Each year, the Northwest Exhibition of Environmental Photography invites three prominent members of the photography community to judge the submitted images. These judges select eighty (80) images from all the entries submitted. All images are mixed and judged “blindly” solely on content, quality and impact, and in keeping the exhibit's mission statement. (Judging "blindly" means that the entrants’ names are not seen by the judges prior to, or during, the judging process.) KAREN HUNTT MASON: Karen Huntt Mason has been involved with photography throughout her career for more than twenty years. An early passion for documentary photography led her to work as a staff photographer for the Colorado Springs Sun in the late 70s. During the 1980s she worked at the National Geographic Society as a multimedia and exhibits producer, and then as chief photo editor in National Geographic’s television division. Later, she freelanced as a photo editor and researcher for the US Information Agency and US News and World Report, among others. From 1994 to 1999 she was a senior photo editor and then managing photo editor at Corbis, Bill Gates’ privately owned photo agency. Currently, Karen is an independent visual content consultant, web producer and photo editor, and is most happy to report that she is shooting again. Corbis and FPG/Getty represent her travel and documentary work. She is the West chapter president for the American Society of Picture Professionals, and is also a member of the National Press Photographer’s Association, the North American Nature Photography Association, and the American Society of Media Photographers. RUSSELL SPARKMAN: Russell Sparkman, Founder of FusionSpark Media and creator of the wilderness and photographic expedition site OneWorldJourneys.com, began his career in photography as a staff photographer at Northeastern University in Boston where he also received a Bachelor of Science degree in Political Science. He later served as an instructor at the Kodak Center for Creative Imaging in Camden, Maine, before moving to Nagoya, Japan, where he became a sought-after consultant, author and speaker in digital imaging trends and technology. Sparkman co-authored the book ‘Essentials of Digital Photography ’ and was a founding member of the Multimedia Consortium of Central Japan. Sparkman was recently inducted into the Computerworld Honors Collection for visionary use of information technology and photography to benefit the environment through OneWorld Journeys.com DAVID ROSS: David Ross began his career in 1981 as a staff picture researcher for an 8 book continuity series about the human body at US News and World Report Books. He then freelanced as a picture researcher/editor for the Smithsonian, Scientific American, USIA, and others. He worked at the National Geographic Society Book Division for 10 years - 5 years as senior picture researcher, and 5 years as illustrations editor on large-format books, calendars and other products. He developed pictorial themes, and selected photographs, fine art and technical images to illustrate 12 books and 4 calendars, while collaborating with writers, editors and art directors, and planned and directed photographic coverage in the field. He was also selected for an 18-month assignment where he developed new books and new products, such as electronic games, and for the Publications Planning and Development Team. David has been a Senior Picture Editor at Corbis for the last 6 years. He has edited a wide variety of photographic sources and commissioned photography for the Corbis digital collection, CD ROM's, catalogs and on-line publications. He has also contributed to products on the Corbis web site, including screensavers, e-cards, the Print and Poster shop, and the 20th Century timeline.