Mark DeLap/Guernsey Gazette The Wyoming Press Association awarded a first place Pacemaker Award to Guernsey Gazette Editor Mark DeLap for his Portrait/Personality photo – “Chipmunk Dance” at the 124th annual Wyoming Press Association Convention in Cheyenne. In addition, this photo won the sweepstakes photo award for all small weekly newspapers as the top photo of the year for the State of Wyoming.
‘PAINTING A THOUSAND WORDS’
ELIZABETHTOWN – The Bladen Journal is announcing that it will be holding a youth photography contest for all Bladen County eighth grade students. The theme of the contest this spring is: “Painting A Thousand Words.”
It’s their last year before heading off to high school, and The Journal would like to find our young creative photographers in Bladen County and perhaps one day get a few that would be interested in a youth internship with editor and general manager, Mark DeLap.
The contest is open to any student currently in the eighth grade and is enrolled in either one of the Bladen County schools or is homeschooled in Bladen County.
The local newspaper is setting forth a contest with students choosing to submit photos in four different categories: Landscape, black and white, news, and feature photography. The submissions must be submitted to mdelap@bladenjournal.com in a JPEG format. Along with each photo, there also has to be an accompanying caption that is informative and clever.
*Each student will submit no more than ONE photo for each category; you can submit 4 photos total, one in landscape, one in news, one in feature and one in black-and-white photography. All photos must include your full name, school you attend, grade, age and teacher.
Submissions will be judged by journalists from across the United States and the top 5 best photos in each category will be chosen based on content, imagination, journalistic integrity, clarity, creativity and quality. We are looking for pictures that are both unique and tell a story. They say that ‘a picture paints a thousand words.’
The top 4 photos will be published in the Bladen Journal from each category. From those top 4, the people of the county can vote for their overall favorite.
Five awards will be given at the awards ceremony.
- First place plaque – Landscape photography “The Cath Simard” award
- First place plaque – News photography “The Dorothea Lange” award
- First place plaque – Feature photography “The Mark DeLap” award
- First place plaque – black-and-white photography “The Ansel Adams” award
- First place plaque – Best overall picture as chosen by email voting “The people’s choice” award
The winners will be announced at a special assembly May 7 at a site yet to be determined.
Each prize will also come with a $25 monetary prize. The overall winner
The contest will officially open March 14 for submissions and we will receive submissions until April 18 at midnight when the contest will officially close.
Get your cameras out, your thinking caps on and come up with an award-winning submission. Oh, and seventh graders – take lots of notes… you’re on deck.
If you have any questions or need more information, please send an email to Bladen Journal editor and general manager Mark DeLap at mdelap@bladenjournal.com
Cath Simard is a Canadian-born photographer, digital artist and educator with an instantly recognizable style that meticulously blends reality with her own imagination. Rooted in an immense passion for the outdoors and wilderness, Cath mostly captures the world as little pieces of a puzzle and brings them together into iconic composite images that often leave her audience breathless as they question their own sense of perspective and reality. – Time.com
Ansel Easton Adams was an American landscape photographer and environmentalist known for his black-and-white images of the American West. He helped found Group f/64, an association of photographers advocating “pure” photography which favored sharp focus and the use of the full tonal range of a photograph. – Wikipedia
Mark DeLap was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and earned his journalism degree from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire and went on to photograph for National Geographic. DeLap has captured and published over a million photos in his career and is an award-winning photographer in wildlife, sports and feature photography. – markdelap.com
Dorothea Lange was an American documentary photographer and photojournalist, best known for her Depression-era work for the Farm Security Administration. Lange’s photographs influenced the development of documentary photography and humanized the consequences of the Great Depression. -Wikipedia
Mark DeLap is a journalist, photographer and the editor and general manager of the Bladen Journal. To see more of his bio, visit him at markdelap.com or email him. Send a message to: mdelap@bladenjournal.com