Appropriate Ages
Grades: Any Age

Estimated Time
Variable

Background of this Challenge

ESTIMATED DISTANCE: VARIABLE
ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME: VARIABLE
RECOMMENDED AGES: ALL AGES

Since 2002, Green Spaces Alliance (formerly Bexar Land Trust) has sponsored the weekend Picture Your World Youth Photography Project, which provides San Antonio youth ages 8-18 the opportunity for increased awareness of the natural world, an opportunity to gain new knowledge and basic instruction to photography, camera technology, arts education, and a way of looking at nature in the world around them.

This challenge provides another opportunity for kids to get outdoors and appreciate nature.

Challenge Overview

For this challenge, you will be asked to complete three of the seven photography adventures created for you by Green Spaces Alliance of South Texas. These seven photography adventures involve capturing nature with a photograph. We hope to see photos that are in focus, taken from an interesting perspective, and show us the subject in a new and creative way.

After completing the challenge, the photographs must be uploaded to the Green Spaces Alliance website; visit www.greensatx.org and click on “Texas Nature Challenge” under the “Get Involved” tab. Photos may also be submitted hard-copy by mailing them, along with your name, mailing address, and phone number, to PO Box 6250, San Antonio, TX 78209.

Once your three photographs have been received, Green Spaces Alliance will confirm your challenge completion and send you your Texas Nature Challenge sticker(s).

This challenge can be completed in any natural area throughout San Antonio. If you are having trouble locating some of the challenge items, try going to a nearby community garden. Green Spaces Alliance has helped establish 33 community gardens around San Antonio for you to visit. You can find a map of the gardens here: http://g.co/maps/gxzk3

Challenge Steps

• CHALLENGE 1: Take a picture of locally grown fruit trees with fruit attached. These can be found in your neighborhood or anywhere in Bexar and its surrounding counties. Some examples of native fruit trees are peaches, figs, and grapefruit.

• CHALLENGE 2: Take a picture of fresh, locally-grown vegetables, either at a farm, in a community garden, or in a home garden. These photos can be of growing vegetables, or those that have already been picked. You can find these at a farmer’s market (examples are Pearl on Saturday morning and Whole Foods on Sunday morning), in a community garden, or in your backyard

• CHALLENGE 3: Organic farming has become the fastest growing sector of the agriculture industry. In fact, according to the Organic Farmers Research Foundation, organic production has increased by 20 percent each year for the past decade. Take a picture of a farmer, either at a farmer’s market, in the field, or in a home/community garden.
  

• CHALLENGE 4: Take a picture of a local native plant in its natural environment. Choose from agarito, prickly pear, or chili piquin. These are all plants that are used for food.

• CHALLENGE 5: Take a picture of something in nature that flies. Some good examples are birds, butterflies, and insects such as the dragonfly. All of these can be found in the wild or even in your backyard.

• CHALLENGE 6: All around us we see signs of urban encroachment…grass and weeds breaking through the cracks in concrete sidewalks, ivy growing up street signs, and land scrapped clean to build new housing developments. Find and photograph an example of urban encroachment on our natural environment.

• CHALLENGE 7: Take a picture of a water catchment such as a tank of water, bird bath, barrels of water etc. Include some aspect of nature in the picture.

Completing Your Challenge

After completing the challenge, the photographs must be uploaded below (scroll down this page). Photos may also be submitted hard-copy by mailing them, along with your name, mailing address, and phone number, to PO Box 6250, San Antonio, TX 78209.

Once your three photographs have been received, Green Spaces Alliance will confirm your challenge completion and send you your Texas Nature Challenge sticker(s).

Once you receive your sticker, place it on the Alamo Area Nature Challenge Checklist (found online at http://naturechallenge.tamu.edu/alamoarea/). Turn in the Checklist to Sasha Kodet at the San Antonio Botanical Garden to be eligible for a prize at the Closing Ceremony of the Alamo Area Nature Challenge!

If you enjoyed these challenges, please register for Green Spaces Alliance’s Picture Your World Youth Photography Workshops, held throughout the school year beginning in September. These workshops take place at beautiful outdoor sites, where the program instructor, a professional photographer, and a naturalist all teach participants the basics of photography and build their appreciation for the natural world.

Picture Your World is open to all interested students age 8-18. The students meet in the afternoon from 1-4:30 p.m. Parents are welcome to attend. Green Spaces provides digital cameras to students who wish to borrow one, or participants may bring their own cameras. Each workshop costs $10 for Green Spaces members’ children and $15 for the children of non-members, but this fee may be waived for students demonstrating financial need.