“Ice and Snow” Photo Contest Produces Solid Winners

Maddy-Allen
Madeline Allen’s prize-winning image (c) Madeline Allen, 2015

By Michele Smith

The Bedford High School library, as a way to add some interest to a long and snowy winter, held a “Snow and Ice” photo competition for BHS students. This is the second year that the contest has been held. The award winners were announced on March 16.

  • 1st Place – Madeline (Maddy) Allen – 12th grade
  • 2nd Place – Clayton Hafer – 12th grade
  • 3rd Place (tie) – Victor Chen – 12th grade and Robert Ackerman – 11th grade

Contest entries are available for viewing at https://sway.com/c8chnlk-cRTo3uar

This is Allen’s second year placing in the competition – perhaps not a surprise due to her dedication to the craft of photography. She has been carrying a camera with her everywhere since childhood, and takes at least 5-6 photos a day. Allen said, of her winning photo depicting frost on her car window: “I didn’t take the photo thinking of the contest. I actually took it with a Samsung Galaxy 5s,” a cell phone. She continued, “I went out in the morning and the sun was so beautiful. I like that it still looks like fall in the background.”

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Allen has taken a photography class at BHS and plans to continue to pursue photography as a hobby post-graduation. She said, “Photography has always been a part of my life and always will be.” She even wrote about photography for her Common Application college admissions essay, about where she feels the most content: behind the lens of a camera. When she’s not shooting with her cell phone, she uses a Canon Rebel T4i, a gift she received for her 17th birthday.

Hafer took his photo on one of the many days this winter when Massachusetts residents were greeted with fresh snow. Of his photo, he said: “I thought visually it was interesting how the snow touched everything and provided a nice contrast with the trees. I wanted to include the windows in the shot to give viewers some perspective about where I took the shot. I also think that they add an element of symmetry that is very different from the jumbled forest in the background.”

Hafer has taken photography classes since his sophomore year, starting with film and black-and-white, and has been doing digital photography for the past year. His camera of choice is a Nikon D5300, with the included kit lens (Nikkor 18-140mm f/3.5-5.6). He plans to continue with photography as a hobby and gets a lot of enjoyment from producing a good-looking final product. “I enjoy spending time outside shooting, and I like how I can be quite creative with my photographs,” he said. “In the darkroom, I find it amazing that each print you make cannot be replicated— every individual print is unique.”

Editor’s Note: Michele Smith is a member of the Bedford Center for the Arts Photography Group

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