September Photo of the Month winners announced

1st Place: Elizabeth CrabtreeNotre Dame de Sion​

Elizabeth Crabtree
At the freshmen retreat, freshman Ellington Persley watches a bubble drift during one of the retreat activities Aug. 23 at the Heartland Retreat Center. Another activitity at the annual retreat was musical chairs sin music. “It was fun to interact with the other girls and see how far we could blow the bubbles,” Ellington said.

Judges’ Comments: The photographer did a nice job of using the available light, framing and capturing facial expressions. The depth of field adds dimension to the image as well.

2nd Place: Jaden FieldsWebster Groves High School

Jaden Fields
Students participated in a “die in” on Friday Aug. 20, to speak out against climate change. Included were signs, chants and speeches. The pack was led by seniors Patrick Lee and Ashley Cimarolli. “I’ve seen things on social media and the news about what’s going on. . . and I really felt like it’s an important and powerful issue that really urgently needs to be addressed, and I couldn’t get it off my mind and when the State of the World climate strike popped up across social media I thought that was a great way to get the ball rolling,” Lee said.

Judges’ Comments: ​The photographer did a good job of telling a story with their image about a relevant issue, and the focus is very clear. However, a different angle or crop would have offered more people and expressions to be captured. For example, the students lying down on the bottom who are cropped out or covered. The caption is also very well-written.

3rd Place: Amanda HoltSmithville High School

Amanda Holt
Julian Meneses-Rios, senior, slides into Kearney player as he tries to get the ball back.

Judges’ Comments: The photographer did an excellent job of stopping the action and capturing the movement and facial expressions in the image. However, a different crop would have been more effective since there is so much dead space around the subjects, and the caption is too brief to provide enough information to tell a story with the picture.