Photo Finish

 

At the end of the Kentucky Derby a couple of years ago, it took eons for the winner to be determined. Yes, they had a camera at the finish line. But there was some scuffle during the race, and the winner was in question for quite some time.

I'm guessing the same could be said for the decision on the grand champion ribbon in open class photography at the 2021 Stafford County Fair. There were no scuffles. However, there were many worthy contenders. One of my shots just happened to edge out the others for the win. As always, it was that one judge's opinion on that particular day at that particular time. A different judge would likely have yielded a different outcome.

Me in 4th Grade

As a Pratt County 4-Her, I entered foods, clothing construction and reading and leadership posters or notebooks in the fair. I suppose photography was one of the options back then, but it wasn't one I explored. Still, old habits die hard.

When my youngest sister was in high school, she took a college math course at Barton County Community College one summer. (I think it was calculus, but math abilities skipped my genetic code.) I was a journalism student at K-State, and BCCC had a photography class offered at the same time. I figured it was a good skill for a burgeoning journalist. So we car-pooled to Great Bend. It was my first opportunity to work in a dark room.

Blue ribbon, Miscellaneous

When I was a beginning reporter at The Hutchinson News,  I'd carry a camera along if a "real" photographer wasn't available to go with me. And I loved entering that "tube" at the north end of the news room and retreating to the dark room there, even though I wasn't the one usually developing the film.

Then, both Jill and Brent chose 4-H photography. Jill moved on to other things, but Brent kept that project through almost all his 4-H years. As often happens when you have kids in 4-H, you take on the role of a project leader. I always felt like I learned just as much as the 4-Hers (and maybe even more) as we went to workshops and did our own photo project shoots in parks, backyards and mini field trips. And I was always eager to hear what the judge at the county fair had to tell Brent and my other photographers. I usually got the opportunity to listen in when I'd help with the behind-the-scenes organizing, etc. I learned a lot.

The photos I took of my kids fill multiple plastic tubs in our basement. (Oh, if only things had been digital sooner!) Even though I did a lot of purging last year, that's still on my to-do list (way, way down the list). 

Starting the blog in January 2010 further spurred my interest in photos to illustrate a story. I look at food photos I took in the beginning, compared to now, and I think there's been significant progress. 

It was a thrill to walk into the fair building and see the purple ribbon hanging from the photo I took during harvest 2020.  As with many things in life, it was a case of being at the right place at the right time. I certainly can't compete with God's handiwork. 

This fair was a bit different in that entrants could bring photos taken after the 2019 fair through 2021. Because of Covid, there was no open class competition last year. Weeding through hundreds (OK, thousands) of photos is a daunting task most years. It was even more difficult since I was drawing from two years. Thankfully, I kept a notebook with some of my favorites, which speeds the process some. (Decision making has never been my strongest skill. Just ask my parents or my siblings or Randy. OK, the list goes on.)

The harvest photo was in the scenic/landscape category. In open class, only three ribbons are awarded in each class. Stafford County fair contestants can enter two per class, so you're competing against yourself and anyone else who enters that particular category.

This photo at Peace Creek (taken Palm Sunday 2020 and another of my favorite photos from that year) was 2nd place in scenic landscape. 

True confessions: I entered a lot of photos. It's not inexpensive when you buy enlargements, mat board, etc. But, as Randy says, I could have worse vices. 

This year, I collected a lot of ribbons. And I'd be lying if I said that it doesn't give me a thrill to have my work recognized. But it's also being part of a community. Having entries to look at gives people a reason to come to the fair. 

 

Here are my other blue ribbon winners:

 

Action, Blue, taken harvest 2020

 

Animals, Blue, taken July 30, 2020

Humor, Blue, Sedgwick County Zoo, March 2021

Black & White, Humor, Blue, working cows and calves, March 2021

Miscellaneous, BW, Blue, taken February 2021 of an icy puddle during that solar plunge

Agriculture, BW, Blue, taken silage harvest, September 2020

People, BW, Blue, taken winter 2020

Nature, BW, Blue, Winter 2021

Scenic landscape, BW, Blue, Taken July 2021

Animal, BW, Blue, tired ape at Sedgwick County Zoo, March 2021

Action, BW, Blue, taken at Sedgwick County Zoo, March 2021

Our zoo trip with the girls and Jill during spring break also netted me a 2nd place finish in the computer-generated scrapbook division. I did a book with photos and told the story in rhyme. My PEO history book, marking 100 years of the Stafford PEO chapter, got 3rd place.

I also entered six photos in the Stafford County Economic Development contest. The photo with Randy's hands in the wheat got the top prize in commerce. That photo also got a blue ribbon in Human Interest in the open class photography.

Randy says it's all because of him and his hands. I'm not sure. But I think these cute models helped me gather an honorable mention in the People category. (It also placed 2nd in the People class in the open class enlargements.)

I also was awarded honorable mentions in Stafford County Places, for a photo from our trip to the Quivira Kids' Fishing Pond this May ...

... and a photo of cowboys helping us round up bulls, which also got an HM in the people category.

I had an additional three reds and two whites, and eight of my photos didn't place. All in all, a great fair! Our son-in-law is negotiating for a cut of the premium money for some of the models used in the fair winners. Everyone needs a good agent. But I think he needs to read the fine print on the Grandma photo contract.

One Person's Opinion On One Day

Grand Champion, Stafford County Fair 2016 open class

"It's just one person's opinion on one day."

It's a phrase my parents often repeated. They said it at music festivals while I anxiously waited for the rating on my vocal solo to be posted. They repeated it during the county fair. With a stomach turning somersaults and my fingers anxiously tapping a nervous rhythm, I probably inwardly rolled my eyes. (I didn't outwardly do it: I would have gotten in trouble.)

But you know what? It's true. Judging is one person's opinion on one day.

So if people at the Stafford County Fair looked at the Grand Champion ribbon taped to my photo last week and thought, "I wonder why they picked that one?" That's why: It was one person's opinion on one day.

Of all the photos I entered, I wouldn't have chosen that one as my favorite either. It was probably among my most unusual though, and sometimes uniqueness counts.

I took the photo last March at Pratt Livestock when we sold feeder calves. We had been at the sale barn all day long. But when we stepped outside into the darkness, I noticed the country version of a traffic jam. Randy wasn't surprised when I delayed our departure a little longer to get a few shots of the cattle trucks lined up around the perimeter of the sale barn parking lot.

I entered a bunch of photos in the open class division of the county fair last week.  Old habits die hard.

I've been exhibiting things at county fairs since I was 10 years old. I was a fourth grader and a member of the Lincoln Bluebirds 4-H Club.
My only project my first year was "Snacks and Little Lunches," a foods and nutrition project. According to my meticulous record book, my first fair netted a blue ribbon on cookies and red ribbons on both my cupcakes and brownies.

If my 4-H story is to be believed, I had a "lot of fun." In fact, several times, I had "a lot of fun." Perhaps my descriptive writing had not yet been developed.
But, at any rate, I evidently did have "a lot of fun." Here we are ... um ... several years later, and I'm still entering exhibits in county fairs.

In open class at the Stafford County Fair, not every photo gets a ribbon. I had several blues, along with some reds and whites. And I had some that didn't place at all.

Blue ribbon in "People" category

My premium money didn't begin to cover the cost of enlarging photos, buying mat board and special plastic bags, but I felt pretty good about having more than half of my photos "in the money," so to speak.

Blue ribbon in "Animal" category

However, it's not about the money. It's about being part of something bigger. If people don't enter, there's nothing to look at during the fair. And if there's nothing to look at, nobody is going to come. And if no one comes, fairs are going to die.

Blue ribbon in the "Landscape/Scenic" category

Because of a decreasing population base, there are already fewer exhibits than there were back when I was a kid. Or maybe it's just a shift in the kind of 4-H projects kids take today. Back in my day, there were lots of little girls in clothing construction. Today, very few 4-Hers construct their own clothing or other items. There are no longer racks of home-sewn clothing hanging at county fairgrounds.

Blue ribbon, "Human Interest" category, Black and White

But photography seems to be alive and well. There were lots of entries in both the 4-H and open class divisions.

Blue ribbon, B/W, "Action" category

Because of blogging, I seem to grab the camera more often. So I have a lot of photos to choose from.

Blue ribbon, "Humor" category

For the record, one of my favorite photos, a sunrise over a wheat field, got a red ribbon. That particular photo had gotten more than 500 "likes" on Snapshot Kansas' Facebook page. So you just can't outguess a judge: "It's one person's opinion on one day." 

So here we are, back to the question at hand: Why exhibit at the county fair? People have been experiencing fairs since the days of the Roman empire (At least that's what Wikipedia - the authority of all things - told me). I suppose there's a little rush to being chosen "best" at something, satisfying that little kernel of competitiveness in the human spirit.

But I truly think it's about helping to make sure fairs last another 2,000 years. (Maybe women in Jerusalem met in the city square while gathering water and decided who had the best flat bread. Yes, I know I have a vivid imagination.)

Fairs give people an excuse to come together, to visit with people they don't see everyday.

It gives guys an opportunity to eat food their wives won't fix them at home everyday (Yes, I think Randy had pie every day he was there.)

It brings volunteers together to work on something that's bigger than what any one person could accomplish on their own.

It's about being part of a community. I'll give that a purple ribbon any day.

And speaking of purple ribbons, I also got a pretty lavender Reserve Grand Champion ribbon in the arts and crafts division with my children's book, Count on It! Adventures from a Kansas Farm. 

I used my photography and created rhyming verses for the numbers 1 to 20 and self-published it on Heritage Makers. I dedicated the book to our granddaughters, Kinley and Brooke, and to "other children in an effort to keep our rural heritage strong."

I'd like to pursue getting it published by an actual publisher, so I could sell them at a lower price, but that's easier said than done. Still, it's nice to have someone say, "Job well done!" Even if it's only one person's opinion on one day.

Photo Finish

It came down to a photo finish. In this case, my photo, Blizzard Baby, earned second-place honors in the Faces of Agriculture division of the 2014 Kansas Farm Bureau annual photo contest.

There's prize money involved, which is definitely nice. But, more importantly to me, it recognizes my work. I spend a lot of time photographing life on our South Central Kansas farm. I share photos and information about our farming and animal husbandry practices on the blog, which I've been doing since January 2010.

But, as I often say, I'm no Pioneer Woman when it comes to blog followers or commenters. And that can get discouraging.

It doesn't take long for a blogger who is denigrating wheat producers' use of herbicides to have an army of people commenting on how farmers are too stupid to realize that big ag companies are brainwashing all of us. There's many a blogger or YouTube activist who wants us to keep cattle roaming pastures all year. (Never mind that there's no pasture for cattle to eat in much of the Plains during the winter months. Let's not let facts get in the way of a good rant.)

So, when my work is recognized, it does feel good. I enter the Farm Bureau contest every year. In 2008, I got a second-place trophy for this photo I took on the first sunrise after the massive December 2007 ice storm that knocked out our power for 12 days. But I hadn't had a winner since then.

There were three categories for the Kansas Farm Bureau contest this year. My other photos didn't place.

This one was entered in the Uh Oh Monday category. As I said on my entry, this calf decided to test the theory that the grass was greener on the other side of the fence, while the farmer objected to the experiment.

I entered a sunset photo of the Zenith branch of the Kanza Co-op in the Seasons of Agriculture category.

It's always hard for me to figure out which of the thousands of photos I take each year to enter. (What else is new? I've been having these butterfly-inducing dilemmas since I started entering things in the county 4-H fair or singing at music contests as a kid.)

To see the prize-winning photos from other Kansas photographers, click on this link to the Kansas Farm Bureau. Thanks Kansas Farm Bureau!

A Visit to the Farm, Part I, By Kinley Marie

A Visit to the Farm

By Kinley Marie

I arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's farm yesterday. I am just so busy playing with Grandma and Grandpa and meeting lots of new animal friends that I don't have time to chat today.

Be sure and check back next week for my complete report from the County Line.

I do have time to tell you that Grandma won the Beef Magazine Winter Photo Contest. She says that just goes to show you that the Beatles had it right (whoever the Beatles are): You do "get by with a little help from your friends." She says that's a good lesson to remember. She also says "thanks" for taking time to vote!

Much love,
Kinley Marie

Beef Cake: I Need Your Vote!

I'm celebrating a little "beef cake" today on The County Line. No, not that kind of beef cake, though I am kind of partial to the guy in the photo.

You see, my photo, The Blizzard of Oz, is one of 15 finalists selected in a Winter on the Ranch photo contest for Beef Magazine.

I already feel like a winner, since more than 200 photos were submitted. Editors at Beef Magazine narrowed them down to 15 to be eligible for VISA gift cards - $125 for champion and $75 for reserve. Voting is open until noon Thursday, March 8, 2013. To vote, visit the Beef Magazine website finalist photo gallery.

I would be honored if you'd vote for my photo. But I know I have a lot of good competition. Whether I get your vote or not, you'll enjoy seeing the wintery photos from farms and ranches across the country.

And you might just win a Beef hat for yourself. Four voters, chosen at random, will have some new head gear So, go vote!

As I said, it's an honor just to be one of the finalists. But winning would be like having my cake and eating it, too. Mmmmmm - beef cake!

Just in case you missed them, click here and here and here or more photos from our Blizzard of Oz.