{gallery}09_30_10/woodyrainbow{/gallery}This photo, which captured the simultaneous appearance of a rainbow and lighting near Table Mountain, was taken by J.L. Woody Wooden in 2004 or 2005. It is one of two images featured in the October issue of Color Magazine. Courtesy photo/Woody Wooden Northwest photo instructor J.L. Woody Wooden earns accolades for images National and international honors and accolades continue to roll in for Northwest College's Photography Department faculty.Most recently, two of J.L. Woody Wooden's photographs of lightning are featured in October's edition “Color Magazine.”

One features a double rainbow with lightning in northern Arizona, taken in 1993, and the other shows a rainbow with lightning over Table Mountain, taken in 2004 or 2005.

Wooden, assistant professor of photography at Northwest, is famous for his photographs of lightning, having captured at least one image each year since the 1974.

Wooden said it came as a surprise a month or so ago when he learned some of his images would be included in next month's magazine.

“I submitted those last year,” he said. “I'd completely forgotten. It was like out of the blue for me.”

Before 2006, Wooden said he used timed exposures to capture images of lightning. Then, in 2006, he bought a lightning trigger.

“It is actually an FM receiver that triggers the camera,” he said.

Having specialized in lightning photography so long, Wooden said the photos seem “pretty” to him; he would have preferred that the magazine run some of his shots of raptors, such as eagles and ospreys, which he also submitted.

“I'm pleased, but sort of disappointed, too,” he said. “I wanted my birds in there.”

Still, his images were selected from 822 portfolios, with 9,000 images, submitted, so Wooden said he was honored to have his photos chosen for publication.

“The lightning is so unique,” and the two photos chosen were even more unique because they also included rainbows, he said.

One of Wooden's images previously earned a Merit Award from the magazine as well.

Other honors over the past year include winning first place in a True West magazine photo competition in June and receiving the Highly Commended Award for wildlife photography in an annual competition sponsored jointly by the Natural History Museum of Great Britain, the Royal Photographic Society of Great Britain and the BBC. He has received the Highly Commended Award for the past three years.

National Geographic also picked up two of Wooden's images.

“I sent them in and they put them on their website, which was really good for me,” he said.

But perhaps the most exciting thing to happen to Wooden this year was winning a trip to Washington, D.C., in April, sponsored by National Geographic in partnership with Mamiya. He was the grand-prize-winning educator through a competition for members who submitted their portfolios to MAC-on-Campus.com.

“The MAC group chose my portfolio of wildlife as the top portfolio internationally,” he said. “They paid for me to go to Washington,” where, in addition to seeing national landmarks and memorials, he visited the National Geographic archives.

“It was really neat seeing the archives,” he said. “They have over 11 million images archived there. It's fantastic, it truly is.”

He also got to have lunch with a staff photographer at the magazine.

“It was a great trip,” he said, especially since he's pored eagerly through National Geographic magazines since he was a boy.

The only downside, he added, was that it was 29 degrees in Powell when he left, and it was 80 degrees when he landed in Washington, D.C., during the April trip.

“It was right during the cherry blossom season, but it was so hot, there were no cherry blossoms.”

Wooden's portfolios can be viewed online at www.mac-on-campus.com/Gallery/Portfolio/2202.aspx