Discovery Park Photo Contest Judges

Tom Hefferan, photographer/instructor

Tom Hefferan has been photographing professionally for over 15 years. He shares his love of the medium not only with his clients, but also by teaching photography at several Puget Sound area community colleges. While Tom's current commercial work is primarily wedding and portrait photography, his images have appeared in diverse publications such as Wine Spectator, Seattle Design Resources and the San Diego Union Tribune, as well as in web and print publications for a variety of corporate, educational, and non-profit organizations in the Puget Sound area. At every opportunity, Tom creates personal photographs of nature subjects, candid portraits, urban scenes, cultural celebrations, and in-camera 'paintings' ".

Kathi Goertzen, KOMO 4 News

Lifetime Seattle resident Kathi Goertzen is a longtime news anchor for KOMO 4 News. She grew up in Magnolia, visiting Discovery Park and is back living here with her family now.

"I have a great appreciation for Discovery Park and the beaches of Puget Sound. I grew up visiting Discovery Park as a child, a teenager, and now a mom. It is truly the city's finest gem and I look forward to seeing the photos of this magical place!"

Natalie Fobes, Fobes Photography

Natalie Fobes specializes in photographing people, places and wildlife. For the last five years she has added photojournalistic weddings and portraiture to her repertoire. Natalie's photographs have been published by almost every major magazine including National Geographic, Smithsonian, Natural History and Audubon.

Her website is www.fobesphoto.com

Five of her images are on display at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry through the summer.

She has had three books published of her work. Her first book, Reaching Home: Pacific Salmon, Pacific People, was the culmination of over 10 years of reporting around the Pacific Rim. I Dream Alaska was published in 1998 and A Diamond in the Emerald City: the Story of Safeco Field, was published in 1999. She has been a contributor to more than 30 others and was the primary photographer for Microsoft's "Inside Out."

She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in a writing category, and received the Alicia Patterson Fellowship and the Scripps Howard Meeman award for her salmon work. Her exhibit of the same name has been shown at museums and aquariums throughout the West and Alaska including The Burke Museum, The Alaska State Museum and The Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution. In 2005 Natalie was a finalist for the Alicia Patterson Fellowship for her long-term project on the impact of China's one-child policy in that country and also the United States.

Natalie has won over 200 international, national and local awards for her photography. She was recently honored as PhotoMedia's Photoperson of the Year. Her dedication to environmental and cultural issues was honored by Blue Earth Alliance when it named an award after her in 2002. The Natalie Award is given to people who work tirelessly on documentary photography projects.

In 2001, Natalie received a grant from the Seattle Arts Commission to create a temporary exhibit for display in a city park. Natalie reproduced her salmon photographs on fabric and created salmon photo-flags. She hung her exhibit in a stand of cedar trees next to a salmon stream. The work resembled prayer flags and reminded everyone of the critical importance of the return of salmon to the health of the forests. Her fine art work is also represented in public, private and corporate collections.

Natalie is co-founder of Blue Earth Alliance, blueearth.org, a non-profit corporation dedicated to helping photographers document endangered environments, threatened cultures and social issues. Until 2002 she was president. She continues to serve on the board of directors.