Stormscape photograph wins Del Val High School contest

Jake Norgard, a senior from Kingwood Township, N.J., has won first prize in the Delaware Valley High School Environmental Club’s annual nature photo contest.

On a family vacation, Norgard made a video of an approaching storm in Monument Valley, which straddles the Arizona/Utah state line. Then he captured a still picture showing a lightning strike.

Second- and third-place photos were taken on the Del Val campus. Kara O’Boyle, also a senior from Kingwood, took second with a close-up of a dahlia in a courtyard right off the art rooms. Ashley Folmar, a sophomore from Milford, N.J., was third with a picture of fungi growing on a log beside Del Val’s sylvan cross-country path.

They will each win a matted print of their photos, and Visa gift cards in the amounts of $50, $25 and $10 for first, second and third.

This year the club added a contest for staff. Each winning a print of her or his photo are: English teacher Molly Esposito in first place for her impending storm in Badlands National Park in South Dakota; music teacher T.J. Hayden for his glimpse of Hidden Lake in Glacier National Park in Montana in second place; custodian Ron Marinelli in third place for his roosting owl; and science teacher Caryn Bowe in fourth place for her towering redwoods in Muir Woods National Park, Marin County, Calif.

The winners were selected by a vote of students and staff. The contest was coordinated by Environmental Club adviser Sarah Ruppert.