HOPKINTON — A local woman’s 50-year love of photography has culminated in her winning the grand prize in the Mass Audubon Statewide Photo Contest.

“I found out I won right before Christmas,” Cheryl Rose, 68, told Wicked Local. “I was really surprised. I’ve been entering the contest for years.”

She once placed first (2019), and on another occasion came in second (2017), but had never previously captured the grand prize. She was awarded a $250 gift card for use at Mass Audubon properties and shops.

“I’m really surprised,” Rose repeated. “There were so many beautiful photos that people entered.”

Rose has been a Mass Audubon member since 1988. She serves as a volunteer steward at Waseeka Wildlife Sanctuary in Hopkinton, helping to keep trails free of litter and debris.

According to Mass Audubon, more than 5,000 photos were submitted for the annual contest.

Rose’s winning photo features a “striking image of a colorful (and carnivorous) Sundew plant,” Mass Audubon said in its description. “Sundews can be found in wetlands such as those found at (Waseeka), located in Rose’s town of Hopkinton and thus her ‘home’ destination for taking photos and enjoying nature.”

Cheryl Rose took up photography after graduating from high school in 1973

Rose said she began taking photos in 1973, right after completing high school. She immersed herself in shooting black-and-white photos at first, then began experimenting with other kinds as time went on.

Once she retired in 2007, she began spending more time taking photos at the Waseeka Wildlife Sanctuary.

“When I’m on that property, I always seem to see something different,” Rose said. She added that during the winter, she enjoys taking pictures of snowbanks and ice patterns.

“I also love fog for photos,” she added. “Fog helps isolate a certain subject.”

When warmer weather arrives, Rose said she enjoys taking photos of insects, especially dragonflies.

“As time went on, I learned to look down, rather than up,” Rose quipped, noting plants have also become a fascinating subject.

According to Mass Audubon, competitors were allowed to submit up to 10 photos for the contest, but all must have been taken either in Massachusetts or at Mass Audubon’s Wildwood Camp in Rindge, New Hampshire. The 2023 contest period ran from July 1 to Sept. 30.

“I’m going to keep doing it as long as I can,” Rose said, adding that she enjoys taking pictures and spending time with her husband, Jim. “It’s just something I love to do, and I always have.”

Watch the video: What is focal length?

Take two 50mm lenses: an f/1.8 and an f/1.2. Even though they both have the same 50mm focal length, they’re not the same physical length – and neither of them is 50mm in length, either. So what exactly is focal length, then? 

Well, the focal length of a given lens is an optical measurement, not a physical one. It describes the distance between the sensor (or film) inside your camera and the point at which the rays of light converge once they’ve entered the lens.  

This focal length determines two things: the angle of view (which is how much of a scene will be recorded) as well as the magnification. This obviously makes a big difference depending on what you’re shooting, such as trying top capture a sweeping vista or trying to isolate a single player on a football field. 

So, focal length dramatically affects the perspective of your photographs. Try shooting a portrait with a 17mm lens, which distorts the model but captures all of the surrounding environment, and then with a 200mm lens, which magnifies the scene and makes even distant objects appear to be next to the subject, while narrowing the field of view.

Knowing and choosing your focal length is the first decision you need to make when you take a photograph. Focal lengths can broadly be broken down into five separate categories of lens:

What is focal length? Some common examples:

1) Ultra wide-angle and fisheye lenses (8-14mm)

Ultra-wide angle and fisheye lenses can have focal lengths as short as 8mm. As the name suggests, they possess an ultra-wide field of view, creating an almost panoramic effect, making them useful for extreme landscapes, events and creative photography. Their distortion makes them less than ideal for portraiture. 

• Take a look at the best fisheye lenses

2) Wide-angle lenses (14-35mm)

Wide-angle lenses range from 14 to 35mm, and are the go-to optics for shooting landscape photography, as well as taking group shots, photojournalism and documentary work. 

• Check out the best landscape lenses and the best lenses for street photography

3) Standard lenses (50-60mm)

Standard lenses provide a very natural field of view, similar to the perspective of the human eye. This makes the “nifty fifty” a great all-purpose tool for everyday photography, and even portraiture, as it restricts distortion and starts to produce subject separation. 

• These are the best 50mm lenses

4) Telephoto and portrait lenses (85-200mm) 

Telephoto and portrait lenses are what we call “long” lenses. They have more reach and greater magnification, meaning that you can stand further away from a subject and still fill the frame. This makes them ideal for nature and wildlife. 

Portrait lenses can be anywhere from 85 to 135mm, and as we’ve seen they have the effect of compressing perspective – in crude terms, it makes noses shorter, making it flattering for people pictures. However, that compression makes them less than ideal for landscapes.

• Check out the best 85mm lenses

5) Super telephoto lenses (300mm +)

Once we get to 300mm and beyond, we’re firmly in super telephoto lens territory. This is the domain of wildlife and sports photography, as the telescopic reach can capture the action from ridiculous distances.

Focal lengths can make or break your images. So it’s worth going to great lengths to choose the right one!

Read our A-Z Dictionary of photography jargon, and find answers to other photographic questions such as what is a prime lens and what is exposure in photography.

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In the towns surrounding Kruger National Park, in northeast South Africa, many Black residents have gone their entire lives without seeing some of the country’s most famous wildlife.

Despite living a stone’s throw from one of South Africa’s largest natural reserves, home to elephants, lions and more, seeing these animals face-to-face seems to be a luxury reserved for others.

Award-winning, Black-run program Wild Shots Outreach (WSO) has spent the last eight years attempting to change that. Connecting with local schools, the organization is introducing young Black South Africans to photography and conservation through workshops and game drives – taking students through Kruger National Park and surrounding areas to see encounter wildlife – and it has proved so successful that one of its alumni now runs the program.

Empowering local communities

Founder Mike Kendrick worked as an assistant headteacher at a school in Bristol, England, before starting WSO. The idea for the program came to him during a trip to South Africa in 2015, when his wife, zoologist Harriet Nimmo, organized a symposium to celebrate wildlife photography in Africa.

“We had world-standard keynote speakers, but we couldn’t find Black photographers from South Africa to speak and we thought, ‘well, something’s not quite right here,’” he says.

Later that year, Kendrick and his wife moved to Hoedspruit, just outside of Kruger. “We realized that none of the young Black people from the local community had ever been into Kruger Park or any of the other reserves,” he says. “It was really, really shocking.”

It was these observations that pushed Kendrick to set up WSO and begin reaching out to local schools and youth centers to engage with the next generation of Black photographers and conservationists.

Vusi Mathe is one of over 1,300 local residents who have taken part in the program. Mathe initially wanted to be a car designer, but WSO’s visit to his high school sparked a career in photography. He says this engagement has been crucial for further encouraging locals to get involved with conservation.

“How can you love something that you’ve never seen?” Mathe asks. “Getting local people involved has a significant impact.” With this exposure to wildlife, he believes local communities are better equipped to join supportive wildlife efforts.

“For me, being part of conservation (is important) because I’m breaking the barriers and that notion that you can’t making a living out of photography,” he adds. “I think having Black people run the program and be role models is so important. In my community, there is the idea that photography and conservation aren’t things you can carry on doing as an adult … but now I’m seeing my community understand this career more.”

With his skills gained from WSO workshops, Mathe has become a professional photographer and cinematographer for organizations such as Global Conservation Corps and Sunshine Cinema.

Another WSO success story is Melody Mnisi, who now works as a nature guide in the greater Kruger Park area. Her aptitude for working with animals was first picked up at school, but she was unaware that careers in the field were possible. Having been introduced to wildlife through WSO, Mnisi is now passing on skills to fellow young South Africans as a guide for Koru Camp, a non-profit educational organization. “We take local people on game drives (in nearby parks) to teach them about wildlife. Back at the camp, we offer environmental education, and how they can keep the environment clean,” she says.

Female nature guides are in the minority in South Africa, and Mnisi adds that her work includes empowering women. 

Giving people a voice

Rifumo Mathebula was one of WSO’s first students, in 2016. In 2020, he became its program director, taking the reins from Kendrick, and in 2022 won the Chartered Institution of Water and Environmental Management Young Environmentalist of the Year Award for his work as an environmental educator, photojournalist and filmmaker.

Mathebula says his presence as a Black photographer is crucial in passing on his experience to the next cohort. “Through having me there to teach with Wild Shots Outreach, it gives people an idea that they can be more comfortable when they talk with me, especially when you talk with them in their own language,” he adds.

The program is starting to look beyond South Africa as well, partnering with schools and youth centers in Kenya, Namibia and Botswana.

Despite the strides made in local engagement and education, Mathebula says more work still needs to be done to further involve people in the area. “I think we still need to do a lot of conservation awareness to local communities, because there’s still a lot of people that don’t know anything about it. There’s still a huge gap … it can really affect conserving nature,” he says.

For Kendrick, it’s rewarding to see WSO’s alumni taking the reins and making their mark on conservation.

“Seeing somebody like Rifumo generate his own momentum and to see his passion for working with his own community is fantastic,” Kendrick says. “Seeing Melody work in a camp set up for people from local communities and sharing her passion … to have been part of facilitating that feels very, very special.”

“Young Black Africans now have a voice (in conservation) when they haven’t really had one in the past,” he adds. “Hopefully we’re starting to add more Black voices and Black photographers to that.”

WSO focuses its work on communities living near Kruger National Park in the north-east of South Africa. It was founded by British former schoolteacher Mike Kendrick, after he and his wife, zoologist Harriet Nimmo, were in South Africa organizing a photography event, and noticed a lack of Black wildlife photographers.