I recently had each of my advanced photo students enter work in a local contest through the Victorville Daily Press newspaper. I was really excited that we were able to do this despite an entry fee for each photo, because my school site really supports my program and agreed to cover the costs! The theme of the contest was the four seasons, because the newspaper would be making a calendar with the winning 12 entries. As part of their preparation for the project I gave students a bunch of pictures from the internet that could potentially be winter-themed entries, and each of the photos had to do with hot chocolate. Some were really beautiful, others were obviously terrible, and some were just ok. The students' goal that day was to rank the photos from best to worst and then debate their choices. It ended up being a very enlightening discussion, as several groups were very adamant that the photo they had picked was definitely the best. In the end I hope it helped the students see how staging and careful attention to detail was really important to their contest entries.
With hot chocolate photos on the brain I decided to give the contest a shot that night. It was last minut, but why not? I busted out my Christmas decorations, an old cutting board, some cinnamon sticks and set up the scene. I carefully added more and more props (I'm still a little unsure if I added too many) and worked with the lighting (it was less than ideal.) The above photo is my final product. It was shot on my dining room table with the Christmas lights at one end and the cutting board and teacup at the other to create the right amount of bokeh. The editing is very minimal, and I'm kind of wishing I had noticed the cocoa on the edge of the cup. It bugs me now. Anyway, I got an email the other day saying that I had a photo selected as a winner in the contest! The thing is, my husband also entered photos, and we used the same email address on our entry forms. So, for a couple days we weren't sure which of us had won. However, we just heard back from the photo editor that we had EACH won... how perfect! His photo is really beautiful and very deserving. I also found out that one of my students won for a stunning photo of a ferris wheel! I'm still not 100% sure that all winning photos make it into the calendar, but either way I'm excited and proud :)
