“Best Outdoor Media Award"
“Best Outdoor Feature Photograph”
“Best Nature Photograph”
Editor’s Choice: “Best Overall Photograph”
“Best Outdoor Magazine Feature”
Los Angeles, CA (June 1, 2016) – The Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC) annual Craft Awards competition honored High & Dry: dispatches from the land of little rain with the “Best Outdoor Media Award” at their spring conference in Auburn, CA.
Considered one of OWAC’s most prestigious awards, “Best Outdoor Media” is the highest award encompassing any medium: print, online, or broadcast. It went this year to High & Dry collaborators Christopher Langley and Osceola Refetoff.
Osceola also received the First Place Award for “Best Outdoor Feature Photograph” for "Sky, Whitecaps, Earth, Halobacteria – Salton Sea, CA.” The image has appeared in the various media outlets, including KCET’s Artbound, The Huffington Post, Reuters, and Compass magazine.
Sky, Whitecaps, Earth, Halobacteria – Salton Sea, CA
Refetoff was also honored for “Donner Pass from Abandoned Train Sheds – Norden, CA.” The image received the First Place Award for “Best Nature Photograph” and the grand prize “Editors’ Choice” for “Best Overall Photograph.” This is the second year in a row that he received these three top awards.
In addition, Langley was honored in the category “Best Outdoor Magazine Feature” for his article Framing the Desert which appeared in the University of California publication, Boom: A Journal of California.
During the Auburn conference, OWAC members were treated to Placer County’s wealth of phenomenal scenery and outstanding outdoor activities. Langley and Refetoff stayed at the newly restored Miner’s Camp in Foresthill, CA. Twenty minutes from Auburn, the ten rustic cabins provide an authentic Gold Country experience, but with wifi and creature comforts beyond the dreams of your average 49er.
Miner's Camp Sign, Exterior & Interior with Project Designer Wendy Lowery
Photos: Osceola Refetoff – 2016
The duo also explored the infamous Donner Pass, enjoying a pleasant vegetarian lunch without incident. It is there, during a hike through abandoned railroad Tunnel 6, that Osceola captured the “Shirley Miller Memorial Photo Contest” grand prize winner, for which images must be made during a single day of conference activities.
The team returned freshly obsessed with the history of the area, their hunger for knowledge sated in part by outdoor sport legend Norm Sayler, president of the must-see Donner Summit Historical Society museum. Norm's “why not? (just don't hurt yourself)” attitude facilitated the evolution of snowboarding, snowmobiling, and mountain biking into the extreme sports we know them as today. A High & Dry dispatch will follow, no doubt.
Donner Pass from Abandoned Train Sheds – Infrared Exposure – Norden, CA
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