Alton Marsh–Outstanding Service Award
Membership organizations like NANPA thrive, or wither, based on the involvement of members. NANPA member volunteers serve on committees, in governance, and in advisory roles. They donate their time and expertise to keep the association running smoothly, meeting the needs and exceeding the expectations of the membership. NANPA’s Outstanding Service Award is intended to recognize a NANPA member’s significant volunteer service that has a positive impact on and/or benefit to the association. At NANPA’s 2025 Summit, this year’s Outstanding Service Award will be given to Alton Marsh.
Marsh is based in Frederick, Maryland, has been a NANPA member since 2008 and has served on the Awards Committee since February of 2019. During his time on the committee, he has consistently nominated deserving nature photographers, bringing to the committee’s attention talented photographers who were sometimes famous, sometimes virtually unknown. And awards matter. Seasoned professionals say that awards validate and give credibility to their work while lesser-known photographers benefit from the exposure generated by an award.
In the beginning
Marsh started in photography early. At age six, “my parents gave me a Kodak Brownie camera and a budget of 45 cents a week to buy film. There was a viewfinder on top of the camera where you could look down and see the picture you were going to photograph. One of the saddest moments of my childhood was when I left that camera in a restaurant during a family trip. We went back and looked for it, but to no avail. I have a feeling, even today, that a waitress got that camera all those decades ago.
“I’ve been attracted to all types of photography but one of the clues for my being mostly a nature photographer is that I grew up on a farm and didn’t move off it until I was eight years old. I feel like I’m more comfortable in the country, surrounded by nature. I’ve always felt a bit lost in the city, and just appreciate the beauty of nature.”
©Alton Marsh
Papers and pictures
Marsh retired in 2016 from a career in journalism. He worked on newspapers for seven years, and then trade publications and finally, for almost 25 years, at the aircraft owners and pilots magazine. But photography was never far from his mind. “At my very first newspaper job, at Florida Today in Cocoa, Florida, the city editor said I was more excited when I got a picture in the paper than I was when I got my own story in. I usually got my own story in every day, but I rarely got a picture in. The photo was a tree, a nature photo.”
Later, he moved on to the Louisville Times. There, he was a medical writer, “but the exciting thing for me was when I went for a walk in a local forest and got a picture of moss on a tree that was published the paper. Once again, I was more excited about that than any of my stories about whether Louisville is had too many or too few hospital beds.”
His extensive experience in journalism helped shape his view of photography as a storytelling medium. He won a national award from Digital Photo magazine for street photography. “I was only doing street photography because I was taking a class,” Marsh said. “Each month we would change topics. One month it’d be nature. the next might be abstract. Another month would be flowers and that particular month it was street photography. The winning picture that I took was of dancers from Indonesia, sweltering in summer heat, waiting to go on stage for their performance. They were having to refresh their makeup every 30 minutes or so because they were just literally melting.”
Sunflowers and buntings
Recently, Marsh started a sort of project in which he takes his camera to a wildlife management area known for its fields of sunflowers and the birds that are attracted there. “I was actually in cancer treatment during the month of July. And every day I’d go to radiation treatment. I had to have something to counter that, something to save the day, to make the day more fun. I would drive 45 minutes to McKee Beshers Wildlife Management Area and look for an indigo bunting. I went there probably 20 times. On the sixth day, I actually saw the indigo bunting. It was sitting at the entrance waiting for me. It didn’t move. I photographed it for at least two minutes.”“The bunting decided not to land on a sunflower for me. Instead, it landed on a stalk and the sunflower was in the background. I did not get the iconic shot of an indigo bunting on a sunflower. But on the other hand, I got something unique.
You still see the sunflower, but you can concentrate more on the bird. Because of a fast shutter speed, I was able to get the bird as it was just starting to fly and that added an element of action. I really enjoyed getting that photo.”
Photographing an indigo bunting on a sunflower was a goal Marsh had for years but the bird would just never appear when he was there. “It would show up for everybody else in the world, but not me!”
©Alton Marsh
NANPA and volunteer service
Marsh has been to a number of NANPA events and says he benefits from in-person meetings, like NANPA’s 2025 Summit in Tucson, the most. “One of the big things for me is meeting other people and who share the same interests and creating the opportunities to connect with them later on. I have contacts from in-person meetings back in 2016 and we still are in touch almost daily. I have contacts from 2019 that I am in contact maybe once a month, sharing the photos that we’ve taken and catching up.”
And those face-to-face meetings are among the quickest ways to learn. “You can do it with a peer, with people who are trying to get better. And that’s my level right now.”
In fact, Marsh says he was originally welcomed on the Awards Committee because of his status as an amateur photographer. “They wanted somebody who really didn’t know what he was doing,” he laughs, “and I qualified. The first two years, I just tried not to make a fool of myself. I watched the other people, the pros, I have a suspicion that now I may know what I’m doing, but I think, as far as photography skill level goes, I might still be the junior member of the committee.”
Like many enthusiast photographers in the presence of professionals whose work they admire, “I have imposter syndrome, where I think absolutely everybody else in the world is so much better than I am. The Awards Committee has been good for me because I’m trying so hard to improve.” He’s constantly looking at the top pros and the up-and-coming photographers whose excellent work that he wants to emulate. “That put me in contact with some of the top people in nature photography. I began interviewing people who are 10 or 20 times better than I hope to be. I started learning what top professional quality really is. There are lots of people out there who I consider good teachers or good photographers, who I know are better than I am and who deserve recognition.”
You can see all of the 2025 NANPA award winners, and many past winners, at the 2025 Summit. NANPA’s Awards Committee is just one of the places where you could share your enthusiasm and expertise, whatever your skill level. Take a look at the various ways you can get involved with NANPA and maybe it will be you receiving an award at a future Summit!
©Alton Marsh
