Amateur photographers and members of six local land trusts celebrated the Twelfth Annual Land Trusts Photo Contest at a reception on April 6, 2018 at the Lymes’ Senior Center in Old Lyme. Three hundred and fifty photo entries were on display depicting the wildlife, flora and scenery of East Haddam, Essex, Lyme, Old Lyme, Old Saybrook and Salem. The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the prizes for the best photos in the categories of landscape, wildlife, plants, youth, black & white and cultural/historic. The contest’s judges, Skip Broom, Amy Kurtz-Lansing and Joe Standart selected the winners of each category. Andrew Heist’s “Marshy Way” earned the top prize of the John G. Mitchell Conservation award.  This year’s contest featured such a large number of youth participants that the land trusts decided to add a ‘Fan Favorite’ award, enabling all of the reception attendees to vote for their favorite Youth photo.  The Fan Favorite award went to eleven-year-old Ashley Holt of Westbrook for her photo entitled “Phragmites on the Shore.” To see all of the contest winners, visit landtrustsphotocontest.org.