The Launstein Imagery Wildlife Art Gallery opens in the Crowsnest Pass July 7, 2016!

After years of dreaming and planning, this spring we embarked a new family venture (and adventure!) and have been working hard ever since to be able to make this announcement to our fellow wildlife lovers! This week marks the Grand Opening of our new Wildlife Art Gallery in the Crowsnest Pass! Read more

Marlise Launstein's picture of a Great Grey Owl holiding its prey

Marlise Named to the Top-100 of the 2016 Audubon Photography Awards

Marlise, now 16, is our official Artist-in-Residence at the Launstein home. OK, maybe it’s not an official position, but there’s no question this girl is a pure artist irrespective of medium. Although her primary focus has moved from photography to drawing over the past several years, she’s even more skillful than ever when she’s behind the lens. Read more

Jenaya’s “Yukon Porcupine” Included in Smithsonian’s “Best of the Best” Exhibit

This year Nature’s Best Photography worked with the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Natural History to produce a very special exhibit. Each year the winning and select awarded images from the annual Windland Smith Rice International Photography Awards are showcased in a feature exhibit in the prestigious museum. To celebrate the competition’s 20th anniversary, Nature’s […]

Special Feature in Outdoor Photography Magazine

Shortly after Josiah became the youngest ever to be named the Young Outdoor Photographer of the Year in January, 2015, we had an intriguing email arrive in our inbox. Steve Watkins, the editor of Outdoor Photography magazine, a premier nature photography periodical based in the U.K., reached out to us about doing a special feature on our family of photographers.

…we are tremendously honoured and more than a little humbled by the resulting feature (which was released in the April, 2016 issue), which we received permission to share here.

Josiah Featured in ROM Magazine

This fall the editors of ROM Magazine (the official quarterly magazine of the Royal Ontario Museum) reached out to us about doing a special feature on Josiah and his wildlife photography for their upcoming Winter 2016 Issue. The museum was the first in Canada to open the 2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit, which features the top-100 awarded images from the competition. As Josiah has two images in the exhibit, they thought it would be nice for their readers to get to know our young wildlife photographer a bit better.

Jenaya Awarded for 2nd Time in Nature’s Best

It’s our pleasure to announce that Jenaya has been awarded in the 2015 Nature’s Best Windland Smith Rice International Photography Awards. This is her second win in this competition, having been named the Youth Photographer of the Year in 2013.

This year’s awarded image was taken outside of Kamloops, British Columbia on a photography trip looking for Sierra Nevada Bighorn Sheep (formerly known as California bighorns), a species-at-risk. We were rewarded in finding a great group of rams, and Jenaya, Josiah and I (John), headed out–and up–in search of good angles for some animals-in-their-environment images of them. Read more

Jenaya & Josiah awarded in Por el Planeta

This past summer Jenaya and Josiah both received a pretty exciting email from none other than acclaimed conservation photographer, Cristina Mittermeier. I (John) was in town with Josiah when the email came through, telling us Josiah had been awarded in Por el Planeta, and I reached for my phone to share the news with Jenaya only to read an incoming message from her saying, “Guess what?!?!”

It turns out both my talented young photographers had made it through the thousands of entries (28,578 to be precise) to each have an image awarded as Specially Commended in this prestigious and important competition. Read more

Josiah awarded in 2015 Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition

We are so excited to share that Josiah has had two images awarded in the oldest and most prestigious wildlife photography competitions in the world, the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition put on by the Natural History Museum (U.K.) and BBC Wildlife.

This year’s competition saw over 42,000 images submitted from 96 countries, and the competition in the Young Wildlife Photographer of the Year categories has never been stronger. This is Josiah’s second year entering the competition, and he has had multiple images selected for the final round both times, but we were certainly not expecting him to end up with two of the top 100 images! Read more

Jenaya’s “Owls in the Wind” Receiving International Recognition

On a beautiful July evening in 2013, Jenaya squeezed the shutter release on one of her most iconic images to date.

Photographed just a few kilometers from our home in Pincher Creek, Alberta, “Owls in the Wind” is a great example of Jenaya’s ability to craft a compelling scene as opposed to just snapping a picture of wildlife. After trying multiple camera/lens combinations, she settled on one that allowed her to position two massive wind turbines at the edges of the composition, making a powerful statement and adding to the theme of the prevalent winds in our corner of the world. The weathered old granary, leaning heavily from the years of being buffeted from the west, adds both interest and drama, and serves as the perfect perch for three Great Horned Owls. Read more