Honestly, at this stage of my career I don’t pay much attention to photography competitions. But when I read that VSCO was seeking submissions to feature one photographer in every state, that piqued my interest. Night photography is one of my passions, so when COVID hit in 2020 and I wasn’t able to fly, I started looking for more places to do that within driving distance of home. And for dark skies, that meant heading west from Kansas City into the Kansas plains, which meant I began putting a lot of mileage, and long nights, into doing that.
So with this contest in mind, and thinking a night photo might be something they wouldn’t see a lot of, I went into my archives and started searching for unique or unusual pictures that resulted from those trips. It didn’t take long to land on this photo. Hunting for a good foreground subject to pair with Comet Neowise’s appearance in our skies that summer, a friend and I stumbled across a life-size bison statue on a knoll near a cemetery. It took a couple of trips to get the right sky (no clouds), but was well worth it. And for a contest on the lookout for a unique photo from the state of Kansas, I figured it had a shot.
On September 18, I got the good news – that photo was chosen, and myself, to represent Kansas. Part of the prize package is for the image to be used on a billboard somewhere in the state. I’m still waiting to find out where (and will share when I do!), but for now I’m just happy for this photo to get some recognition. Plus, it’s been fun to see the other pictures and photographers chosen. If you’d like to see them (and mine), you can through this link.
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