Wednesday, July 14, 2010

Prize Winning Photos

My daughter Victoria is 13 years old.
She took the photos in this post (including this self portrait, right).
This is Victoria's 3rd year doing photography as a 4H project and I think she has the basics mastered. These 3 photos all won blue ribbons at our local district level. Tomorrow we find out if one might have possibly won a purple ribbon to go to the Missouri State Fair for exhibiting. We both agree that the cone flower above has the best chance.




So you know how awful my non-garden is (see last post!). Where did we go for beautiful blooms and photo- worthy landscapes? To Confederate Park. Probably Higginsville's best kept secret. It is the most peaceful, gorgeous, immaculately kept park in Lafayette County.
And there is no cost to drive its smooth, asphalt paths (like gliding on water), visit the Confederate Cemetary or to tour the Chapel.
There are 3 different ponds where fishing is allowed, a playground for kids and picnic tables scattered about encourage el fresco meals.
I have never seen litter.
The grounds keepers take great pride in the park and visitors respect it.


We went to the cemetary on at least 3 different days (maybe 4!) to get the perfect shadows and lighting. Victoria retook photos of the same headstones at different horizons and angles to get the most compelling pictures.




It was all worth it.



The judge who interviewed her about her photos had to be impressed with her subject matter. It wasn't the usual pet photos or poorly lit or badly cropped images hurriedly chosen last minute from 50 or so casual photos on a digital camera. (We did those in the past!)

I am very proud of Victoria.

7-15-10

Poscript: Stopped by the middle school gym today where the 4H projects are displayed and was disappointed to find that Victoria did not win a further award. She said the judges weren't very good (she has to say that!), but I could see that the competition was much stiffer this year. The 5 photos that won purple rosettes (chosen from about 100 submissions!) were definitely deserving.

Never give up, never surrender!

8 comments:

carole brungar said...

And you have good reason to be proud! I would certainly encourage this talent!!
A big congratulations to Victoria!!

Jaqi said...

Wonderful pictures, Victoria has done well. My daughter starts studying photography and fine art as well as other subjects in Sept at college. Its lovely to see the next generation being able to capture amazing beauty too I think.
Keep going Victoria you are doing a great job :-)

Joanna said...

Wonderful photos! Well done to Victoria - does she have a blog of her own? My 13 year old daughter, Hope, has a blog

http://thehoppygirl.blogspot.com/

and she also enjoys photography, although is not lucky enough to be able to study it 'officially' so she's self taught. Hope would love to hear from Victoria if she'd care to drop by.

Linda Jo said...

Victoria is darling...and has a great eye for photography! You should be proud. OMG...if she had a blog....not sure that would be my choice for her....

Jeanie said...

Wow -- she has a terrific eye! Very nice indeed -- congratulations are definitely due -- and I agree on the subject matter. Sorry the big one didn't land, but what do they know?!

~*~Patty said...

Victoria has a very good eye and she is so cute too!
Love the super close ups of her very fine photographs
I really like cemeteries with stone angels, hard to take enough pics of those.
oxo

Linda Vincent said...

Love Victoria's flower photos (would be great for Photoshop altering:-) and she looks gorgeous on her self-prtrait.
If she can do this now....what will she be doing in a few years time!?

Ragamuffin Gal said...

Please pass on to lovely Victoria that her photos are so spectacular especially for such a young photographer. This is just the start of something big and wonderful.

And you are such an encouraging mom. No doubt that gal will have it all going on for her.

This post is such a tribute to the mother and daughter bond and I have so enjoyed reading it my dear!

<3 ~ Katie