Moon Ride over Reynoldsburg

Recently I won a second place award in the pictorial category from the Ohio News Photographers Association for an image I took in 2008 of the moon with a carnival ride flying in front of it at the Reynoldsburg Tomato Festival. The image never ran in the newspaper because the editors did not like it for the photo page of the festival.

I did fight for the photograph but lost and it ended up on the cutting room floor. (Technically that would be the trash bin on the Apple G3's we have at work.)

The image was shot at ISO 250 at f8 at 0.4 sec on a Canon 1D with a Canon 70-200mm zoom lens zoomed to 200mm. I saw the ride pass in front of the moon and hoped I could get something interesting out of it.

I stabilized the camera against a truck's grill parked next to the ride area and fired off a couple dozen frames as the ride swooped in front of the moon. This is the second to last image of the group. There are a couple other images I like from the ones I took (which you can see in my flickr stream) but I especially liked the framing of the moon between the lines of lights and the curve of the lines in the upper right corner. It was a lucky photograph.

I appreciate every award I have received and it is nice to be recognized by your peers. We enter a bunch of contests at the newspaper, and a number of the contests do not carry as much value because they aren't judged by fellow photographers or photo editors.

This year the judging for the ONPA annual contest was put online and could be watched live or by going into the video archives. I viewed some of the judging for the different categories including the pictorial category because I wanted to hear why the judges picked specific pictures to win.

It is interesting to see behind the curtain and peek in on the might Wiz to see why the final images are picked. In the past I have attended a couple judging sessions in person. I have been amazed at how the judges personalities and interaction can play a part in the photographs picked each year.

I highly recommend attending or watching online the judging to see what ignites the fire for the judges.

The first award I won was the first year I started taking photographs for a college newspaper. The newspaper editor at the time decided what images were going into an awards contest. I knew nothing about it and I could never find out what photograph he submitted. All I know is the judges comments mentioned, "Nice hang time."

Looking back I know that photograph wasn't worth the 4x6 paper it was printed on, but some set of judges decided it should be given a third place prize. I am grateful for being recognized for every award I've received, and I still want to beat senseless thank that editor for never remembering what photograph he submitted.