'Picture My Weekend' scavenger hunt was a success

Picture My Weekend participants (from left) Teresa James, Laura Radford and Konya Martin walked away with top honors for their photos entered into the Friday night photography show.  James received third place with a scenic photo, Radford earned second with a photo of horses and Martin took first place with portrait of children.

Nearly 40 people took part in the 6th annual Picture My Weekend Photography Show and Workshop July 26-27 in Alva, some from as far away as Buffalo and Eldorado, Okla.

A steady crowd of participants and community members attended the Friday night Photography Show where they were entertained by Fred Riggins, who sang and played guitar.

The top winners in the Photography Show included Konya Martin of Carmen, first place; Laura Radford of Alva, second; and Teresa James of Vici, third.

The best photo in the special photography category themed “Trees” was Radford’s, which also was voted as the People’s Choice winner.

Every year at Picture My Weekend during the Saturday portion of workshops, time is set aside for the participants to complete a photography assignment. Photos from the assignment are placed into a slideshow that is viewed at the end of the day. That slideshow is then converted to video, and a link to it is placed online for everyone to view. Once it is finished, it will be available at www.nwosu.edu/pmw-videos-photos. All of the winning photos will be identified in the slideshow video.

The participants for “Picture My Weekend” are: Erika Birk, Kelley Burggraf, Wilda Busse, Angelia Case, Valarie Case, Rod Dunkin, Carol Erikson, Shawna Gilbert, Charles L. Heaton, Jeramie Heldermon, Wade Heldermon, Susan Holliday, Lois Hudgins, Teresa James, Kenneth Kelsey, Dalton Lamberth,  Andrew Lauffer, Lucinda Ledwig, Konya Martin, Becky McCray, Rod Murrow, Carolyn Murrow, (not pictured) Joanne and Omer Prewett, Laura Radford, Kathie Rather, Brody Schmidt, Taylor Skouby, Haley Smith, Neal Suthers, Karen Suthers, Maureen Thomas, Brian Thomas, Kayla Waldrop.

This year’s photography assignment was a Photo Scavenger Hunt of more than 100 words or phrases that could be found in Alva to photograph. Participants weren’t expected to get all of the photos on the list taken, but were encouraged to be as creative as possible with the images they were able to create, rather than merely taking a snapshot and moving on.

Participants Becky McCray of Hopeton received the certificate for The Most Photos Taken during the assignment, and James was awarded The Most Creative Photos Taken during the assignment. Their efforts were rewarded with free photo editing software donated by SmartPhotoEditor.com.

While participants viewed this year’s slideshow at the finale of the event, they were asked to write down one photo they liked the best. The photos with the most votes would then become the top three photos of the day, and will possibly be used on the cover of next year’s Alva Chamber of Commerce directory. The winners also received Chamber Bucks.

Erika Birk of Duncan won first with a shot of a Zebra taken at The Menagerie – Bradt’s Mammals and More, and second and third went to Radford with photos of a grasshopper on a flower and a cowboy.

Chamber Bucks also were awarded to the People’s Choice winner. SmartPhotoEditor.com software also went to the overall first place winner and tree photo winner.

“We’re thankful to the Alva Chamber of Commerce and SmartPhotoEditor.com for providing prizes to our winners, and we hope to continue finding prizes each year to give to our participants,” Valarie Case, event committee member, said.

“We’re also so thankful to session leader Kayla Waldrop of Enid who provided the fun PhotoBooth through her business Enid Photo Op,” Case said. “We also thank our other outstanding session leaders Brody Schmidt, Ken Kelsey and Andrew Lauffer.”

To keep up to date on future news about Picture My Weekend, look for the established group on Facebook, and send emails to picturemyweekend@gmail.com.

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