August Frank: COMMENTARY: Digital feature a hit in SnapShoot contest
Jul. 6—The annual SnapShoot photo contest is in full swing with amateur photographers across the Lewiston-Clarkston Valley and beyond already filling up the drop boxes with prints and our inbox with digital entries.
It's already clear digital entries — accepted for the first time this year — are popular, with more than 40 submitted as of Wednesday.
Here are a few reminders with digital entries. Only two photos per person per week can be submitted digitally. If you'd like to submit more and increase your chance of winning, three additional photos may be submitted via prints in the drop boxes.
Be sure to include full name, phone number and home address in an email with digital entries. All prizes will be mailed to winners this year.
Drop boxes are located at the Lewiston Tribune, Arby's and Taco Time in both Lewiston and Clarkston, Chevron DynaMart on 21st Street and Thain Road. Email digital entries to lewiston.tribune.photo@gmail.com.
Pictures can also be mailed to the Lewiston Tribune at 505 Capital St., Lewiston, ID 83501. Include a self-addressed envelope if you'd like your print back or prints can be picked up in person at the Tribune.
Prizes include eight weekly winners over four weeks winning $35 gift cards from Happy Day and a $7.50 supreme car wash from Coleman Oil.
Ten weekly honorable mentions will win coupons for a free combo meal at Arby's or Taco Time and a $5.50 regular car wash from Coleman Oil.
Eight final winners will receive $100 certificates for gasoline from Coleman Oil. The grand champion will receive a $200 certificate.
The people's choice winner, which people can vote for through the weekly poll question at lmtribune.com after the contest concludes, will receive a $100 gas certificate and $100 gift card from Happy Day.
Photos must have been taken after Jan. 1, 2022, by amateur photographers only.
Photos will be judged by the Lewiston Tribune, Coleman Oil and Happy Day Corp. once a week for four weeks to produce eight semifinalists each week. The 32 semifinalists will be judged to produce the eight final winners and one grand prize winner.
Week one of the contest opened last Saturday and the last day to enter is this coming Saturday. Entry period for week two runs from July 9 to July 15; week three runs July 16 to July 22; and week four runs July 23 to July 29. The last day to enter for the entire contest will be July 29.
Check out the Sunday A.M. section every week starting July 16 to see winners from each week. The finalists will appear in the Aug. 13 Sunday A.M. section, with the grand prize winner published as the Big Picture.
Frequently when I'm in need of some inspiration for my own work I'll find myself perusing various photo contests. Or submitting my own work to see what my peers think is a winning photo.
Sometimes I agree with photos selected as winners, other times I don't.
Even if your photo isn't selected as a winner in SnapShoot, remember that all photo contests are subjective. What two people like in a photo can be very different. But the most important part of a photo isn't the chance that it will win a contest or go viral, but the memories behind it and the meaning it holds for the photographer.
So photograph what you like, what you know, and capture the memories you want to preserve. Birth certificates show that you were born, death certificates show that you died, photographs show that you really lived.
Frank is the Tribune's photo editor. He can be contacted at afrank@lmtribune.com.
