Morgan Hill teen wins nationwide images recognition | Morgan Hill Instances

An off-the-cuff afternoon bike trip alongside the Coyote Creek Trail changed into an auspicious alternative for 16-year-old Jasper Jonnalagadda, when he captured an opportunity {photograph} that will go on to win second place within the National Wildlife Federation’s 2025 picture contest.
The picture captures a nest of pallid and Mexican free-tailed bats roosting below Highway 101 in north Morgan Hill, packed right into a weep gap beneath the freeway overpass.

It was chosen from practically 30,000 entries submitted by photographers from world wide for the Young Nature Photographers class.

“Riding my bike under a freeway overpass, I heard some high-pitched squeaking,” Jonnalagadda stated. “Skidding to a stop and looking up, I saw this group of pallid and Mexican free-tailed bats jam-packed into a weep hole.”

The {photograph} illustrates wildlife adapting to human infrastructure, he stated.

“One of the things I found so cool about it was the way wildlife can take advantage of human infrastructure and really figure out ways to adapt to and use what humans have changed to their own advantage,” he stated.

Jonnalagadda’s curiosity in wildlife images started at a younger age when he found his father’s outdated digicam, a Canon XSi from 2008, within the storage, which he nonetheless makes use of sometimes at present. His uncle later gifted him a more recent digicam, a Canon 6D, which he used to seize the award-winning bat {photograph}.

“It started when my dad had an interest in photography when he was in his 20s,” Jonnalagadda stated. “I found his old camera in the garage, and then I just started playing with that. Our neighbor in South San Jose had bird feeders, and so I spent a lot of time taking pictures of the birds in my neighbor’s yard.”

Jasper’s mom, Sarah Ruf-Jonnalagadda, stated her son’s observational expertise predated his images.

“I would argue that he learned this skill of observation long before he started with photography,” she stated. “He was fascinated by nature. He’s a patient and a quiet person. And so I think photography has actually fit well into his life. He was an observer before he was a photographer.”

The Morgan Hill resident, who lives close to the Coyote Creek Trail, bikes the trail commonly. He first found the bat colony in 2023, noticing each the bats within the cracks of the bridge and later within the weep holes.

“You could see the guano just pile up under these holes,” he stated.

This isn’t Jonnalagadda’s first recognition in images competitions. He’s been a finalist twice within the Wildlife Photographer of the Year competitors hosted by the London Natural History Museum. 

He was additionally acknowledged by the Creative Youth Awards for a similar bat {photograph} in 2025, and took second place within the Santa Clara Open Space Authority’s “Picturing Coyote Valley” competitors for a picture of a rattlesnake within the Aspiring Photographers class in 2024.

Despite his successes, Jonnalagadda maintains a characteristically modest perspective relating to his images. When he realized of his National Wildlife Federation win, his mom and sister have been extra excited than he was.

“We were all so excited. And he went and opened his email and he read it, and he was like, ‘Cool,’ and then that was it,” his mom stated.

For Jonnalagadda, the awards are secondary to the message.

“Beyond just winning an award, photographs also convey messages,” he stated. “I wish to showcase how lovely and purposeful nature is and the way, personally, I feel it couldn’t have existed with out a creator.

“And just how perfectly fine-tuned it is to survive and thrive.”

The homeschooled highschool junior additionally volunteers on the Coyote Creek Parkway county park, the place rangers have allowed him to make use of path cameras to doc wildlife. He’s presently exploring each images and videography whereas contemplating future profession paths.

The National Wildlife Federation’s annual picture contest options 9 classes together with Mammals, Birds, Baby Animals, Landscapes & Plants, People in Nature, Other Wildlife, Young Nature Photographers, Mobile and Portfolio. Winners obtain money prizes and are featured in National Wildlife journal and on the group’s web site.

For Jonnalagadda, the popularity has opened doorways to succeed in a broader viewers along with his work.

“The exciting thing is I actually have a medium now where I can present photography to a wider scope of people than just friends and family and actually get a message out there,” he stated.

The {photograph} stands as a testomony to the facility of persistence. Wildlife images, Jonnalagadda stated, is a recreation of equal components luck and commentary, all the time being alert and able to capitalize on a chance to seize a uncommon second.

“In the quest for a picture, you really end up observing your surroundings a lot more closely,” Jonnalagadda stated. “It’s just become something you can put all your attention onto and really decompress.”

The National Wildlife Federation’s 2026 picture contest opens for submissions on Jan. 14 and stays open by means of March 22. To be taught extra, go to nwf.org/photocontest.