2025 Rockingham County Fair – Senior Photography Division

I entered eight photographs in the Senior Photography Division of the Rockingham County Fair this year and I received four First Place and one Second Place Awards. (I should note that there are so many entries in some classes that there are multiple awards at each level.) These are the photos that won awards; details about the photos and how they were taken are in the Technical Information section below. Please click any image to see a larger version of the image.

Wildlife Class

The photos in this class must be of wildlife in a natural habitat or zoo. This photo of a Bluebird holding nesting material was awarded a 2nd place in this class.

Beverly and I have a native plant pollinator garden outside our Sunroom. The garden has many varieties of wildflowers with a Bluebird box on a pole in the middle of the garden so we can watch the activity as they build their nest, feed their young, and then watch the fledglings after they leave the nest.

Landscapes Class

The photos in the Landscapes class must depict natural scenery. This photo of a sunrise at Sunset Beach in North Carolina was awarded a first place in the Landscapes class.

We visited Sunset Beach in October 2021 with family and I photographed sunrises and sunsets almost every day during our visit. One of the attractions at Sunset Beach is to 900 foot long pier and I wanted to capture part of the pier with the sunrise in the background.

For more information about Sunset Beach and this photograph, please see https://blinspirations.com/sunset-beach-sunrises-and-sunsets/.

Close-up Class

The subject in the Close-up Class must be clearly defined and recognizable. This photo of a Black Swallowtail Butterfly on a Mexican Sunflower was awarded a first place.

Abstract Class

The abstract subject must contain a design of patterns or shapes where the subject matter is not evident. This photograph was awarded a first place. The subject is oil in water with a drop of liquid soap to highlight the oil droplets.

Artistic Class

The Artistic class is for a photo that has been altered using digital editing software. This includes, but is not limited to, digital stitching techniques or those enhanced or altered through the use of digital software programs such as Photoshop. It may include composites of several images. Any digital processing technique may be used.

This photo of Wilson Hall at James Madison University on Christmas Eve was awarded a first place. There was a lamppost in the foreground that I removed using Photoshop.

Technical Information

In addition to the camera and exposure information, this section includes something about how I created each photograph.

Bluebird with nesting material

This photo was one of a burst of 28 photos taken in about one second when the female Bluebird landed on the box carrying nesting material. The RAW Burst mode of my Canon EOS R7 camera will take about 30 images per second and can usually capture nearly 60 images in a burst (please see the Definitions page for an explanation of RAW Burst).

• Date: 4/4/2025
• Time: 2:29 PM
• Camera: Canon EOS R7
• Lens: Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM
• Settings:
  • Lens: 105 mm, f/8
  • ISO: 125
  • Shutter: 1/200 sec
• Cropped image is 2431 x 3646 px

Sunset Beach Sunrise 1 (Vertical)

The photograph was taken with a horizontal orientation but after printing it I realized that the center of the photograph was the most interesting so I cropped it vertically to emphasize the foreground birds and sunrise reflection and the people on the pier and enlarged the cropped image 2X with Topaz Gigapixel AI. Please see the Definitions page for an explanation of Topaz AI software applications.

• Date: 10/15/2021
• Time: 7:21 AM
• Camera: Canon EOS 77D
• Lens: Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM
• Settings:
  • Lens: 55 mm, f/8
  • ISO: 400
  • Shutter: 1/250 sec
• Enlarged image is 5326 x 7988 px

Black Swallowtail Butterfly on Mexican Sunflower

I took this close-up photograph of a Black Swallowtail Butterfly on a Mexican Sunflower in our back yard in Lacey Spring, VA with a telephoto lens in August 2019.

• Date: 8/11/2019
• Time: 1:06 PM
• Camera: Canon EOS 77D
• Lens: Canon EF-S 55-250mm f/4-5.6 IS STM
• Settings:
  • Lens: 250 mm, f/11
  • ISO: 200
  • Shutter: 1/180 sec
• Cropped image is 4484 x 2989 px

Oil and Water with Soap

Wilson Hall on Christmas Eve