Orange County Fair 2007 Photography Contest results

By now, most of you are probably in suspense over just how well I did at the Orange County Fair this year. Guess what? It rocked. Out of 24 entries total, 19 had some sort of win, with a total of ten first place, seven second place, and two third place. The remaining five, obviously, were not winners within their category. My overall win ratio was 80%, a slight improvement on last year's 75%.

Worth noting was that last year was all 8 x 10 prints, while this year some were 5 x 7 due to a technical difficulty with the proto printing machine giving some photos a pinkish cast.

I know, I know, you want photos! Here you go:


Landscape: Colour
The bizarre colouration on this aerial shot made the Grand Canyon look like the surface of Mars... but it only limped to a second place finish.



Landscape: Black & White
Similar results for this aerial black-and-white of the Rocky Mounatains.


Pets: Colour
I are serious cat. I are a first-place winner.


Sunrise / Sunset
Electricity must have been in the air when this shot from my California trip earlier this year was judged: it ended up with a socking first-place win despite extremely heavy competion in this popular category.


Special Effect: Black and White
My hardcore fans might recognise this infrared long-exposure railroad shot from my Festival of the Photograph entries earlier this summer. It's no wonder this shot gets around: it's one of the best things I've done all year. It certainly was on track to take first place in the special effect category.


Still life: Black and white
I consider this simple shot of seashells by the seashore one of the best I've ever done, unfortunately I was only able to get a 5x7 print of it. But that didn't stop it from a first-place take.


Livestock: Black and white
Second place goes to these monochrome bovines hoofing it across a stark rural landscape. Note: this wasn't actually an infrared shot, although it does somewhat look like it.


Orange County Fair
The fair has a special category for images taken at the fair itself (last year's, obviously, unless you happen to be a time traveller) and this image of colourful handwoven baskets from one of the vendor's stalls took a solid first place. The same vendor was there this year, and he seemed very pleased that I'd won with a shot of his wares. He said he's be there next year too, and I offered him a free print of this shot.


Life in Orange County
Hungry for more train photography? This high-contrast infrared shot of a freight train going through Gordonsville made it to a respectable second-place finish in the popular Life in Orange County category.

Well, that's nine of them. Come back soon for more!


--Andrew Lenahan