Thirty-four photographs of plants and animals that live near the ocean adorn the walls of the Spadefish Gallery of the North Carolina Aquarium at Fort Fisher. The exhibit, presented by the Cape Fear Camera Club, features many images taken in the Wilmington area, and each piece is for sale.
Camera club member Deborah Albert took “I Love You, Mommie,” a photograph of a mother fox with her pup, in Airlie Gardens. The piece won Best Overall for the exhibit.
“There are some incredible photographers in the camera club, so I’m shocked that I won the prize,” she said. “I still consider myself quite the amateur.”
Albert’s friends sparked her interest in photography.
“I love to travel for wildlife, and all my friends kept saying, ‘How can you take these trips and not take pictures?’” she said.
Heeding her friends’ advice, Albert bought a three-megapixel, point-and-shoot camera before her first trip to Antarctica in 2007, where she photographed emperor penguins.
“It’s probably the last wild place on Earth,” she said.
Albert returned to Antarctica in 2010 with a single-lens reflex (SLR) camera, which allowed her to look through the lens to see what would be captured before taking a snapshot.
“I walked 12 feet away from a leopard seal,” she said.
Albert has two other photos in the exhibit: “Strike a Pose,” an image of a pelican taken near Motts Channel Seafood; and “Sushi for Breakfast,” which features a mother osprey feeding her chicks near the Figure Eight Island Bridge.
Additional award-winning photographs in the exhibit, which will run until January, include Wayne Woodard’s “New in Life,” Best Flora winner; Laurie Gardos’ “Wild Horses on the Island,” Best Fauna winner; and Jim Maresca’s “Sea Greens,” Best Landscape winner.
Albert uses her zeal for photography to help wild animals by donating the proceeds from her photography sales to SkyWatch Bird Rescue, a nonprofit organization in Castle Hayne, N.C., that rescues and rehabilitates injured birds.
“They just bought 10 acres of land. The plan is to make it a bird sanctuary,” she said.
Albert, who serves on the center’s board of directors, said they hope to open the sanctuary to the public in 2016 so it can serve as a tourist destination and children’s education facility.
She also said Amelia Mason, the center’s director, rescued more than 1,200 birds last year.
“She takes in everything, from waterfowl to raptors,” Albert said.
From volunteering to feed baby birds to becoming a board member, Albert stressed the importance of giving time or money to SkyWatch.
“We run strictly on donation,” she said.
To learn more about SkyWatch, visit www.skywatchbirdrescue.org
To learn more about the Cape Fear Camera Club, visit www.capefearcameraclub.org
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