This weekend I entered 3 of the 1000s of photos taken during my 13 months of travel around New Zealand, South America and India to the Photography competition at Ventura County Fair. I naively presumed that it would be a low key, small scale affair; me and approximately 8 other people....
I entered online and had to deliver the photos to the Fairgrounds by 5pm last Sunday. So obviously on Sunday, pressure-prompted me printed them out at Target and headed to Aaron Brothers to get them matted. A very helpful employee (James) told me they had stopped accepting matting orders for the Ventura County Fair the day before! "Really? Were there that many?" I asked in amazement. Yes, huge numbers apparently!! I really had no idea! He helped me find some precut mats/mounting board/double sided tape etc to prepare my pics to the complex standards required by the VCF. He also let me to use a bench in the shop to put them all together. I carefully labeled them as per hyper-detailed instructions and added the 3/4 inch velcro squares to the top 2 corners (duh! later at the fairgrounds I was told that I had fallen at the last photo prep hurdle but sticking the fluffy, not the pointy side of the Velcro to the back!). James told me that mine were the nicest photos he'd seen! I asked him if he said that to all the girls, but he promised not! Buoyed with (false) confidence, I headed to the county fairgrounds.
The place was buzzing! There were throngs of people there! All ages, proudly carrying photos, paintings and all manner of crafted items. I thought that was really cool, because certainly none of us were doing it for the prize money (in my photo division, top prize is a whopping $20, for most other craft classes it's $7). I loved that we were all doing it to share our creations with others (and of course secretly hoping for a blue ribbon!!). I entered the photo drop off building and saw 100s of photos stacked in boxes!! Ha ha! What was I thinking? Me and 8 others?! People really took this seriously! Anyway, 2 very nice volunteers wearing protective gloves accepted my entries and presented me with a neon green 'Participant' ribbon!!! Am I very sad to be excited about that?
I'm a winn..PARTICIPANT!! I got a ribbon, I got a ribbon!!
The lady next to me was proudly entering a photo showing two hands cupping a butterfly. Her volunteer asked her "What is that anyway? Is it a bat or something?"!! Poor lady! Her face dropped as she described her piece! I wanted to shout over "it's so obviously a butterfly" but thought on this occasion I'd let the embarrassing moment pass!
Here are my 3 entries. My fave is the first one. I hope she does well, she deserves to. The others, I think are entertaining to the eye and I entered them as a bit of fun. Of course, since then I've remembered another pic that I should have entered. It's easy to get sucked in!
"Primary Caregiver". The beautiful Shabbu. I love this little girl (6 years old in the picture) to pieces and really miss her. She was such a selfless and caring "mum" to her little brother Salim Akash. She lived in one of the slums in which I volunteered and often her alcoholic and physically abusive parents would pull her out of morning school so she could look after him. He was too heavy for her tiny, growing body and she would sit him on her hip and limp around awkwardly. She cleaned up after him wordlessly and tended to his needs. She was often the only person who could stop him crying. This unposed shot captures the enormous weight of responsibility she had in her young life.
"Ouch". There's no two ways about it, this rodeo cowboy in Nabon, Ecuador, was going to hurt the next day! Taken during a festival day in the town of Nabon, about 1 hour outside of Cuenca. This was a lucky shot, taken from the stands.Not long after this photo, 10 Brahma bulls escaped from the rodeo stadium and headed for the hills!!
"Looking for Love". A handsome male frigate bird in the Galapagos Isles, Ecuador displays his ballooned red chest proudly for the ladies.
Keep your fingers crossed for me and if you are at the Fair, go and check out the photography and crafts exhibits. We have a lot of über-talented people in Ventura County!
