JPG: Stories: The Project: Maryland State Fair Photography Contest

Maryland State Fair Photography Contest

By Joshua Blankman

26 Aug 2008

I noticed a long time ago for submissions to the Maryland State Fair photography contest and planned 24 pictures to submit. There was a walk-in date so I didn't have to schedule and I didn't have to pay to submit so I planned 24 pictures in nearly every category. I bought picture wire, eye screws, and 24 frames and matted every picture to submit. After a full day of work, I drove over to the fairgrounds and entered a large building with a dozen different areas for various contests and eventually found the photography booth. I dropped 2 large bags completely full of frames and continued to sign in and register. When I took out the frames, the lady at the register looked at me with the look of trouble.

She told me I had wired the frames wrong and instead of putting the photo wire into the frame I had put the screws into the cardboard and it wasn't sturdy enough to hang. She directed me to two local photo/framing shops to see if they could help me out in rewiring the frames.

I drive over to the shops only for them to stare at me and shrug. I go back to the fair with the same un-useable frames and without any tools I spend two hours unscrewing, re-screwing into the wood by hand, and rewiring every frame. By the end of every frame, my hands with sore, my thumb and index finger were swollen and blood red... but every frame was correctly done. I hand it over with my registration excited that I was finally done and everything was well with the world.

Also while I was redoing the frames I had an interesting experience. A lady looked at my photo and turned and said "come here, come here!" and this little girl no more than 9 years old came over. She held up my photo of a ladybug and the little girls eyes widened and a smile came over her face. She didn't say a word but that look in her eyes was magical.

A week passes and the fair opens with the doors to the art tent open to the public. I walk over to the photography contest and I look for my works. I find most of my work reviewed and hanging but no awards. Then I come to one of my photos with a white ribbon hanging on it. I won an honorable mention ribbon for my photograph in the wildlife category. I keep on walking and I see another photograph from the insect category, the one that made that little girl grin ear to ear, with a second place ribbon on it. I go to the end with all the first place photos hanging and right in the middle is my photo I submitted for the B+W posed category with a blue ribbon.

The hours I spent in presenting my photos well paid off completely and now I am an award winning photographer and I am proud!

VOTE: Should this story be published in JPG?