The monthly ABDNHA lecture on Feb. 26 at BSPAC was a real standout this time. Although ostensibly, about the Desert Tortoise and the newly dedicated national monuments, the lecture was really a celebration of a number of students and their book of fabulous photographs about these amazing animals.

David Lamfrom, a practiced and published photographer, created and developed a program to take high school students out of the classroom and into the desert to look for and photograph the wildlife and landscape of the California deserts. Settling on the Desert Tortoise as the main focus, the students produced a work of true art using point and shoot cameras, the best the program could afford, as their only tool.

In addition to producing a wonderful book, the students made trips to Washington, D.C. to consult with Senator Feinstein on conservation and preservation issues as well as interviews with the L.A. times and other publications.

Considering many of these southern California students had never been to the desert, they really took the environs and wildlife to their hearts and it shows in their work. No wonder Mr. Lamfrom is so proud of them. They have earned it.