Slidell Photography Club has awarded 2007 Photographer of the Year in the Master Class to Noel Peyton. She has been a photography club member for seven years and has served as secretary for the organization for the past six years. She is a Slidell resident and has worked at Slidell Memorial Hospital for twenty+ years. She also enjoys bird watching and gardening. Her backyard is a hummingbird and butterfly garden sanctuary, which is maintained exclusively by her and her husband, Don.
Recently her image One Red Leaf was awarded second place at Gulf State Camera Club Council (GSCCC) year-end competition. GSCCC consists of 35 photography clubs from Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Noel has also been requested to submit this image for the upcoming Photographic Society of America competition in Tucson later this year. Other outstanding accomplishments for Noel include Best Environmental Journalism at the 2006 Heard Museum Nature Photography and Exhibit in McKinney, Texas.
Noel feels that being a member of the photography club has taught her how to look at things differently when looking through the camera lens. I also learned, you need to be prepared and always carry your camera because you never know when you might come across what ends up being a "great shot". One Red Leaf was one of those accidental images….a single, colored fall foliage leaf that had blown into the mud puddle of a parking lot at Fort Ticonderoga, New York where she was about to take a tour. Luckily she had her camera. The image will be on display at the St. Tammany Parish Public Library, Slidell Branch located on Robert Boulevard throughout the month of June.
