And the Wowie goes to...

Congratulations to Natalie Voss of Lexington, Kentucky, for winning my camera phone photo contest with her picture of a race horse on the track at Keeneland. I received several great entries this year, making the judging incredibly difficult on my end, but it came down to the degree of difficulty in using a camera phone to capture a horse in motion. Not only does Natalie's picture capture a horse in a fully-extended trot with perfect sharpness, her photo also displayed the simple beauty of a race horse going to the post under a striking blue sky. This is the kind of picture that just makes you want to hop in the car and go to the track.

Here is Natalie's winning entry:

Here's what the photographer had to say about her photo:

"I had never been on the turn at Keeneland like this before, and was lamenting that I hadn't brought my point and shoot camera to try to capture how beautiful the colors were that day. I was pleased and a little surprised that they came through so well on my cell phone."

Thanks to everyone who participated in my photo contest! There are a lot of great phone-wielding photographers out there, and you made judging this contest extremely challenging. I'm only sorry I didn't have more calendars to give away!

Follow Natalie on Twitter at @flysofree. Congratulations, Natalie! 

Return of the "Wowies!"

Last year, I held a camera phone photo contest which was lovingly dubbed by some Twitter friends as "The Wowies." I received a number of great entries and thought the contest was successful enough to try it again this year. Because I'm lazy, and because it seemed to work smoothly, I'm keeping the same rules as last year. The only change is that the contest is now open to everyone, no matter where you live in the world! Here's the scoop:

Horsephotos.com puts out a racing calendar every year, and as I am one of their photographers, I get a complimentary calendar for my contributions. Since I get extra calendars, I thought it would only be appropriate to give one away as a thank-you to my followers on social media. (My mom got the other free calendar, or I'd give away more than one. Sorry.)

We have a winner!

Thank you to everyone who participated in my camera phone photography contest. It was very difficult to narrow it down to only one photo, but ultimately, it all came down to this eye-catching shot of Havre de Grace in the paddock before going on to dominate in the Grade I Beldame. Congratulations to the winning photographer, Derek Brown! Here is Derek's entry:

Wow!

I'm sure most of you have heard my news by now, but in case you haven't...

I won the 2010 TBA photo contest!

What's a bigger surprise, Thoroughbred Times actually wrote up a short article about it. You can read it here.

Go here to see my page where I thanked practically everyone outside of my dog and cat (But they actually deserve to be thanked for keeping me sane, so thanks, kids!). I hope I didn't blather on too much. I really was humbled by the voting. And thanks to the readers of this blog, who helped me pick out what photo to submit! You guys obviously have great taste. :-)

The Pied Piper of Arlington

Let the voting begin!

Thanks to everyone who voted for which pictures I should enter into the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance 2010 photo contest. The overwhelming favorites were "The Pied Piper of Arlington" and "Zenyatta and John Shirreffs."

Today is the first day where you can vote on all of the entries for the contest. You can vote every day through the 25th of December, and the top ten will then go into the final round of voting.

Here is the link to the finalists, where you can vote for your favorite 10: http://tbablogs.com/Photos.php

I was very excited to find several of my friends' photos included in the contest, many of which you will remember from my stories in this blog. :-) Good luck, guys!

I appreciate everyone's support! Happy holidays to everyone this season.

Here are your two favorites from my batch:

Help!

My entry fom 2009 was well-received, but not enough.

Since I don't have a photo in contention for an Eclipse Award, pretty much all my hopes are banking on a win in this year's Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance 2010 photo contest. Though this isn't exactly on the same level as far as prestige goes, it's still a venerable contest among pro photographers, as well as amateurs. Last year, I gained quite a few votes (but not enough to clench victory) for my popular picture of Rachel Alexandra winning the Kentucky Oaks, but this year I don't have one stand-out photo that screams "I WILL WIN FOR YOU."

So this is where you come in. What follows is a set of pictures I think are my best chances for bagging this contest. Honestly, I've seen a ton of photos by my fellow photographers that have blown me out of the water this year, so I'm not expecting to win, but I have a few good pictures that stand a shot, so what the heck? My thinking is that the most sentimental photo is likely to win, as most people judge with their hearts, not a fundamental knowledge of what it takes to capture a knock-out horse racing photograph. (And when it comes to sentimental photos, I think Zenyatta has the edge this year.) With that in mind, you won't find a lot of win shots or photos taken on the physical track in those that I've selected for your consideration. I may be wrong in this idea, so prove me wrong if this is the case by voting for something else.

Without ado, here are five photos I've taken during 2010 that I am considering submitting. I can only submit TWO photos to the TBA contest. Please help me make this difficult decision by voting on your favorite two in the comments below.

 

Like a Prizefighter



Fiji: Water of Champions

The Pied Piper of Arlington

To the Winner's Circle!
(Lisa Borel is carried over a sloppy track to meet husband Calvin Borel after winning the Kentucky Derby.)

Zenyatta and John Shirreffs

Entries for the TBA photo contest are due next Friday, December 17th. I will post my final entries on the blog after I've tallied everyone's vote.Thanks for your help!

Contest! *Shameless plug alert!*

When my photographer friend, Adam Mooshian, and I saw the entries for the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance annual photo contest, we decided to take it upon ourselves to boost the competition a little. The contest was, after all, open to anyone, amateur and professional, and so far, only amateurs had submitted. We thought it would make it more interesting to see what our clan's favorite and most competitive photos would be.

So, I submitted my three photos: Hollywood Dreams, Churchill Downs, and Rachel Alexandra wins the Kentucky Oaks. Adam predicted the TBA's reaction would be accurately depicted by the following video:



We both had a good laugh, and then set about telling all of our professional photographer friends about the contest, and that they should also submit so we wouldn't look like the two bullies who came in and crashed everyone's little party. So basically, we called the cavalry, and with them came competition that rivaled what we'd submitted. We stopped laughing. Dwarfed now by an array of fantastic photos by Sarah K. Andrew, Bob Mayberger, Scott Serio, Bud Morton, Eric Kalet, and many others, we had successfully given ourselves the kind of competition we'd asked for. Yes, you get what you ask for.

Right now, the professionals are generally in the lead. The winner of the contest doesn't get a prize or anything, they are simply declared "the winner" and according to the TBA, "The picture will be featured on the photo page, and the photog given the opportunity to link to anything they want and to say whatever they want (provided it abides to civil discourse)."

I'm just in it because I like the competition. So, if you feel so inclined, do me a solid and go vote for my Hollywood shot, because it's my most-voted for picture; and then, if you want to stroke my ego, go vote for my others, as well. And hey! If you vote for me, comment on this blog and if I win, I will personally thank-you when I ascend the Podium of Win. Heck, I'll even link to whatever you want linked, like if you want to inform people about your Thoroughbred retirement farm, or if you want to show off your new cute puppy or something...

VOTE HERE