Only a couple of members of Weatherly Junior Girl Scout Troop 34320 had ever taken photos with a camera prior to a recent troop meeting.

At the meeting, the girls took pictures utilizing the theme being “nature.”

So good were those first efforts that their work is being displayed this month at the Carbon County Environmental Education Center in Summit Hill.

Leader Heather Graham said 10 girls participated, with 18 framed photos on display at the Environmental Center.

The pictures are a variety of topics including trees, praying mantis, mushrooms and reflections.

All but one was shot locally.

A photo taken by member Olivia Stewart, 10, shows a whale surfacing in the ocean. The professional quality photo is in sharp focus and perfectly framed.

The Girl Scouts said they took the photos after Olivia’s father, Jason, had given a talk on photography. Until then, most said they had only ever taken photos with their phones.

They used Jason’s and Olivia’s cameras for their shooting.

Jeannie Carl, naturalist at the Environmental Center, said after he saw the photos taken by the Scouts, “Jason reached out to me and said the girls need to display them.”

He said a requirement for a badge they were earning required the pictures to be displayed.

The Junior Scouts not only took general photos but experimented with macro and micro photography.

Olivia, despite her age, is an experienced photographer having gone on numerous photo shoots with her father for a number of years. She has owned her personal 35-millimeter, adjustable camera since she was about 4, she said.

The fifth-grade student also had shown photos in judging at the Carbon County Fair in Palmerton. She is a member of the Palmerton Camera Club and the Carbon County 4-H Livestock Club.

“I take a lot of pictures,” she said, noting she has shot photos with her father in such places as Elk County, Assateague Island, Cape Cod, Maine and on her farm.

Olivia said, “I enjoy taking wildlife pictures most.”

Noelle Rambaran, age 10 and a Junior Scout, said she enjoys taking pictures but with her phone. She especially like to take photos of her two cats and three dogs.

She said she used Olivia’s camera to take a close-up of mushrooms on display at the Environmental Center.

Although she likes taking photos, “I don’t like to use a camera,” she said.

Another Junior Scout, Mackenzie Graham, 10, said she most enjoys taking close-up photos, especially of her friends.

She, too, prefers shooting with a phone over a camera.

Carl said that in November, Jason Stewart’s photos will be displayed at the Environmental Education Center.