" title="Brenda Lee award pic" width="497" height="338" class="size-full wp-image-10946" srcset="https://i0.wp.com/sigtrib.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Brenda-Lee-award-pic.jpg?w=497&ssl=1 497w, https://i0.wp.com/sigtrib.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Brenda-Lee-award-pic.jpg?resize=300%2C204&ssl=1 300w, https://i0.wp.com/sigtrib.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Brenda-Lee-award-pic.jpg?resize=380%2C258&ssl=1 380w" sizes="(max-width: 497px) 100vw, 497px" />Local photographer Brenda Lee, who was chosen as Artist of the Quarter by Friends of Signal Hill Cultural Arts (FOSHCA) last fall, earned an “honorable mention” in the 2011 Ocean Conservancy Photo Contest for her photograph of a seal. Lee said she took the photograph in 2009 during a trip back home from San Francisco. “I pulled over in a parking lot and saw a group of people looking at seals,” she said. “It was in central California, somewhere north of Pismo Beach.”
Lee later submitted the photo to the competition, but the submission slipped her mind until recently when she checked her mail. “I had all but forgotten that I had entered the Ocean Conservancy 2010 Photo Contest, and I opened an envelope with a check and congratulations for the win,” she said. “One of my images was selected out of 1,200 entries for an honorable mention. I went to their website to see which one of my images won and was thrilled that I placed number six out of eight.”
In addition to being recognized by FOSHCA, Lee has shared her work with Signal Hill in other ways. “I just recently donated three framed, signed and numbered wildlife images to [the Signal Hill] library and three framed, signed and numbered Signal Hill images to [Signal Hill] city hall, for which I received a nice letter of thanks from the mayor,” Lee said.
The photographer, who said she belongs to about 15 environmental groups, has had images in the Bolsa Chica Land Trust calendar and also on that organization’s website to help support the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. She also earned Bronze Star awards in the 2010 International Aperture Awards for two of her wildlife images. “Although I enjoy shooting almost anything, what I enjoy the most is shooting wildlife,” she said. “I love being out in nature, and I hope to bring people closer to nature with my images so that they begin to understand what we lose every time we develop open land. I try to capture the personality, habits, or simply action shots of my subjects. I am an advocate for saving and protecting what wilderness and open space we still have for future generations.”
For more information, visit oceanconservancy.org/photo-contest/photo-contest-winners-2011.html.
