Greetings Friends,

Every year in January or February, the NANPA Summit convenes at various cities around the country. Charlotte, North Carolina, was this year’s venue. For those unfamiliar with NANPA, it stands for the North American Nature Photography Association.

The NANPA Summit is a wonderful opportunity for nature and wildlife specialists and editors to meet and share their work. I participate in these industry events to help me stay in front of your needs and to continually build our business in the right direction.

Some of our greatest wildlife photographers and industry colleagues started NANPA – greats such as Roger Tory Peterson, Art Wolfe, Frans Lanting, Tom Mangelsen, John Nuhn of the National Wildlife Federation, and the Grand Dame of our photo industry, Jane Kinne, whom many of you know from your associations with NANPA, the American Society of Picture Professionals, or the Picture Archive Council of America. I’m continually inspired by Jane’s commitment and many contributions to the industry.

The summit gives photographers a chance to network with fellow shooters, while learning new techniques, examining the latest photographic hardware, and gaining information about the digital transition everyone is making. In fact, photographers come out of the bush from all corners of the world to attend this annual conference.

I networked with a lot of them, learning about their current projects and how they might benefit new media projects that we are developing and bringing into our product line. Keep checking back as the year progresses for more information!

As a charter member of NANPA, I’ve been attending summit conferences since their inception 10 years ago. I share this with you to underscore how committed I am to finding natural history coverage of our world to make it available to you. Photographers who participate in NANPA summits often have depth and breadth in their particular habitat or ecosystem specialty that is difficult to find anywhere else. I’ve been working with photo requests and spec lists for 25 years, and I know the areas and species that are hard to find. It’s important for me to be able to provide you with imagery you can’t find anywhere else.

As a NANPA Foundation board member again this year, I oversaw two NANPA Summit auctions that raise money for our educational programs. I also reviewed portfolios, along with other editors from various magazine and other publishing entities, to help me stay atop our industry – again always looking for ways to bring you the best!

If you are a photo editor who would be interested in editing portfolios next year, I can put you in touch with the colleague who will be organizing the 2006 Summit in Denver. Call me at 425 562-1543.