No Contest

            Last week Kim decided to enter some of her photos in the National Audubon Photography Contest. She spent hours pouring through her thousands of images on her computer, narrowing the candidates down to about 250, dragged into four “Contest” folders on her desktop. We went through them together and brought it down to maybe 25. Then 12. Then Kim went through them again to see if she missed any favorites, and the total went back to about 20. Then we went through them and noted our 10 favorites, which we decided to enter.

 

            Kim wasn’t just looking at the pictures. She was doing all the adjustments needed to enhance each one. At the same time, seeing the photos reminded her of the trips and outings we took to get them.

 

            We then took a closer look at the Contest Rules, and we reluctantly decided not to enter any of them. The rules were overwhelming - for us. Sometimes the cropping meant the images did not have the required amount of pixels. Sometimes removing an out-of-focus smudge might have broken some rule. Kim’s humility made her feel – incorrectly – that her photos were not as good as some of the winners that we saw online. We were not sure if the technical camera and lens setting information we were asked to include was accurate enough. This decision was made after maybe 30 hours of work (30 for Kim, about 3 for me).

            Anyway, here are some of our favorites:

Barn Owls - Gainesville FL

Red-shouldered Hawk with Snake Belt - Viera Wetlands, FL

Black Vultures - Paynes Prairie, Gainesville, FL

Spotted Sandpiper - Saline, MI

Double-crested Cormorant, Turtle Surfing -Paynes Prairie, Gainesville, FL

Green Heron Chicks - Everglades

Northern Gannets - Bonaventure Island, Quebec, Canada

Purple Swamphen - Sweetwater Wetlands Park, Gainesville, FL

Sandhill Cranes in Morning Mist - Our Back Yard, Gainesville, FL

Horned Grebe - Merritt Island, FL

         Kim says, "My pleasure is in looking back at what I've seen, what I've done, and the beauty in the world. I don't have to win a contest."

         She just won it.