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.

A Map to Zoo Fun: A Book for Kinley & Brooke

 

It was a roaring good time!

We met Jill and the girls at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita on March 5, the first day of their spring break. The last time we were there, Kinley was just a toddler, and Brooke hadn't made her appearance in the world yet. (Kinley was the reporter for the day on the blog post here.)

I've written several books for the girls through the years. I did the first version of a farm ABC book while Jill was still pregnant with Kinley and gave it to her at a shower. I added a farm counting book to the mix a few years later. 

But I've also done several books based on day trips we've taken together - to Rolling Hills Refuge near Salina, to Exploration Place at Wichita, to a horse farm and the Sternberg Museum at Hays, Tanganyika Wildlife Park and the Kansas State Fair. I've also done a couple from their visits to the farm, including wheat harvest and a solo visit from Brooke when Kinley was with her Ladd grandparents and cousin. When I started digging through the book shelves, I discovered 9 books! Most of them are done in rhyme, and all feature my photography.

When we were in Topeka at Easter time, Brooke brought me a couple of "our" books to read - the farm counting book and Zoobilation, a book from our Rolling Hills Zoo visit. She made my day!

As she cuddled on my lap, she asked, "Grandma, are you going to write a book about the Wichita zoo?"

Well, at the time, it wasn't in the works. I'd been in charge of a 100-year celebration for my PEO group, and I'd done a 26-page book for that, too. 

Cover of the PEO book

 

March also brought several extra days of cattle work. But how could I refuse that request? I'd certainly taken plenty of photos. And when a little girl asks so beseechingly right after wanting to read together? It didn't take much convincing!

So, a week or so later, I hit "publish" on A Zoo Map to Fun with Kinley & Brooke. In addition to my verses, I added some facts from the Sedgwick County Zoo website. The girls love the behind-the-scenes TV shows about zoos and the people who care for the animals, and I figured a few facts might make it more interesting for Kinley, too. (She also reads the National Geographic Junior magazine cover to cover.)

To read the 20 pages, you'll probably have to pull up each photo separately. It shows each individual page. The completed book hasn't arrived yet. I can hardly wait to share it with the girls!

Front cover

 

 

 

 

Back cover

In Focus

 

Always remember: Your focus determines your reality.

George Lucas

 

This past weekend, we drove to two of our summer pastures to check cattle. On Saturday, at the Ninnescah, the cattle were hidden in the pasture's abundant nooks and crannies. But we didn't see any cattle tracks in the road. Unlike last year, our summer hasn't been filled with every-other-day phone calls from people in that area, telling us that our perennial group of escapees had absconded once again. (You may recall those rascals went to the sale barn last fall when we eventually caught them.)

 

Looking east

 

As usual, I had my camera along for the ride. While we didn't get to see the cattle, but we did stop at one of my favorite photo spots, a small wooden bridge over the Ninnescah River.

Looking west

 

Just south of the pasture, I spied a large windmill near the intersection. With the cloudy sky forming an interesting backdrop to the north and west, I asked Randy to stop instead of making the lefthand turn he had planned. He's used to such requests.

 

We stopped in the middle of the intersection. It isn't a well-traveled road. And, even if some other farmer came along to check his own crops or cattle, we would have plenty of warning with the flat landscape stretching in every direction.

I noticed a couple of fence posts left behind - probably from an abandoned loading chute - and decided to frame the windmill in a different way. 

After clicking a few frames of the windmill with both my Nikon and my camera phone, I noticed the a few sunflowers creating a splash of color in the ditch nearby. Looking closer, I noticed how the shape of the sunflower mimicked the shape of the windmill blades and added even more images to my memory card.  

 

When we got home, I downloaded the photos and clicked through the images, now much larger on my computer screen. 

And I discovered a couple of different things. In some of them, the camera had focused on the sunflower, so the flower was in crisp focus and the windmill was just a shape in the background.

In others, the windmill was in sharp focus, blurring the flower itself. Sometimes, the camera chose the close-up view. Other times, it chose the view at the horizon. And, no, the operator did not notice at the time.

My later inspection also revealed I should have paid closer attention to the sunflower I chose for the close-up. Its petals were buffeted by the wind and seemed to have provided a plentiful buffet for insects who had munched the yellow bloom. I wished I'd chosen a more model-worthy specimen. 

At the time, I was more concerned about the shape of the flower and the windmill blades. It was only later that I focused on the details. Unfortunately, I've had that happen before when taking photos. I always think I'll learn from my miscues. And I usually do ... for awhile.

The next day, when we visited our Rattlesnake Pasture, I made sure I was focused on a large, intact bloom.

I did notice that the flowers were giving me their backsides in the shot below, but sunflowers turn toward the sun ... or the direction the light would be on a sunny day, at least. But since the bulls were giving me a pretty shot anyway, I was happy with the splash of color on an overcast day.

But let's face it: Give me a few weeks, and I will inevitably go back to my old ways and forget to pay close attention to the details.

 

Isn't that a metaphor for life itself? We can get stuck viewing life through a particular lens. We see life, people and God through that internal lens called attitude and perspective. 

 

There are many things that can and will blur the focus of our lives.  Distorting our focus are judgment, prejudice, anger, resentment, jealousy, fear, hurt, offense, ingratitude and a lot of other "stuff."  These give us the wrong images of life, people and God.

Unfortunately, when our focus has become blurred by such things, we accept this warped view as reality, when it’s actually the projection of our own experience, pain and problems.  This sets us up for wrong reactions, bad decisions and even some mental and emotional misery.

A favorite Bible verse has this to say about where my focus should be:

 

Brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Philippians 4: 8-9

Back in my voice lesson days, my teacher assigned the song, "Think On These Things." Even though I cleaned out a lot of music when I downsized my office shelves, I kept that particular piece of music because I love the message so much.

It's old enough that I couldn't find the Merle Miller Sacred Songs arrangement (1947) on YouTube, but I did find a high school choir singing a different - yet equally beautiful - song based on the same Bible verses.

Here we are in a pandemic. News stories this week have talked about a "twin-demic" which could happen as winter approaches and brings our usual influx of garden-variety flu on top of Covid-19.

Coupled with rioting and the political rhetoric that bombards us from all sides as the election approaches, it's sometimes hard to focus on anything other than gloom and doom and "noise."

So a quiet trip to a beautiful places to "think on these things" is a good start.

It's not that we get rid of the noise or the things that mar our vision. If you look carefully in the photo above, there's an old drainage pipe that makes the scene just a little less lovely. 

Maybe it's a matter of stepping back just a little bit and taking in the whole picture (and hiding that old pipe with a few more pretty purple flowers by using a different angle). Or maybe it's focusing on the even the smallest things  ...

 ... the intricate petals of individual flowers ...

 ... like tiny blue flowers, hiding in pasture grasses ...

... like cattle (where they are supposed to be), enjoying plentiful grass - even in the late summer ...

... imagining the fisherman who left this fishing pole behind so he/she would be ready for next time ...

 ... wildlife at nearby Quivira National Wildlife Refuge ...

 

... and picture-postcard scenery in my own "neck of the woods ...

Do I need to readjust my focus? Sometimes, it's as simple as taking time to really look ... and to start to "think on these things" instead.

The Message puts Philippians 4 in even clearer terms:

^8-9 Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

Philippians 4: 8-9, The Message