Brooke Gowder enjoys all there is to hear and see about the dawn of spring. “The flowers blooming, the birds chirping and the eggs hatching” are all things the Oak Grove Elementary first-grader sums up when pondering the early days of the season. It was during a recent nature walk with her father, Paul Gowder, when the 6-year-old caught a glimpse of a bridge between near Peak and Prosperity and decided to capture it on camera.
That photo is among the many submitted so far in the Palmetto Conservation Foundation’s first Palmetto Trail Photography Contest.
The competition, open to photographers up to 21 years old, features pictures along sections of the Palmetto Trail in the categories of wildlife, plant life, seasons and people. Thirty-five photos from the competition will be selected for an education gallery at the Columbia Museum of Art for 30 days, beginning June 3, when the winners and gallery selections will be announced.
“In working with the Columbia Museum of Art, we decided to display the photos in the museum’s education gallery, so it only made sense to open the contest to youth,” said Kari Hanna, Palmetto Conservation Foundation outdoor education coordinator. “We also thought it would be a good idea to get a child’s perspective of the trail." Hanna said the age limit was capped at 21 to prevent competition between young people and professional photographers.
Four $500 prizes and a $1,000 grand prize will be awarded.
Brooke, who regularly takes pictures and often keeps her camera in her pocket, entered her photo in the seasons’ division. She happened upon the bridge while on a walk with her father on President’s Day. “I just thought it was cool and I liked it very much and I wanted to take a picture of it,” she said.
Paul Gowder, also a photographer, said his daughter came by her photographic interests naturally. “She likes to go with me and do pictures like that a lot,” he explained. “We took a lot that day. She made a real effort to try and capture a lot of things.”
South Carolina’s Palmetto Trail was conceived in 1994 and is the state’s largest bicycle and pedestrian project. The federally designated Millennium Legacy Trail is the signature project of the Palmetto Conservation Foundation and is one of only 16 cross-state trails in the United States.
The Palmetto Trail is two-thirds complete, with nearly 290 miles open to the public and eventually will run from the mountains to the sea. The trail is being built as a series of passages, all open and accessible for single-day or multi-day trips. Eventually the trail will form a spine for a network of trails and bikeways in the state.
The Palmetto Trail Photography Contest ends May 1, 2011. After its Columbia viewing, the photo gallery will travel to Washington, D.C., to hang in the offices of Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for a year.
Photographers can register and submit photos online at www.palmettoconservation.org/contestmain.asp.
Story by Bertram Rantin. Published on March 29, 2011 by The State Newspaper.
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