JULY 4 HOT SHOT PHOTO CONTEST

27 Jun JULY 4 HOT SHOT PHOTO CONTEST

Top winner receives $500

“Cameras don’t take great pictures. Artists take great pictures. And no two artists see the same things the same way,” Nan Goldin

Daniel Tucker founded Telluride’s Ah Haa School for the Arts in 1991 based on the idea that we are all creative. All it takes is the right place, the right time, and the right circumstances for a person to channel his inner Picasso – or Brassai.

The right place: San Miguel County.
The right time: All day on the Fourth of July.
The right circumstances: The upcoming “Hot Shot Photo Contest.”

Ah Haa, the Nugget Building, the Telluride Watch, the Steaming Bean, the Telluride Volunteer Fire Department, and Telluride Inside… and Out, event sponsors, invite you to take your best shot and then enter it into the 3rd annual Hot Shot Photo Contest. It’s all about building community one person, one image, at a time.

All photographs submitted to the event are scheduled to be on display July 4 and July 5 at the Steaming Bean. Images are to be judged by panel selected from a cross section of the Telluride locals and judged against the following criteria: artistic expression, creativity, originality, image quality.  Winners are to be announced at The Bean Friday, July 6, 5:30 p.m.

In addition to winning a $500 cash prize, the winner of  the 2012 photo contest will see his framed photo exhibited in Ah Haa’s Daniel Tucker Gallery and auctioned during the Ah Haa School for the Arts 20th Annual Art Auction, Friday, July 20, 2012.

“At the Ah Haa School, we love to showcase the amazing talent and creativity in our community,” stated Jodi Pounds, Executive Director of the Ah Haa School. “We look forward to seeing your photos!”

The second place winner receives $300. Third place gets $100. And 10 honorable mentions take home $50 each.
New to this year’s contest, the recipient of the “Audience Choice Award” gets to see his photograph made into 100 custom (and bona fide) U.S. postage stamps.

Telluride Inside… and Out plans to create a video based on all winning images, which will be posted on its site, www.tellurideinside.com, on July 6. (All posts are archived, so the link can be shared out to family and friends for a long time to come.)

The Watch will choose some of the top photographs to publish in its July 12th edition.

Visitors, residents, hobby photographers, amateur photographers, professional photographers, and children are all welcome to compete.

Rules for the Hot Shot July 4th Photo Contest are as follows:

• Photos must be taken on July 4th, 2012
• Photos must be taken in San Miguel County.
• Participants submit ONE original photo to www.TellurideHotShotPhotoContest.com by 5:00 p.m. on July 5, 2012.
• All entries must include name, address, phone number, and e-mail address of the photographer as well as the title of the photograph. Any photos received after the deadline will not be eligible for prizes.
• No digitally enhanced photos please.

Contestants and the public are asked to vote for their favorite photograph by noon on Friday, July 6.

For a complete list of contest rules and information on the Audience Choice award, visit www.TellurideHotShotPhotoContest.com.

There will be a donation box for the Telluride Volunteer Fire Department at the Steaming Bean on Wednesday July 4 and Thursday July 5 while contestants’ photos are streaming on a monitor on site. This is a great way to support the all-volunteer Fire Department, so please make a contribution while you enjoy coffee and the photo entries.

The history of the Hot Shot July 4th Photo Contest dates back two years ago, when co-event founder Katrine Formby was chilling at Rancho La Puerta, Mexico. She and husband Bill happened to be at spa during “Photography Week,” when they held a daily one-hour session on the medium.

To learn more, click the “play” button and listen to my chat with Katrine.