A group of local photographers with an eye for the frogs, plants and snakes that thrive in this area caught the eye of the Virginia Wildlife magazine editor and they are featured this summer in the July/August issue which is traditionally their “Photography Showcase Issue.”

Barbara Saffir is a Mount Vernon-based photographer who saw her works in this county-based magazine. "My mating watersnakes photo from Huntley Meadows was one of three photos that got in," she said. "I also photographed an other-worldly orange fungus at Fairfax’s Burke Lake Park and cracked ice patterns at Fairfax’s Foxstone Park."

The Virginia Wildlife Magazine seeks photos from all levels of the photography spectrum, both on the professional and amateur level. In 2023, they said 422 photographers submitted 1,444 images that depicted the beauty of Virginia's wildlife and wild places, said Molly Kirk, editor Virginia Wildlife magazine. Of all those photos, they published 182 images from 141 different photographers.

Other local photographers that made up the showcase issue included Elaine Starr, who also shoots at Huntley a lot, Alexandria photographers Linda Ashley, Tibor Molnar, Tim Hostert, and Darren Hutchinson, and Randy Streufert and Lee Green of Lorton. Others were from different locations in Fairfax County.

There is a list of rules for the entries including rule number one: “The showcase is open to any photographer, amateur or professional, young or young at heart, including employees of the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources.”

The bi-monthly magazine has five other annual issues containing feature articles and columns that highlight the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources’ work to protect wildlife and their habitats, educate readers about Virginia’s wildlife, and inform readers how they can help wildlife themselves. 

“For those issues of the magazine, we source photos both internally from DWR staff and externally from professional photographers,” Kirk added.

“The images these photographers create and submit showcase the remarkable beauty and diversity of Virginia’s wildlife, offering a glimpse into wildlife’s world for many who may not have the opportunity to see such sights themselves,” Kirk said.

Saffir’s Photo Experience

Barbara Saffir began as a hiking advocate and decided to take her camera along on a hike and has done that ever since. She started a group called "Nature Photography DC/MD/VA." with conservation in mind and had a group exhibit called “Birds, Blooms, & Beasts” at Green Spring Gardens last year. "This year we have a show at the USGS’s headquarters in Reston called ‘Nature’s Spectacles,’ and just wrapped up a solo show at the renowned Patuxent Research Refuge called ‘Loveable Birds & Beasts,’” she said.

In addition to her love for wildlife photography, she thinks it could be a powerful tool. 

"Nature photos can help save the world's dwindling treasures," she said. "If wildlife images inspire voters, developers, lawmakers, and others to fall fervently in love with earth's cute critters, they'll work passionately to protect them and the sacred places they call home,” she added.