Shannon set the land speed record, by making her choice in 80 minutes. She made that speed while being at work.
She chose the picture below:
This picture may or may not be the background on Shannon’s computer.
Monica had the next choice. She struggled between 2 pictures as well. She finally picked the picture below, even though it wasn’t her favorite.
A picture that I have titled: “Monica’s Childhood” was actually her favorite.
Monica wrote perhaps my favorite ever description of that picture in her email where she chose “The Solace of Ordinary Humanity”:
#13 is great. It reminds me of growing up on the farm. I would lay in the grass as a little girl and just stare up at the clouds for hours. I would think about all sorts of things. Just lay there in the grass and dream! I remember the cool breeze blowing across my face and the warm sun beating down on me. The clouds make this picture. It gives it perspective for me.
I also like how the one flower on the left is just kind of sticking its head in the pack to see what’s going on. Much like life. It gives it a bit of humor too.
This past weekend was the Pufferbilly Days photo contest. I had 6 different people pick the 6 different entries this year. The first person to pick was Sara Junck. She picked the picture below:
Sara actually took slightly over the 24 hour deadline. She waffled back and forth between her final pick and the picture below:
None of the other five members of the selection committee chose the fire picture. I think Sara was saddened by this fact.
This is not meant to be in any way shape or form meant to be bragging. It is merely meant to be informative, since not everybody makes it to the Boone County Fair.
I wanted to enter a couple of pictures in the Boone County Fair “photography contest”. As it turned out, I didn’t have time to order 2 new pictures, so I selected 2 8x10s out of a stack of about 25 8x10s I have stored in a manila envelope for just such an occasion.
Even though I didn’t order any new pictures, but only entered a couple of pictures that are a couple of years old, I still couldn’t seem to find time to mount and mat the pictures. Luckily, Vest from work was willing to do that for me.
Here are the pictures I entered:
The orange flower picture got a Blue Ribbon.
The black and white bus picture got a Purple Ribbon for Outstanding Home Department Project or something like that.
I have a fairly firm rule about never entering a photo in more than one contest, but I was distressed to find out when I got home late Sunday night when I was putting the pictures in their bag and putting them in the trunk, that I had entered the orange flower picture in the 2007 Pufferbilly Days Photo Contest.
That frustrates me and lead to a re-organization of the trunk. Even though that kept me up until 2 in the morning.
I’ve been a bit busy in the last few days and I’ve been negligent. So I apologize. It was Willy’s birthday on the day before Thanksgiving.
We took Willy out on Sunday night for dinner and then to lunch on Wednesday for his birthday.
I think I won a Photo Contest once with that picture of Willy.
This year I took a different route selecting pictures for the Photo Contest. I put together 20 pictures and then had certain people select and name 1 picture from that list. I then entered those pictures.
I liked the way this process worked out. I will do it again in the future, with only a slight tweak here and there.
These are the pictures that were entered:
This picture was selected by Shannon. The picture was part of my experimentation with light painting. This is an experiment that I need to start back up again. The name comes from the flower being in the spotlight.
This picture was selected by Teresa. This picture was taken at the State Fair.
This picture was selected by Jay. This picture was taken of wooden praying hands outside of a Baptist church in Paducah, Kentucky.
This picture was selected by my Mom. This picture was taken north of Boone. I actually named this picture. It comes from the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: “Nature is saturated with deity.”
I picked this picture because one person I asked to pick a picture never made a choice. I really can’t remember what I named this picture, but it might have been named after the classic 80s kung fu flick Berry Gordy’s The Last Dragon. It is also possible that I named it “Jay LeRoy”. This picture was taken while I was sitting on my back on the sidewalk in front of the basilica in Dyersville. There has been a glow effect thrown onto this picture.
I also picked this picture because I needed to switch out another picture that didn’t print very well. This picture was originally in color, but I switched it to black and white because I wanted to enter more than 1 black and white picture. The name of this picture comes from the Samuel Johnson quote: “Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel.” This picture was taken at ground zero of the Ames fireworks show. This picture did get 3rd Place in the Black and White division. One more ribbon for the trunk.
I am currently taking application for photo selectors for next year.
The final four pictures that were not selected all come from Independence Day.
That concludes the presentation of the 14 pictures that didn’t make it to the photo contest.
More pictures that weren’t selected.
This is a picture of June and Dean’s barn.
This is a picture of the Basilica in Dyersville. This picture was actually originally selected for entry, but I decided that I didn’t really like the way it looked when it was printed, so it was removed.
A picture of a flower with a little Photoshop thrown in.
A picture of a flower.
A couple more pictures that were not selected.
I took this picture last year when Jay went on his first ever trip on the Boone & Scenic Valley Railroad. I threw this particular picture into the mix to see if anybody would consider selecting this picture because of the nature of the photo contest.
Nobody took the bait. That is good, because it would have been pandering on the scale of a John McCain VP nominee.
I took this picture at Jester Park. Jay was impressed by this picture and I gave it to him as a birthday present. I think of this picture as being melancholy at first glance, but as being hopeful the longer it is gazed upon.
I named this picture based on an Emily Dickinson poem.
Hope
Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops at all,And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity,
It asked a crumb of me.
Two more pictures that were not selected.
It took me some time to actually find one of these old merry-go-rounds. I searched high and low and only found one in Boone. Perhaps there is another one somewhere, but the only one I could find was at the Trinity playground.
The point of this picture was to convey movement by making the background a motion blur, but keeping the foreground in focus.
I don’t really have much to say about this picture. I can’t even remember when or where I took it. It is a black and white flower picture.