Campfire Hootch Photo Contest

A winery that James and I love in NE Iowa (we spent an anniversary weekend at their B&B on the River) was having a photo contest entitled "Campfire Hootch", which is the name of their best selling wine.  This wine is so good that the Wines of Iowa store in Valley Junction, which is the only store in Central Iowa who carries it, sells out of it faster than it comes in.  Trust me, it's yummy! 

Anyway, the only instructions for the contest were, "Send us your best photo of Campfire Hootch."  The prize for winning was a $50 gift certificate to their winery AND your photo would be hung in their tasting room.  Cool!  Since we happened to have a couple bottles of it, I told James we needed to participate in the contest.  I had an image in my head of an actual campfire in my shot, along with the bottle.  However, on the day I was in the mood to do this shoot, James wasn't home and I cannot start a fire on my own.  So, I came up with a new idea.  I spent a long time recomposing my shot and taking it from different points of view, etc.  After about 30 minutes I was satisfied.  Here is the shot I submitted:

 

Later that day I texted James and told him I got our picture taken for the contest.  His response:  "I want to take one too."  Huh.  I wasn't sure what to think for a second and then I thought, "This could be fun to see what different pictures we come up with."  So, I told him he could borrow my camera and take his own.  I made sure not to leave any traces of what I shot, so that we could genuinely compare our ideas. 

 

As soon as he got home he grabbed my camera and headed outside before it got too dark.  He asked if I took my photo inside or out, but I didn't spill any information.  I watched him start a fire and compose his shots.  It was fun to see, because he was doing something a little similar to what I had in mind originally, but he used a few other props that I wouldn't have thought to use.  Here is his final photo he submitted to the contest:

 

I really liked his photo, but still thought mine was better suited to be hung in their tasting room since you can see the name of the wine so well.  The winery owners thought otherwise.....James won the contest!!  I thought I would be bitter if he beat me, but instead I was just super excited about the $50 gift certificate :)  At least, I assume he is going to share it with me. 

 

And yes, I am proud of him.  It's so neat that his picture will be in their tasting room!  He has been sharing in my love for photography for the past few months, which is mostly fun.  I say "mostly", because it drives me nuts that I spent months learning my camera on manual mode, and he just picked it up, did an hour of reading, and took off shooting in manual.  He does have good ideas though and is great help sometimes when I'm stuck. 

 

Congrats, Honey! (now go buy your own camera)