Mangroves may not be the first thing you picture when you think ‘forest’, but they’re both incredible, unique ecosystems and serve as a kind of structural and water-quality coastguard. And while mangrove forests make up about 0.1% of the planet’s surface, they can store up to 10 times more carbon than terrestrial forests.

Found along the coastlines of 123 countries, their enviable position with water views has made them susceptible to clearing for development, However, the rate of loss is stalling, and because they can grow fast and are environmentally resilient, the world has actually seen nearly 1,000 acres (405 ha) of mangrove forests grow in areas they did not exist in 2000.

Celebrating the unique, often otherworldly nature of this aquatic forest and the life-support it provides for a diverse range of species, the winners of the ninth annual Mangrove Photography Awards beautifully capture the wonder of these pneumatophore-peppered landscapes. (Mangroves, unlike terrestrial forest trees, do not have traditional roots, but root-like structures that aid absorption of nutrients and oxygen; while they have a few different kinds of structures, the most comical ones are the famous pneumatophores that spread out from the tree and stick out of the ground like woody snorkels.)

As for the awards, there were winners across six categories, and we’ve picked out some of the best that highlight the animal life that calls these forests home. For more, check out our gallery.

The overall winner for a striking snap of a young Royal Bengal tigress (see pic above) was Soham Bhattacharyya, who captured the endangered big cat candidly in the Sundarbans Biosphere Reserve in India. Titled “The Finest ‘Flower’ of the Mangroves,” it is a stunning portrait of the only tiger adapted to live in a mangrove forest.

Another portrait of a rather different animal earned Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn of Thailand the Young Mangrove Photographer of the Year award.

Katanyou Wuttichaitanakorn/Mangrove Photography Awards

At just 17, Wuttichaitanakorn has already made a name for himself as a world-class nature photographer.

This young gold-spotted mudskipper (Periophthalmus chrysospilos) was wonderfully captured in Samut Sakorn province in Thailand. This winning photo comes just a year after the teenager took out his age category in the 2022 Wildlife Photographer of the Year awards, for his artistic capture of a Bryde’s whale.

Phan Thi Khanh/Mangrove Photography Awards

This dazzling aerial shot shows the many sides to these landscapes, as a fishing boat slowly navigates through its dense network of wintery branches in the Ru Cha Mangrove Forest in Vietnam. Photographer Phan Thi Khanh’s image titled “In the Forest” earned the runner-up prize in the People & Mangroves category.

“Ru Cha is a mangrove forest that is considered the green lung of Tam Giang lagoon,” he explained, adding that the bare winter branches are reminiscent of a giant spider web.

Mangrove Photography Awards

Mangrove forests have as much happening under the water as above it, as Chien Lee captures in “Hiding in Plain Sight,” taken deep in the Utría National Natural Park, Colombia. This funny character is a common potoo (Nyctibius griseus), doing its best to pretend it’s part of the furniture in order to guard the nest. As nocturnal animals, it’s are to see these birds in daylight.

“As I didn’t want to risk disturbing the potoo into flight, I photographed it with a long telephoto lens some distance away,” Lee said. “It was only after looking through the lens that I realized there was actually a single egg.”

The snap below took out the Mangroves & Wildlife category.

Mangrove Photography Awards

There’s no denying that us humans have had a significant impact on mangrove forests, much like everywhere else we’ve turned up. Emanuele Biggi’s “The Theatre of Plastic,” which captures a lone hermit crab who has made a home out of a plastic deodorant can top, is a stark reminder of how many species have had to adapt, if they can, or die.

Taken close to the resort island Pom Pom in Sabah, Malaysia, it’s a haunting contrast to the aqua waters and beach views usually associated with the region. And it won the photographer the top prize in the Mangroves & Threats category.

“Pom Pom island is a violated paradise,” said Biggi, who added that the area is burdened by tons of plastic flowing in from nearby Borean shores. “When I found this poor hermit crab … I knew I [had] found my sad ambassador for this terrible human problem.”

Mangrove Photography Awards

With a title that spells out exactly what is happening here, “Mating Nurse Sharks” is an action-snap taken by Mark Ian Cook from a helicopter above the aptly named Shark Point in the Everglades National Park, Florida. He snapped this photo while actually conducting a scientific study on waterbirds in the region.

“Sheltered mangrove habitats that are largely free of human disturbance are critical mating and nursery habitats for a number of shark species, and protecting these areas is essential to sustaining shark populations,” he said.

The various kinds of above-ground roots of the mangroves here form a sort of shark ‘lovers’ lane’, with the sheltered and calm waters providing a haven for the animals to go about their business.

Source: Mangrove Photography Awards

From Willow River to Taylors Falls, western Wisconsin and its neighboring regions offer plenty of scenic destinations for weddings and elopements. Local wedding adventure photographers are taking full advantage.

When Samantha Burke started working her first job after graduation, she grew frustrated with having to ask for time off. Burke said she didn’t get paid time off for her first year at a company, so she took an unpaid absence when the opportunity to go to Italy arose.

She quickly realized that a more conventional work experience wasn’t for everyone — her included. And now, Burke has a full-time career in what she calls “wedding and elopement adventure photography.” How does Burke describe her line of work?

“Adventure weddings and elopements, it’s kind of fun, because adventure can mean different things for different people,” Burke said. “I like to think of it as taking a wedding experience and making it intentional and full of connection and things that make you happy. Just starting your marriage off with an adventure — with a bang.”

Couples also like to incorporate hobbies that they enjoy, such as canoeing and camping. The photographer can often help plan the experience, booking things and suggesting locations that match what the couple is looking for in an experience.

Cassandra Oldenburg of Narrow Leaf photography describes it as an “unconventional approach to weddings,” whether that’s hiking, kayaking or even helicopter elopements.

For Oldenburg, her favorite place she’s been to for photography is Iceland. And she said her most popular spots in the local region are the St. Croix River Valley and the North Shore.

Burke couldn’t narrow down her favorite destination to take photos while on assignment, so she listed three: Hawaii, Utah and the North Shore in Minnesota. In Hawaii, Burke traveled to O‘ahu and photographed a couple on a lesser-known beach. The couple went into the water with their wedding clothes on and climbed up on rocks.

Anna Scheunemann, along with her husband, Richard, hired Burke for adventure elopement photography as well. They all went out to Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. Scheunemann said she and her husband are pretty outdoorsy and wanted a more private elopement ceremony, which led to them choosing the adventure photography experience.

“I loved the way she was able to capture the essence of the wilderness wherever different couples were,” Anna said. “Along with the photos of the wedding, I wanted to be able to look in my house, have different scenery from the area that we had eloped and I thought that a lot of her photos, yes, captured the couple, but also captured really cool backdrops.”

The Knot, a wedding planner site, conducted a 2022 survey that found 83% of its Gen Z correspondents said photo or video is the most important element of a wedding. And as couples pursue less conventional wedding experiences, Oldenburg brings up a good point.

“The way of getting married used to be this very structured [method of] ‘this is what you did, this is how you spend, this is a societal norm,’” Oldenburg said. “And I think, nowadays, people are really starting to appreciate more experiences over maybe social norms or stuff. … We’re seeing this sort of change in the industry.”

Pictured is Erica Rose, owner of Rose and Grace Studio, 316 Cherry St., Jamestown. The studio is open for local creators in the community.
P-J photos by Sara Holthouse

A community space for different kinds of creators has opened in Jamestown.

Rose and Grace Studio, located at 316 Cherry St., Suite 105, is owned by Erica Rose and is a studio meant to give community creators a place to explore. These creators can include anyone from photographers to yoga instructors.

Rose said she opened the studio because during her own creative process she found there were not a lot of spaces in the area for things like photography.

“We have event centers, which are all very business and corporate like, but there are no places or studios like this for photographers,” Rose said. “It’s part of the Jamestown area.”

While Grace Studio is set to be used for any kind of creator, Rose said it will lean heavily toward photography. There will be five or six backdrops for photographers, and the studio will also be open for style shoots for places such as bridal boutiques and influencers. Rose said anything from someone working on their brand for social media to training, business meetings, art galleries, or yoga and pilates classes can be held in the studio. She is also opening it for pop up classes and exclusive pop up classes for fundraisers.

Rose and Grace Studio, 316 Cherry St., Jamestown. The studio is open for local creators in the community.
P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

Rose is also a social media manager under the name XO Erica Rose LLC. The studio is an extension of that.

“My clients often need headshots and a place to work on their brands, and this is a place where they can take those,” Rose said. “I like to say the two shake hands, but they are still separate. I mostly want to give back to the community by allowing them to use the space.”

Rose said she is here to be part of the local community.

“I’m a big believer that we have a collection of creators with skills out there in the community, and I want to create a platform to help get the word out about them and to let people know that they exist,” Rose said. “I want to put a spotlight on the hidden gems in Chautauqua County.”

Rose said being able to open her own studio is a big achievement because she has previously been with another company for 15 years, which recently shut its doors so Rose recently lost her job. It has also meant a lot to be able to achieve this with her daughter — Ryleigh Grace.

Rose and Grace Studio, 316 Cherry St., Jamestown. The studio is open for local creators in the community.
P-J photo by Sara Holthouse

“To be able to open this on my own is a huge accomplishment and as a mother of a girl I can show her that whatever you think you want to do can be done, and she can learn to follow her dreams,” she said.

Rose encouraged those who need a studio to come and use her space.

“A really great source of advertisement is talking and word of mouth,” she said. “You don’t have to use the space yourself, but tell your friends and family who might and we can have a collaboration. When collaboration happens beautiful things come.”

Rose and Grace studio can be booked online at https://XoEricaRoseLLC.as.me/. Bookings are available hourly, quarterly — four hours — and daily — eight hour — slots. The studio is open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Saturday.

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Mike Chalmers, of Shepherdstown, signs a copy of his book, “This is Shepherdstown,” for Lucien Lewin, of Martinsburg, at Saturday night’s book launch party in Evolve. Tabitha Johnston

SHEPHERDSTOWN — “This literally is Shepherdstown — every part of the book! There’s pictures of German Street covered in snow, there’s pictures of local houses. Mike did a really good job of capturing what it is to be in Shepherdstown and what Shepherdstown is,” said Shepherdstown resident Katelyn Chambers at the book launch party for Michael “Mike” Chalmers’ recently released photography book, “This is Shepherdstown,” in Evolve on Saturday evening.

According to Chalmers, this book would have never come into being, if not for the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“I was looking for a way to do my part, during COVID — to use my skill sets to help. Everyone felt there was a sense of discomfort at that time,” Chalmers said.

“I wanted to do something attainable for the public, that was relatable and didn’t devour my time,” Chalmers said of the project, which started with him posting photographs of Shepherdstown on social media in Aug. 2021. “So I decided that I could take these pictures of Shepherdstown, I could put them up every few days, I could write a little something about them and maybe people would take notice. And so, as often happens with digital endeavors, it took off, to the point that thousands of people are following on Facebook and Instagram. They started really engaging with the ‘This is Shepherdstown’ pages after about a year — talking and sharing. A lot of people then started asking about a book. About six months ago, I seriously started thinking about it.”

Over the summer, Chalmers then proceeded to narrow down his favorite photographs on the “This is Shepherdstown” social media pages, from over a thousand down to 160.

Katelyn Chambers, of Shepherdstown, chats with Shepherd University alumni Patrick Shunney at the “This is Shepherdstown” book launch party in Evolve on Saturday. Tabitha Johnston

“I put it together and shopped it around,” Chalmers, who previously created and published “The Observer” periodical, said. “I had several publishers that wanted to do it, but they were going to take too long [in getting it to print] and were going to wrestle away a decent amount of the creative control, so I said, ‘No thanks! I’ll go ahead and invest in myself and publish it myself.’”

Choosing to go the self-published route has, over the month since it first came out, proven to be the right call for the Shepherd University Class of 1997 graduate.

“There’s a distinct layout to this book that, if you have a familiarity with publishing, you’ll see that a publisher wouldn’t have given all of this attention to one book, because it would cost a lot and you just don’t know if you’re going to get that return [on the cost], as a publisher,” Chalmers, who mainly works in marketing and advertising, said. “I knew that, so I took the pressure off of everybody and decided to take the financial risk of doing this myself. It’s been extremely well-received. Tonight has been a huge success!”

Copies of “This is Shepherdstown” can be purchased at Four Seasons Books or by visiting https://www.thisisshepherdstown.com/. Fifteen percent of the book proceeds will be donated to Shepherdstown Shares, which played a major part in local relief efforts during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Comments from community members of all ages share the things they love about Shepherdstown at the book launch party in Evolve on Saturday night. Tabitha Johnston

Photographer Katey Barrett, long associated with artful images of Santa Anita, passed away Sunday, Oct. 22 after a bout with cancer. She was 91.

Barrett’s images, often easy to identify due to her unique style, were part of Santa Anita’s opening day Winter Meet souvenir calendar for over 30 years. A Minnesota native, Barrett came to California in the 1950s and worked on several TV shows, as well as on a movie with Don Knotts.

“Katey had been on hospice and was diagnosed with cancer a couple of months ago,” said her sister, Jane Barrett. “She was at Santa Anita and took beautiful pictures for more than 40 years. She received many awards and she was dedicated to serving animals, all animals. A lot of people have been calling and expressing what she has done for them personally, in their lives.”

Barrett is survived by her sister and two brothers, David and Jim. At her request, there will be no memorial services. Donations in her honor can be made to Wild Horse Sanctuary, P.O. Box 30, Shingletown, CA, 96088.