Fair Weather

I didn't have any purple ribbons attached to my photos at this year's Stafford County Fair. I wasn't particularly surprised. In open class, it's only the Grand Champion and the Reserve Grand Champion who take home purple ribbons. After several successful years, I've certainly had my share of success, and I don't enter for the ribbon placing anyway ... though it is always fun to see what a judge thinks.

It's always good to know the people behind-the-scenes. One of the open class photography volunteers told me that two of my photos were considered in the champions conversation. One was the photo I took at dusk in my backyard. It was one of my favorites, too. I love the color and the glowing light of the yard light emanating off the swing and the freshly-fallen snow.

The other was a black and white version of a photo I took this spring during a cattle drive past our house.

But, in the end, two others were chosen. Both belonged to my friend and faithful fair competitor, Jennifer. The one the judge chose wasn't Jennifer's favorite of those she had personally entered. She and I have had the conversation before: It's just one person's opinion on one day. (The same volunteer who shared the information about the championship "drive" also had two photos under consideration.)

It wasn't a banner year for me. I had another couple of blues - one a black and white version of a photo I also took on a snowy January day ...

 

... and a black and white landscape scene taken just south of Quivira National Wildlife Refuge after a different snowfall. 

In open class, blues are ranked 1st in the class. I got five reds  - or photos ranked 2nd in their class - and three whites for photos ranked 3rd in their class. And I had several that didn't garner any ribbons at all. 

I also entered a couple of the travel books I made for Randy for Christmas last year. The Chicago trip book got a blue ...

And the other - documenting our trip to Kentucky and points between - was the second in the class for computer-produced scrapbooks.

The Stafford County Economic Development office sponsors a photo contest for pictures highlighting Stafford County. I was pleased to win first place in the Commerce category for a photo I took at the Stafford County Flour Mill during the tour with Kansas Master Farmers last spring.

I also got a runner up prize in the Places category for a photo I took at the Ritz Theater.

As I've said many times before, I don't enter at the fair for the ribbons or the premium money. Frankly, I come out behind when I consider how much I spend on photo enlargements and mat board every year. But entering in the fair helps keep this rural American tradition alive. Sure, it's fun to see how your artistic eye stacks up against your neighbors. But it's even better to have a place to wander around and reconnect with people from across the county who you don't see on a weekly basis. You can't beat that!

I wasn't the only photographer in the family. For the second year, Kinley and I worked together throughout the year. She also took some photos on trips with her family. While she didn't have any overall champions this year, four of her seven 4-H photos were starred, which meant they were considered in the championship drive. 

Three of her four photos considered in the championship drive were: left top, taken on a family trip to San Diego; the top middle, taken during a photo shoot with conversation heart candies with Grandma; and top right, sunflowers arranged like a heart in the wheat kernels, also a Kinley/Grandma photo shoot.

 

Another Valentine candy heart photo was the other 4-H photo considered.

Kinley's decorated cookies were the champion in that category.

They were amazing. She has more patience than I do. I should have taken a photo of the whole plate, but here are a few examples.

She also had a purple on an orange chiffon cake and a blue on a strawberry angel food cake. 

She and Summer also had a successful second year in the dog project.

She got a champion in arts and crafts on miniature vegetables fashioned from clay, along with a couple of other entries. (Again, that patience and attention to detail shine through!)

Brooke had a good fair, too. She earned a champion ribbon for her consultation about her casual outfit for the Shopping in Style project (formerly Clothing Buymanship).

She had a purple on her dressy outfit for the style show.

She earned a purple ribbon on a jewelry dish she made from clay. (She and I worked on the patriotic wreath when the girls were at the farm in late June. It got a blue.)

She got a purple ribbon on her jam-filled cookies. 

Thankfully, there were some leftovers at home and all the grandparents got to sample those. She also got a purple on her angel food cake and a blue on her yeast rolls.

Her Harry Potter display reviewing all the books in the series also received a purple ribbon.

Ribbons are fun. But 4-H is about much more than that. It's about learning by doing, exploring new interests, getting comfortable with public speaking, working with others and so much more. The 4-H program has been doing that since way back when - even back to the day when Kinley's and Brooke's great-grandparents were part of the program. That's a family tradition worth keeping. 

Pavement Ends: Photos Begin

As we were driving home from Manhattan a week ago, the sky was offering a final encore for the evening. We had just turned off I-35 at McPherson and were working our way home via K-61 highway.

"If you need to stop, we can," said my ultra patient husband when he saw me pull my camera from my purse and try to capture the moment through a bug-specked windshield.

We turned off on an unfamiliar road just south of McPherson. I hopped out of the car and started snapping away. Then I noticed a sign: "Pavement Ends." I traversed the steep ditch and snapped a few more pictures, this time including the sign in the shot.

And I thought about how fitting it was that we'd turned off onto that road that very night.

Earlier in the day, I'd attended a 20th anniversary brunch at Kansas State University's Staley School of Leadership Studies. This summer, Jill sent me a link to an opportunity connected to the anniversary celebration. The Staley School invited alumni, friends, faculty and staff to submit photographs to be displayed in the building.

 

When the school moved into its new building in 2010, they'd asked photographers and artists with a connection to Kansas and K-State to share their work, with the thought that the pieces would be refreshed and rotated over time.

 

With the 20th anniversary celebration coming up, organizers believed it was "the time." The photos that had been hanging in the building would be auctioned off, with the proceeds to go to support leadership students.

For the new artwork, photographers could submit up to five images to be considered by a panel which included professional artists, faculty and former students. For each image, the photographer was to submit an artist statement about how the image could reflect leadership.

I looked through my photos, wrote artist statements and polled my family. paring the 11 photos I'd pulled down to five. Late in October, I was notified that one of my photos had been selected.

They happened to choose a photo that I have hanging in my own living room. (I have a grouping of my photos that reflect the seasons, a celebration of Ecclesiastes 3. The green wheat with dew is my "spring" image in my home.)

 

Now, its bigger cousin hangs as an "archival print" in a conference room on the leadership building's second floor. It was thrilling to see it there.

My parents and Randy joined me at the Staley School reception.

Conner, a leadership student, led us around the building, telling us a little about each of the new photos. We walked into another room, and I did a double take. On the same wall with an image of Bill Snyder, there was a photo that looked really familiar. Another of my photos had been chosen, and I didn't know it until I walked into that room.

But there it was. I called the image Faithful to Our Colors, a line from the K-State Fight Song.

 

I couldn't believe it: Two of my photos had been chosen.  My letter had said one, but there was another.

 

I later found out that more than 200 images had been submitted in the Leadership Lens initiative. Only 26 were chosen to be hung in the Staley School of Leadership Building. I couldn't be more honored.

And that brings me full circle back to that Pavement Ends sign.

As we walked through the building and looked at the photographs, there were images from around the world. One featured a colorfully-dressed woman in Haiti. A captivating image of a baby baboon had already been included in a display at the Smithsonian Institution after being recognized as one of the best photos in National Geographic. Another showed an elephant family ... and it wasn't taken in a zoo. It was taken in the elephants' natural habitat.

And, still, an amateur farm wife photographer from Central Kansas could take photos from where the "pavement ends" and be included. My usual habitat features cattle and farmyard cats, not baboons or elephants.

There is beauty everywhere. It's in city skylines, but it's also found on an early morning walk on a dewy morning down a dirt road in Kansas. It's just a matter of opening our eyes to the wonder.

In a few years, my photos and others that were just installed will be auctioned off as a fundraiser. This inaugural auction raised nearly $10,000 for programs at the Staley School.

And that is beautiful, too.

For more about the Staley School of Leadership Studies, click here.

I have photos hanging in K-State's College of Business Administration. Read about that here.

Picture It!

Sometimes scrolling through Facebook offers opportunities you'd never imagined.

I admit it: I probably waste a fair amount of time looking at Facebook. But in June, I saw a post from K-State's College of Business Administration. They were asking K-State alumni to submit original photos to be considered as decor for the new building.

Since Brent is the Communications Coordinator at the college, I emailed him about it. But he didn't know any more than what had been posted. So I decided I'd give it a try.

It wasn't limited to College of Business alums. Even those of us who graduated from K-State's College of Home Economics (1979) could submit up to five photographs for consideration. It wasn't limited to K-State themed images. When I asked, they told me this:

Whatever you shoot that’s exceptional: Kansas, France, K-State, California… We just want good work by KSU alumni.

Well, I was fresh out of photos from France or California, but I have lots of Kansas and K-State. I spent a few days thinking about it, then emailed my choices. And in July, I was notified that three of the five had been chosen for inclusion in the new building! The final selections were made by the Leopold Gallery + Art Consulting in Kansas City. (And Brent didn't have a thing to do with it.)

 

I was anxious to see the new building. For one thing, Brent works there, and I like visualizing where my kids are. (Mom habits die hard.) However, we were planting wheat when they had the grand opening ceremony earlier in October. Brent said he'd give us a personalized tour later. We finally got our chance last Friday.

It was such a thrill for me to see my photos enlarged to archival prints and matted to decorate the walls of the new building. Little gold plaques are mounted beside each print, giving the name of the photo and the photographer.

One of them - which I titled Hope for the Harvest - is in the Student Success Center on the building's first floor. I took it in June, as the sun was coming up over a nearly ripe wheat field.

Another is hung over a communal study area on the 3rd floor. It's called Rainbow's Gold. It was an older photo I'd taken in September 2009.

My shot from a K-State football game is in the offices for the National Strategic Selling Institute. (The universe - and wind - aligned just right during the pregame ceremonies in September 2014, and the flags were perfectly framed by the goalposts. I'd never captured it before or since in just that way.) I called it "Faithful to Our Colors," a line from the K-State Fight Song.

I didn't whip out a tape measure to figure out how large they are printed. (I was already embarrassing Brent enough.) But it definitely gave me a thrill to see my photos on walls other than my own.

Photography takes an instant out of time, 

altering life by holding it still.

Dorothea Lange

***

Just a note:  I suppose someone out there will read this and think I'm bragging.  That may be part of the reason it's taken me from the time I was notified in July until now to write about it - or talk about it at all. Until now, I had told my parents and my kids. For one thing, I thought it was just too good to be true until I saw it with my very own eyes.

However, one of my missions for this blog is sharing about our life on a Central Kansas farm. This is part of my story. If I had a diary like a turn-of-the-century farm wife, I would have recorded it there so my descendants would know about it someday. This is my modern-day diary, I suppose. I am humbled to share a couple of images from the County Line and another from our beloved alma mater with visitors to the College of Business Administration. I am thankful for the opportunity and for the honor!

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.

Calendar Babe

My Blizzard Baby is a Calendar Babe. Who needs pin-up girls when you can have pin-up calves?

I was surprised to receive a 2015 calendar in the mail last week. It is a calendar sponsored by the Kansas Farm Bureau and UMB Agribusiness. The photos were from among those entered in the annual KFB-sponsored photography contest.

My Blizzard Baby is the February model, though not the cover girl. All the photos beautifully represent the unique landscapes and scenes of Kansas.

The caption puts the Babe and me in Greeley County, which I am sure is another beautiful place in Kansas, though not our actual location. But that's OK. I have firsthand knowledge of missing errors, no matter how many times I proofread.

Ironically, I chose the same February photo for the family calendar I complete every year. I list birthdays and anniversaries and use my photos to decorate each month.

Great minds think alike!