This year I’ve been honored to be asked to judge the photography competition at the Orange County Fair.  It’s been an amazing experience.  I’m hoping that the experience can be as good for all the people that submitted photographs as it has been for me.  It’s not an easy assignment to sit in judgment of so many fine photographs.  I’m quite sure the other eight judges found the task as difficult as I did.

(Read the first post in this series at

http://ralphnordstromphotography.com/wordpress/journal/orange-county-fair-photography-judging/ )

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I was fortunate enough to have all three photographs accepted for the Orange County Fair this year.  And I was very surprised to learn that all three had won awards.  To today I finally made it out to the fair and sure enough they all had ribbons.

Death Valley Reflections had an Honorable Mention ribbon.

Bristlecone Moon also had an Honorable Mention ribbon.

And Virgin River and the Watchman had a 2nd Place ribbon.

You can see more of my work at http://RalphNordstromPhotography.com

I never did get around to sharing the third entry to the Orange County Fair.  It’s a very unique photograph, not because of the skill of the photographer so much as the luck of the photographer being in the right place at the right time.

The setting is Death Valley, California.  A massive storm the week before flooded several of the playa including the one called “Cotton Balls,” north of Furnace Creek.  The day before this photo was taken another store came through and dumped a fresh coat of snow on the Panamints. 

The morning was perfectly calm so that we had ideal conditions to photograph the reflection of a snow covered range in a lake on a salt pan … in Death Valley.

Death Valley Reflections

The other submissions were…

Bristlecone Moon

Virgin River and the Watchman

The happy news is that all three were accepted for the competition.

The second entry into the Orange County Fair this year is one that I planned for well over a year – Bristlecone Moon.  The bristlecone pine are the oldest living trees on the planet.  The oldest of these is over 4,800 years old.  Imagine, not only will it outlive you and I, not only has it outlived our ancestors, but it has outlived whole civilizations.

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Thanks to everyone who participated in our survey.  The third submission for the 2008 Orange County Fair has been determined.  The three submissions will be

• Battery Point Lighthouse
• Kilob Terrace (the survey winner)