Grade 6 Photo Contest 2009

Click on any photo for a slide show. Judged by John, Ali, and Mac Pohanka.

pg3 Contest Winner	sl4 Honorable Mention	mh1 Honorable Mention
as2 Honorable Mention	na1 Honorable Mention

Three of us judged the photos. My son Mac, my daughter Ali and me. Ali is an art history and studio art student at Oberlin College in Ohio. She is a very accomplished photographer and has worked in the photography dept. at the Hirshhorn Museum which is part of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington,D.C. Mac also is an accomplished photographer. He won the photography prize at Suffield Academy, Suffield Conn. He graduated from Grinnell College in Grinnell, Iowa. He currently works in New York as a production designer and an art director for music videos and commercials. I taught photography at Suffield Academy and John Heffernan was one of my better students. After teaching I earned my MFA in studio art at Mills College in California. I currently designs and builds interiors and custom furniture.

We looked at the photos separately and made our own list of favorites. After we all had finished we discussed the vote winners. The top prize went to PG3. With honorable mentions going to (in no special order) na1, mh 1,sl 4 , and as 2. We looked at exposure composition, subject, lighting, color and originality. There were many good photos that could have been much better with little technical improvements like better exposure which would have sharpened the images and the color. Others seemed to have good technical structure but lacked content. For sixth graders these are fine examples of seeing images and capturing them. In the future most of you will realize the importance of content, lighting and exposure. When we see something that we think is special it can be very difficult to capture that feeling but by controlling framing and the paramiters of the camera an infinite array of images can be produced froma single subject. Keep taking pictures and try to see what you do well and what needs improvement. Thank you for the opportunity to see your work.