Jon Cornforth, Special Mention, 2004 Banff Mountain Photography Competition

"On a trip to the eastern Sierras of California in November 2002, I had hoped to locate a petroglyph of which I had seen some photos prior to my visit. I asked at the local Bureau of Land Management office for help in finding it, and after I convinced the staff that I wasn’t going to vandalize it, they told me where the panel was located and that it was probably 500 to 1000 years old. I scouted it out and realized that it was a prime sunrise photo location. On the last night of my trip, I slept in my truck at the trailhead. When I woke up to begin my hike, I saw these clouds forming over the Sierras. Anticipating this image, I ran ecstatically up the trail and was in position well before the clouds turned fiery red. This image was part of the 2003 World in Focus environmental photography exhibit in Seattle. It also won the Grand Prize in the 2004 Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival’s photography exhibit and a 3rd Place Award in Outdoor California magazine’s annual photography competition."

Photographer Jon Cornforth travels extensively to capture unique and beautiful images of the natural world. Jon has a background in mountaineering and in adventure travel, so it seemed only natural for him to try to capture some of his explorations on film. A wonderful workshop with Art Wolfe when Jon first started out only fuelled his desire to pursue nature photography as a career. He continues to travel and photograph for a significant amount of each year in order to build up his portfolio of images and to work on future book projects. Jon lives in Seattle, Wash., with his wife, Daisy; baby girl, Maddy; and Boston terrier, Buni. He has been fortunate enough to be able to turn his passion for nature photography into a full-time business since 2001.