Two Oregon Photographers Now Have Their Work Featured on New United States Stamps

“The use of this image on a U.S. postage stamp is sort of like winning a mini lottery,” photographer George Lepp says.

Two Oregon photographers are having their fifteen minutes of fame, even if you haven't noticed.

Michael Durham and George Lepp both have their work featured on United States Postal Service stamps released this week. The series, Protect Pollinators, captures the monarch butterfly and the western honeybee in different settings. Durham and Lepp's pictures both feature honeybees.

"The use of this image on a U.S. postage stamp is sort of like winning a mini lottery," Lepp says. "Its not like I won the mini lottery in money, I won in something that is honorable."

The image, taken in 1994 on the central coast of California, shows a honeybee on a bright yellow ragwort flower. Lepp says he is no stranger to seeing his work in unlikely places.

"Years ago I was watching Jeopardy," he says. "Up flashes a picture on a question and it was one of my photographs!"

Michael Durham's work also appears in National Wildlife Magazine, National Geographic Kids and several videos with the Oregon Zoo. His latest video features bats in flight at night.  He also has posted some videos with tips and tricks for wildlife photography. His USPS stamp features a bee on a New England Aster.

Lepp, on the other hand, just finished a video of bald eagles nesting in Smith Rock State Park.  It took him four months and yielded over 120 hours of footage.

But it's the forever stamp that now may be his most widely distributed work.

"That is a film image I took in 1994," Lepp says. "It's 23 years old. Because it's still sharp and exposed properly, its still viable. You just never know when [your photography] is gonna show up."

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