The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 8/27/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Courtesy of Amanda Lease This photo, taken by Amanda Lease, won the National Geographic People and Cultures category late July. The photo itself pictures her brother, Richard Lease, in a lava field in Maui, Hawaii.

CSU student Amanda Lease may win a trip for two to Tanzania and Zanzibar, and when she imagines whom she'd want to take, her first thoughts are of her brother.

Late last month, 28-year-old amateur photographer Lease was selected as one of eight finalists in a National Geographic photography contest.

Lease climbed to the top of a rock to photograph her brother, Richard, sleeping in a hammock while on a camping trip in Maui earlier this summer. She was right in thinking the photo would be a good one to submit to the contest.

"We received thousands of entries, but Lease's picture captures a part of our lives that we all can recognize. That's what propelled her to the top of the category," said Jim Richardson, a photographer for National Geographic magazine and one of the contest judges, in a press release.

Winning means not only scoring that trip, but also being published in National Geographic magazine.

The contest is sponsored by Energizer and exists essentially as an effort to "celebrate a new name for Energizer Ultimate new name for Energizer Ultimate Lithium batteries," according to a spokeswoman for the battery company.

Energizer will be placing an ad featuring the contest-winning photograph in the December issue of National Geographic.

Voting for the contest winner ends Thursday.

Lease said that all -- especially fellow Rams -- are welcome and encouraged to vote at National Geographic's Web site, at http://nationalgeographic.com/energizer.

Currently a graduate student studying ecology in the biology department at CSU, Lease said she has never taken any photography classes, with the exception of a one-time, two-day workshop.

There were more than 8,000 entries in the contest, which was announced in May, and only one finalist was selected by a panel of judges from each of eight categories: adventure and exploration, travel, weather, science, people and cultures, festivals and celebrations, wildlife and nature and space.

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