I've been wanting to enter our county fair's photography competition for a couple years now, but never seemed to find the entry info in time. This year, I found out who to contact and e-mailed them WELL in advance. I didn't hear from anyone, and so I e-mailed again, and still didn't hear anything and after a while I just figured it wasn't meant to be.

My sweet husband hadn't given up though. He scoured their website a few days ago, and finally, buried in some other info, found the entry details. The deadline hadn't passed, but it was that day, so I had a lot of work to do if I wanted to get my photos in. I (incorrectly, as it would turn out) thought you could only enter three photos, so I picked the three categories I wanted to enter, ordered the prints and then went to go find some suitable frames and mats. I went with my usual black on black mat/frame, but a slightly different frame than I normally use.

Once I put them all together, I really liked how everything looked.

I entered the following photos:

Portrait:


Still Life:


Computer Enhanced Photographs:


So I packed the photos and kids in the car and headed over to the fairgrounds to check in. I had been under the impression there was a fee to enter, but found out those were the prize amounts ($5, $4, $3) - hence my confusion as to how many I could enter. Oops.

They checked my photos in, and all there was left to do was wait until the decision was made on Tuesday afternoon. We weren't planning on going to the fair until Wednesday, so I kept checking the website Tuesday, hoping to find the results. I did see that someone else had won "Best in Show" and the Sweepstakes Award (most blue ribbons won by a single photographer), so I really wasn't all that hopeful. In fact, I kind of wondered if maybe some photos wouldn't get in at all, and maybe there would be some reason mine wouldn't have gotten in. Hey, no one said I was an optimist.

Wednesday afternoon came, and we headed out, and of *course* the first place I headed was to the Exhibition area. I browsed around looking at the various photographs and categories, and noting which had won prizes. Finally I found one of mine - the Portrait of Jade and Alvin's Mom. No ribbon. Then I found my Still Life and it had a 1st place ribbon. Woo hoo!! Then before I could turn the corner, Alvin says, "Hey, congratulations!" - turns out he'd found the third photo and it, too, had won 1st place in it's category. Can you believe it? 2 out of 3? I told Alvin, "Hey, I think I just paid for our fair tickets with my $10 in contest winnings!"

It may not have been the most prestigious of competitions, but there really were some wonderful images and work represented this year, so I feel proud to have won, and I think I can finally say I am an "award winning" photographer.

I can hardly wait until next year, when I'll enter more photos. Who knows, maybe I'll win the coveted Sweepstakes or Best in Show awards.