For someone who has only been practicing serious photography for about eight years, Frank Ellison has done pretty well for himself. Ellison, 53, took first place in the Invertebrate category in the 2014 Photo Competition and now earned the top prize in the 2015 Wildlife in North Carolina Photo Competition. His photo and 30 other winning shots in 10 categories are on display at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences beginning Saturday, February 6 and through the end of July 2016.
“It gives me something to do,” Ellison said of his photography hobby. “I actually don’t like to shoot people. I like nature better. I like shooting micro. On that winning picture the flower is actually touching the lens.”
Ellison, who is head of maintenance at Industries for the Blind in Winston-Salem, lives in Clemmons with his wife Julie and sons Taylor, 10, and Austin, 12. A small garden planted next to his house is a favorite haunt for Ellison and the bugs he likes to shoot.
“I usually come out early in the morning and look for micro shots,” he said. “We have tomato, squash and butterfly bushes next to the house. I saw a dark object in the yellow bloom and looked in and saw he was looking right back.”
Ellison shot about seven frames and went on with his morning. He has had several images published online at National Geographic’s Your Shot picture gallery, but didn’t think he had a winner with the assassin fly when he first saw it on his computer monitor. So, it’s taken a while for the reality of winning to sink in. “I don’t have anything to compare it to,” he said. “It’s the first major photo competition that I’ve won.”
If Ellison has a “secret weapon” it might not be his Nikon D700, but perhaps his little garden next to his house. He said the winning shot he got for the 2015 contest was taken 10 feet from the spot he shot an assassin fly to win the Invertebrate category last year. It’s proving to be a very fertile garden.
Marsha Tillett, the art director at Wildlife in North Carolina magazine and one of the judges, commented on this year’s contest, including Ellison’s assassin fly image. “The Wildlife in North Carolina staff really enjoys the photo competition issue. We like seeing what our readers are experiencing, and once again the submissions for this year’s contest were filled with many beautiful images. But the remarkable eyes of this fly, and the striking contrast of colors in this photograph stood out to all the judges and was easily chosen as our grand prize winner.”
The other four judges for this year’s contest were staff graphic designers Amy Friend and Bryant Cole and staff photographer Melissa McGaw. Mike Dunn, retired senior manager of outreach at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences, was also a judge and is a veteran photographer in his own right.
This year there was an uptick in entries with almost 1,500 images uploaded. All winning photographs may be seen on exhibit at the N.C. Museum of Natural Sciences as well as online at ncwildlife.org.