Since age three Carson has been photographing the world around him. It didn’t take long for his images to gain national and international recognition and at age ten, he became not only an award-winning nature photographer, but a published author as well.
In 2007, Carson’s image of a monarch butterfly in flight was one of only 60 images chosen out of 15,000 submitted for the coveted Nature’s Best Magazine Windland Rice International Photography Contest. Carson was six when he captured the image on his Nikon Coolpix camera.
Carson received a Highly Honor award and was the youngest winner ever for the contest. In 2007, the image went on exhibit with the other winning photographs at the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum of Natural History. This same photograph was used for the cover of Emmy-Award winning composer Gary Malkin’s 2006 cd, “The Calling,” and was published as the cover of his school’s annual calendar. The photograph was also a finalist in the Inner Reflections Calendar Contest, which receives more than 500,000 entries for 50 slots. Since then, Carson has won three more major photography awards.
Carson’s nature photographs have been published in Nature’s Best Magazine, Aquila Magazine, the BBC book, Wildlife Photographer of the Year, Portfolio 19 and the 2009 annual report of the Defenders of Wildlife as well as other publications.
In 2007, Carson’s mom suggested that he and his dad do a book together. So, from 2007 – 2009, they photographed and wrote about a family of beavers and the many other critters that live near or on the beaver pond.
Carson and his dad traveled throughout Virginia and West Virginia to photograph the many characters in the book. Carson was the principle author of the story, but got a lot of help from his dad.
The book, The Adventures of Buddy the Beaver: Buddy Explores the Pond, was published in 2010 by Mountain Trail Press. The co-authors have just finished the photography for the second in the Buddy the Beaver series: The Mystery of the Missing Friends, which they plan to publish next year. They have two more books in the series to complete.
Carson is the youngest member of the North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) and in February 2010, he was the opening keynote speaker at the association’s annual summit in Reno, Nevada. Carson also served as co-master of ceremonies with his dad at the summit. Carson has also been a guest speaker at the National Conservation Training Center (2007 & 2010), Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge Waterfowl Celebration Festival, Meadowlark Photo Expo, Grandfather Mountain Photo Weekend, Claude Moore Nature Festival, Dorchester County Historical Society, Loudoun Country Day School, West Virginia Youth Conservation Camp, and Defenders of Wildlife Yellowstone Conservation Workshop.
Carson is a boy scout, a black belt in Taekwondo, and an award-winning horseback rider and avid basketball player. He is also a junior ranger at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming and the New River Gorge National River in West Virginia. He is in the fifth grade at Loudoun Country Day School in Leesburg, Virginia.
Carson’s camera of choice these days for his nature photography is the Nikon D300s and D90. His favorite lenses are the Nikkor 70-300 VR telephoto lens and all the Nikkor lenses that his dad uses for his nature photography.
Carson is the son of Jim and Jamie Rappaport Clark. They currently reside in Leesburg, Virginia with their cat Dylan and golden retriever Brodie.
