I made it to the State Fair twice this year. I went once on a Friday to see Maroon 5 with Jill. Then on the last day of the Fair I went with my Mom. I met up with Derrick, Jen, and Evie. We ran into Sara, Shawn, and Cousin Amy. Here are some pictures from those trips:

Jill in front of the picture of her at the Photography Salon.


Jill with her turkey leg.


The damage she did to that turkey leg.


Even though Jill is a Legacy Member of the Maroon 5 Fan Club, she felt our seats could have been better…


I thought that they were pretty good.
















For some reason, Maroon 5 played before Train. Don’t know why, but at least we didn’t have to endure Train.












Evie loves baby animals!




Evie is a toe wiggler!




Evie supports winners!


We heard the following at this stand a lot: “1 fried butter on a stick and a bottle of water, please!”




You can’t imagine how hard it was for me NOT to photoshop that terrible Hawk logo out of this picture, but trust me, despite what his wardrobe is telling the world, Shawn is a good guy. He just doesn’t know how to dress.


With the 2nd Place Picture


With the Honorable Mention Picture


Some people view this as impressive.

Looking forward to next year’s fair already!

These are the pictures I entered in the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest and the person that selected the picture:

Derrick Gorshe


Jen Gorshe


Russell Kennerly


Dawn Krause


Scottie D.


Rebecca Peterson

Thanks to everybody who took their time and energy to select pictures for me this year!

The picture that Dawn chose got 2nd Place in Black & White. My original intent for next year’s selectors was to bring back all of the people that had chose an award winning photo in the past few years, but my fire for photo contests has kind of been extinguished. Not that I might not reconsider, but I think that this might have been my last photo contest. Or at the very least the last time I enter the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

Now that the State Fair has ran its inevitable course, I can reveal what pictures I entered in the State Fair Photography Salon.

Drenched in Loneliness (Honorable Mention Iowa Places)


I Recommend Pleasant


Must Be Truth


The Girl in the Blue Skirt (2nd Place Black & White Flower)

I guess this means I need to start focusing some effort on the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.

This is not meant to be a “tooting my own horn” thing. That is not something I do. In fact, I don’t even own me a horn. This is just a statement of facts for interested parties. Both of you. You know who you are.

Several weeks back I selected and put together my entries for the State Fair Photography Salon. A couple weeks back I got the card in the mail that tells you if you got any photos in and if you did, how many.

This year the card looked something like this:

I can’t mention success without mentioning failure. Success leads to backslapping, which leads to complacency, which stunts growth. For the last 4 years, the card said “Get out of here kid. You got no future!” So while this year’s card might not be that motivating, it was a more pleasant read.

Again, I’m not bragging. I’m not an award person. Awards don’t factor into my motivations in anything that I do. Whatever award I get will go into the photo contest trunk with all the other past photo contest pictures and awards. But I do want to give you some statistics and then you can determine if this was an accomplishment or if this was just luck.

Last year a little over 1,500 people entered this contest. 8 people got all 4 of their pictures accepted for display. I don’t know how many people entered the contest this year, but only 5 people got all 4 of their pictures accepted for display.

For having all of your pictures displayed, you get the Superintendent’s Award of Merit. I assume that is the award I got, but it is feasible that one of my pictures got another award of some kind. The Award Ceremony is this Sunday, but I won’t be able to attend. I had already made my vacation plans for that day, so I’ll be celebrating by having brunch with Jill at Hell’s Kitchen while the ceremony is going down. Or we might be at an Arts Festival in Minneapolis. It depends on how the day lines up, but I won’t be able to make it to the Awards Ceremony.

Wondering what four pictures I entered? The only way to find out will be to go to the State Fair and see for yourself. However, I will give you a one word clue for each picture:

1. Daisy
2. Foster
3. Barn
4. Jill

Good luck finding them!

This picture is from backup/Old My Pictures/County Fair 2004

Apparently I must have entered this picture of Karma in the Boone County Fair. This must have been the year before the “Moldy Jam Incident”.

Next week’s folder is: backup/Old My Pictures/County Farm

Ain’t Distributed Right

Nader made this selection over Mongolian one night before we saw The Expendables. This picture had my favorite judge’s comment on it.

“Nice try.”

Hilarious!

Nader also consider this picture over a bowl of noodles.

5 of 6 selectors have been selected for next year’s Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest. Still room for 1 more, but it has to be a dude. If you are interested in trying you hand at it, let me know.

Willy picked his picture over a hunk of salmon at The Colorado Grill during FNSC.

Trouble

Willy also thoughtfully considered this photo of Derrick.

The reason I enter photo contests is that enjoy watching other people look at my pictures. I know that is slightly voyeuristic, but I can deal with it. Another reason I enjoy entering the Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest is that I like reading the judges comments on the back. I like to see what pictures they “got” and what pictures they didn’t get. I might review their commentary in an entry at a later date, but it is sufficient to say that like the frog picture Jill selected last year, the judges didn’t “get” this picture.

Jay had a million questions about the process before he picked (which was a little strange since he had picked in the past), but once he was on the clock he said it was a tough decision because there were “so many good pictures”. But he arrived at his decision fairly quickly and chose the picture below:

Blues

It is only a theory, but I think he liked the power lines in the background. He loves it when I have power lines in my pictures.

I think Jason Baier was one of the quickest to choose. He was very assertive when he chose the picture below:

Open Mic Night

I manipulated this picture with Photoshop quite a bit more than I normally manipulate pictures, but I’m at peace with it.

Never the Same River

Andree also considered these other two pictures:

Andree followed his “I pick so and so” paragraph with a lengthy dissertation on MegaShark vs. Giant Octopus. Can you guess why we are friends?