Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica Photo Contest

in Nature by Marcelo Krause — December 9, 2010 at 4:50 PM | 0 comments

In 2010 one of the pictures I took at RPPN Reserva Ecológica do Sebuí got the first place on the Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica photo contest.  Now on its sixth edition, the contest got 1.936 submissions, 1.075 on the amateur category and 861 on the pro category. The results and winning images can be seen on their website. The Fundação SOS Mata Atlântica is a ONG created in 1986 to protect and promote research projects on the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforest.

The Reserva Ecológica do Sebui (Sebui Ecological Reserve) is on the continental side of Baia dos Pinheiros (Pine Bay). They have a small house for 12 guests.  I intent to write a detailed story about Sebui here on the blog in the future, so I won’t go into many details right now.  The reserve encompasses a quite big preserved area of Atlantic Rainforest and the hotel is very well integrated into the surroundings.  There are many trails that cross the reserve and guests can join many activities such as trekking, bird watching, boat and canoe rides. I was there with friend and bird watching guide Raphael Sobânia to photograph the Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus ruber) that after many years away made a comeback to Parana State.

The winning image was made on the side of Cachoeira Misteriosa (Mystery Waterfall) near were the trail reaches the waterfall area. It was a quite challenging position because of the inclination of the riverbank.  There was no space for mounting the tripod. I managed to adjust the legs height and place the tripod using as a base 3 branches of 2 different trees.  As a result I got a unique view of the bromeliads and the waterfall.