Pribilof girls from a refuge co-sponsored Stewardship camp are featured on the cover of “The Interpreter” magazine, a professional journal for outdoor educators. Photographers: Tom Collopy and Mary Frische, July 2008

Camp Qungaayux landscape photograph taken during the digital photography camp class by camper Amber Jellison of Unalaska Island. Photographer: Amber Jellison, August 2008

Alaska Maritime Refuge’s Lisa Matlock’s enthusiasm for her new digital photography camp program led her to submit an article to The Interpreter, a national publication for outdoor educators and communicators.  “A Lesson in Digital Photography for Luddites” was the lead article and a photo of Brandi Merculief and another camper  from St. George Island in the remote Pribilof Islands graced the cover of the Nov/Dec  issue.  Digital photographs by three student photographers from Unalaska, Nikolski, and Anchorage were featured in the magazine.

Matlock’s idea was to use photography to grab today’s techno-savvy kids and lure them into appreciating the landscape.  The kids embraced the program featured last summer at Stewardship Camps at St. George, St. Paul and Unalaska islands, proving that a little technology can help kids connect with nature. The article is intended to motivate other educators to try digital photography with students and provide them with practical, “how to” information.  Matlock also lectured on the refuge’s digital photography programs at the National Association of Interpreters annual national conference last November.

None of this would have been possible without the help of professional photographers Tom Collopy and Mary Frische who volunteered as members of Friends of Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuges to help Matlock’s summer camp with equipment selection, photo production, and composition techniques.  Collopy and Frische also took the cover shot of the St. George girls.

The Stewardship Camps, which mix nature and cultural learning, have been funded through a Challenge Cost Share partnerships of tribes, village corporations, school districts, the refuge and other government agencies for more than a decade.   One Unalaska girl wrote in her journal that although she had been coming to camp for several years she had never realized “that the nature around camp was so pretty” until she took the photography class.  Hopefully the insights from Matlock’s article and photographs taken by the campers will inspire other adults to make this happen for kids elsewhere.