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We began opening our contestants’
envelopes and logging photos in at our ranch office at 3:00 in
the afternoon. When the dust cleared and we recorded entry 582
it was past midnight. To say we were amazed would be an
understatement; there were entries from every state in the West.
Our next hurdle to tackle was to decide how to place the photos
for judging, and we spent two days pushing and pulling what
would become 41 categories together. We felt it was important to
keep the numbers in line so as not to overwhelm our judges and
make sure that every entry would be treated fairly. With our
categories finally in line and organized we were ready to meet
our judges.
We were extremely fortunate this
year to have a very dynamic panel of judges to evaluate the 582
photos that were entered in this year’s contest. Judging was
certainly not for the faint of heart this time around. With 41
categories, each judge spent approximately five to six hours
appraising the entries. This year when it came time to select
the winner of the Editor’s Choice award that appears on our
November cover, I turned to judge David Stoecklein for
assistance. It was eventually narrowed down to the five top
entries and we placed them one to five with the winning entry on
the cover (we have our remaining top four pictured on the next
page).
We were honored that David
Stoecklein took time from his exceptionally busy schedule to
judge our contest. Most people know David through the Western
images in his coffee-table books, calendars and prints. Much of
his career has been spent capturing portraits of cowboy life —
from horses and cattle to boots and saddles — for nearly three
decades. David makes his home in Sun Valley, Idaho, but spends
about 200 days a year on the road doing projects for his
commercial clients that include Chevrolet, Copenhagen, JanSport
and a variety of others.
We caught up with David at his
gallery on the only afternoon that he would be home during the
month of October. The Stoecklein gallery is a true salute to the
West and the ranching lifestyle, from the magnificently framed
photos lining the walls, to the books that preserve our Western
heritage and culture with every turn of the page. I would
encourage anyone making a trip to the Sun Valley area to make
the Stoecklein Gallery one of your destinations.
Our next judge, Dick Hubman,
hails from Medford, Oregon. Dick is highly recognized throughout
the cattle and ranching industry for his knowledge and insight
of beef breeds and horses. Until it was sold a few years ago,
Dick served as Manager of the famed Rogue River Ranch in Central
Point, Oregon. Dick’s skills for appraising cattle have been
sought out by every beef breed in the United States. He has
judged and continues to judge at every top venue in the country,
and has been present year after year at the National Western in
Denver, Colorado, as well as the North American International
Livestock Exposition. You’ll also find Dick on the grading panel
at every major bull sale in the West. Dick’s tremendous
background in ranching gave him a wonderful perspective to judge
this year’s entries.
This year we were fortunate to
have someone on our panel that hails from outside the ranching
industry. Sally Forcier wears many creative hats. She is a
casting director, owning one of the top casting companies in
northern California in Forcier Casting. She is also one of the
regions top producers and is currently producing The California
Lotto show for the state. Additionally a working actress, her
broad range of skills include major roles in productions, films,
TV, print ads and commercials, and has worked with top name
talent such as Sean Penn, Lou Diamond Phillips, Patrick Swayze,
Tony Danza and many others. Sally brought a new and creative
viewpoint to our contest.
I can’t say enough thanks to the
judges for the time and energy they gave this year’s contest.
Each of them gave us five to six hours of their valuable time
and insight to evaluate this year’s photos. I also want to thank
my daughter Mercedes who stepped in and helped me organize this
year’s event and secure our fantastic panel of judges. A special
thanks to Jason and Steve in the JDA Art Department — they
logged in many hours scanning photos and designing the pages for
this year’s contest. Please note due to the size of this year’s
contest we were unable to display our “Honorable Mention”
photos, although they will be available to view on our website
at
www.westerncowman.com along with all of the Photo Contest
results.
I also want to say thank you to
everyone that took the time to send an entry to us. I was
touched by the many letters that arrived with your entries and
by the depth and the soul that all the photos project. Thank
you.
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