A photograph taken in the New Jersey Highlands by photographer Dwight Hiscano of Summit was selected for an exhibit at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Hiscano, known for his colorful portrayals of the New Jersey landscape, and author of New Jersey, The Natural State, received “Highly Honored” in the Art in Nature category of the annual Nature's Best International Photography Awards competition. Winning photographs from the annual competition, organized by Nature’s Best Magazine and the Nature’s Best Foundation, will be featured at the Smithsonian for several months. The photographs also grace the pages of the Fall edition of the magazine. The contest was open to professional and amateur photographers from around the globe; over 15000 images were submitted.

Hiscano’s photograph is a close-up of lily pads at sunset on a pond in the Sparta Mountains. Commented Dwight after the exhibit, “Not only do I get to see one of my photos at the Smithsonian, but also to see a picture from the New Jersey Highlands exhibited on the same walls and on the same pages as images from Alaska, the South Pacific, New Zealand, Africa, and Hawaii... That’s quite an honor.” The Highlands, a mountainous region stretching through four states and seven New Jersey counties, has been proposed by members of congress and citizens’ groups as a national stewardship area worthy of preservation. The historically and ecologically significant region is a major source of drinking water for 15 million people and provides recreation to 14 million visitors each year. It is also under intense pressure from developers; thousands of acres of pristine forest and farmland are lost to urbanization and sprawl development every year.

An avid outdoorsman and trustee for the NJ chapter of the Nature Conservancy, Dwight Hiscano considers landscape photography a valuable tool with which to promote conservation efforts. His book, New Jersey, the Natural State, a full color coffee table style book published by Rutgers University Press featuring over 100 full color photographs, depicts some of the more natural settings of our densly populated, yet still remarkably beautiful state. This project also focuses attention on the urgent need to preserve what remains of New Jersey’s landscape for future generations.

For more information on conservation efforts in New Jersey and elsewhere, visit the Nature Conservancy's website at nature.org.

To learn more about the Nature's Best Foundation visit naturesbestmagazine.com.