awareness to issues of conservation. “Such images make people care more,” he says.

His work has appeared in many magazines, including, Audubon, American Profile, Outdoor Photographer, Texas Parks & Wildlife, Texas Wildlife and Texas Journey, as well as the books Borderlands of Laredo, Texas and Wildlife in Focus.  With his wife, writer Mary O. Parker, he published the award-winning nature travel guide, Explore Texas.

Jeff leads photo tours throughout in the western U.S., Europe, and South and Central America.  He and Mary O also hold one-day workshops at their central-Texas nature preserve, Red Belly Ranch.

Resources:

Explore in Focus: https://exploreinfocus.com/

Kevin Hutchison graduated Milwaukee Area Technical Collage in 1982 with an Associates Degree in commercial photography and began his career in professional photography. For the next ten years he in various positions including head photographer at Indiana University, photography instructor at the United States Army Warrant Officers School and Defense Information School and finally as a photographer at Third Eye Photography in Austin Texas. After 4 years at Third Eye Kevin took a break from photography and started Hill Country Flyfishers, a fly fishing guide business based here in Smithville Texas. After building Hill Country Flyfishers into a successful business Kevin returned to photography, forming Plain Brown Wrapper Images, a boudoir photography business. Today Kevin runs both businesses and from time to time melds them together to produce unique images using the skills learned over the years in nature and the studio.

VICKI LEONARDO - DAVINCI IMAGES PHOTOGRAPHY

"FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY"

DOWNLOAD SLIDES HERE:  Food Photography

Vicki Leonardo will speak on food photography.

BRYAN HUMMEL

"NATURE BASED SOLUTIONS FOR ENHANCED ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC RESILIENCE IN CENTRAL TEXAS"

Resources:

• https://www.solarpowerworldonline.com/2020/01/silicon-ranch-partners-with-organic-livestock-farm-in-georgia-for-solar-sheep-grazing/
• https://www.siliconranch.com/solar-farms-will-capture-greenhouse-gases-to-store-in-the-soil/

CHRISTIANE ALEPUZ

"AIR QUALITY"

MARY PRIDDY, OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY, CITY OF AUSTIN

"ENERGY CONSERVATION"

LINK TO PRESENTATION SLIDES - ENERGY CONSERVATION

Mary K. Priddy is the Conservation Program Manager for the City of Austin’s Office of Sustainability. Her primary focus is education and outreach to Austin-area schools and businesses. In this capacity, she manages the City’s Bright Green Future Grant Program, which awards K-12 schools with grants of up to $3,000 for on-campus sustainability projects. She also manages the Austin Green Business Leaders Program, which recognizes businesses for their sustainable actions and is the Co-Chair of the Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee (ESAC) for the Austin Independent School District. Prior to joining the Office of Sustainability in 2008, Mary was the Executive Assistant over Community Relations for City Manager Toby Hammett Futrell.

In her spare time, Mary is a stand-up comedian and passionate animal advocate who co-founded DenMar’s Animal Refuge Network (DARN), a non-profit dedicated to helping rural shelters and rescues across Texas.

She has a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Texas A&M University.

MARY PRIDDY, OFFICE OF SUSTAINABILITY, CITY OF AUSTIN

"WATER CONSERVATION"

LINK TO PRESENTATION SLIDES - WATER CONSERVATION

Mary K. Priddy is the Conservation Program Manager for the City of Austin’s Office of Sustainability. Her primary focus is education and outreach to Austin-area schools and businesses. In this capacity, she manages the City’s Bright Green Future Grant Program, which awards K-12 schools with grants of up to $3,000 for on-campus sustainability projects. She also manages the Austin Green Business Leaders Program, which recognizes businesses for their sustainable actions and is the Co-Chair of the Environmental Stewardship Advisory Committee (ESAC) for the Austin Independent School District. Prior to joining the Office of Sustainability in 2008, Mary was the Executive Assistant over Community Relations for City Manager Toby Hammett Futrell.

In her spare time, Mary is a stand-up comedian and passionate animal advocate who co-founded DenMar’s Animal Refuge Network (DARN), a non-profit dedicated to helping rural shelters and rescues across Texas.

She has a bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Texas A&M University.

BERNADETTE NOLL & KEVIN HUTCHISON

“REMAKE RUNWAY”

VIDEO WILL BE AVAILABLE AFTER SATURDAY, 8/28

KEVIN HUTCHISON, HILL COUNTRY FLY FISHERS

Kevin Hutchison graduated Milwaukee Area Technical Collage in 1982 with an Associates Degree in commercial photography and began his career in professional photography. For the next ten years he in various positions including head photographer at Indiana University, photography instructor at the United States Army Warrant Officers School and Defense Information School and finally as a photographer at Third Eye Photography in Austin Texas. After 4 years at Third Eye Kevin took a break from photography and started Hill Country Flyfishers, a fly fishing guide business based here in Smithville Texas. After building Hill Country Flyfishers into a successful business Kevin returned to photography, forming Plain Brown Wrapper Images, a boudoir photography business. Today Kevin runs both businesses and from time to time melds them together to produce unique images using the skills learned over the years in nature and the studio.

JAMI HANCHEY, RISING PHOENIX ADVENTURES

"RIVER HABITAT"

SCOOTER CHEATHAM - ARCHITECT AND DESIGN PROFESSIONAL

"WILD AND USEFUL PLANTS"

An architect and design professional working in the fields of ecologically aware design and regional planning, economic botany, botanical literacy, education, and community action, Scooter Cheatham holds advanced degrees in architecture, design, and community and regional planning from The University of Texas at Austin schools of Architecture and Community and Regional Planning and has extensive experience leading interdisciplinary projects and programs. He is president of EarthFit and Useful Wild Plants, Inc., director of the Useful Wild Plants Project, and co-author of the Useful Wild Plants of Texas, the Southeastern and Southwestern United States, the Southern Plains, and Northern Mexico. His architectural projects include commercial, civic, and residential designs as well as landscape designs that minimize human impact on the site and maximize protection of the native flora, fauna, and geological features. His projects in experimental archeology and architecture have resulted in full-scale reconstructions of Native American dwellings serving as educational exhibits at prehistoric and historic sites. He has taught design, graphics, and watercolor in the Department of Architecture at The University of Texas at Austin and is active in environmental/community issues.

Resources:

• Wild and Useful Plants: usefulwildplants.org
• Steve Mims filmed interview of Scooter Cheatham: https://youtu.be/GTC2SQIR0rc
• Texas Monthly Intro: texasmonthly.com/podcast/state-of-mind-episode-8-useful-wild-plants/
• Texas Monthly Podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/user/texasmonthly/som-katy-ep8-final-revised_1

BIRD PARADE - HOW TO MAKE A BIRD HAT!

Smithville Recycling Center Information