Millarville-area resident Elaine Hutchings won the MD of Foothills’ rural character photo contest with this photo of purebred Charolais cattle grazing.

Call it luck, skill or timing.
It took a little of each for Millarville-area rancher Elaine Hutchings to win the MD of Foothills’ rural character photo contest.
She won the adult photographer category with her picture of a group of purebred Charolais cattle grazing on a Millarville-area ranch southeast of Highway 22 with the mountains in the background.
Hutchings went to check on the cattle and just happened to have her camera with her when the perfect photo opportunity arose.
“They started coming towards me and it was a nice day so everyone just stopped and put their heads down and I got the photo,” she said.
Hutchings, who takes photos as a hobby, said the foothills offers many great photo opportunities.
“I live and work on a ranch so I have my camera with me at all times because you never know what you might see,” she said.
About 335 photos were submitted for the contest and were judged in three categories based on who submitted them: adult, youth and MD staff.
Chantel Goodman won in the youth category with a photo of her friend Jessie Pigeon jumping into a puddle at the Bar U Ranch National Historic Site. Goodman’s photo caught Pigeon inches above the water.
“It had just rained, it was a pretty big storm. So we said ‘let’s go have some fun.’ We brought our cameras and were joking around hoping to get some funny pictures and that one turned out,” she said.
Goodman also takes pictures as a hobby, with landscapes and animals her preferred subjects.
“I really enjoy it. I’d like to go on and use it in university, but I’m not exactly sure how yet,” she said.
Penny Hajdu, one of the contest’s judges, said the winning photos were fabulous.
She said what made Goodman’s photo stand out wasn’t so much what it showed, but what would’ve come next.
“You knew the second after that photo was taken that pristine, smooth puddle of water was going to be a mass of chaos with water flying,” said Hajdu. “It was a moment frozen in time where there’s great potential for catastrophe or joy.”
She said it wouldn’t have been as effective if it was taken a fraction of a second earlier or later.
Hajdu liked how Hutchings used perspective in her photo to draw a person’s eye in a particular direction.
“It was the way it drew your eye into the picture. That same picture could’ve been taken from another angle and not have had the same impact. She has the right angle on it,” she said.
Hajdu said it was a difficult contest to judge. She said the MD of Foothills provides a range of great subjects for photographers and the contest was a good way to celebrate the MD’s rural heritage.
dpatterson@okotoks.greatwest.ca

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