Striking photo wins Butler award

An Australind Senior High School student has received an award recognising her achievement in photography.

Year 12 student Brooke Shepherdson won the inaugural Harry Butler award in the Protecting Our Planet category of Chevron Australia’s FOCUS Environment school photography competition.

The category required entries to capture West Australians involved in minimising their impact on the natural environment.

Brooke said she was proud of how her photo — Ladybug — turned out.

‘‘Taking photos of the environment is one of my favourite things to do,’’ she said.

‘‘The contrast of this photo really caught my eye.

‘‘It symbolises perfectly how we all need to protect the environment.’’

Part of the competition also included having to provide a caption with the photo.

The caption for Ladybug was ‘‘Saving the environment is in your hands’’.

The Harry Butler award is named after naturalist, author and conservation consultant Dr Harry Butler AO.

This is the ninth year the competition has been held, and Brooke was one of 26 winners from 18 schools, out of more than 1000 entries in WA.

Chevron Australia operational excellence health, environment and safety general manager Rick Biddle congratulated all 2012 participants.