International photo contest about brown bear conservation and human-bear coexistence, FINDING BEARINGS, closed last week. 33 photographeres from Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Austria, Poland and Romania entered the contest with 86 images.

International expert jury began the selection of images which will be showcased at a travelling photo exhibition. They will also select 3 award winners who will receive packages of »bear friendy« products.

Jury members are:

Petra Draškovič Pelc (Slovenia), a professional photographer, tour guide and nature-lover holding a PhD in biomedicine science. Her photos, highlighting beauty of nature and love for its conservation, are regularly being published both in slovenian and international magazines. She is a LIFE DINALP BEAR associate, working on ecotourism development.

Paul Jedriško (Croatia), a hunting and nature conservation engineer, working as a game manager in Ravna Gora. He’s an experienced wildlife photographer with 15 years of practice . He has been awarded with many respected photographic titles.

Stefan Knöpfer (Austria), an artist and biologist who started to work with brown bears 10 years ago. He is now travelling through Europe to help abused bears to start a new part of their life. His involvement in photography started as a necessity and ended as a possibility to show the grace, beauty and uniqueness of these amazing animals. The wildlife art he creates results from his fascination of natures miracles.

Life with bears photo exhibition opening will be held in Slovenian Museum of Natural History on May 25. It will remain in place till end of August. At the opening, award winners will be officially announced. The authors of selected images will be informed about further details after May 10.  The exhibition will be moving to Austria in September 2017. Later on, it will also be on display in Croatia.