Winners announced in Brunswick 365 photo contest

For the past two years, we at The Brunswick Beacon have asked readers to submit photos depicting their unique views of Brunswick County for our annual photo contest. Aptly named Uniquely Brunswick County, submissions showed the area’s beautiful beaches, local landmarks and wildlife.

This year, we were looking for something different. We wanted to know how our readers see Brunswick County 365 days a year. This year has been interesting. With a rare snowfall and record rainfall, it seemed the photo opportunities in 2010 were endless.

This year’s contest, Brunswick 365, garnered 179 entries—the most of any Beacon photo contest yet. Winning photos from the adult category can be found on the Tidelines front, page 1C, in today’s Beacon. Winning photos from the teenage and kids divisions will be in the same spot in next week’s issue, which publishes Thursday, Dec. 23.

In the adult division, Fred Schwartz took first place with his photo “Sunrise Fishing.”

“Brunswick County is the county of beautiful beaches,’ Schwartz said. “One of its wonderful pleasures is beach surf fishing at sunrise. This fellow at Sunset Beach has it all together and really knows how to fish and relax.”

Karmen Smith, of Little River, S.C., won second place with her photo called “A Good Day.”

“This picture is the product of a good day on the waves in summertime only ended by the sun going down,” she said.

Third place went to Jody Dale of Shallotte with his photo, “Abandoned on the Shallotte River.”

“ ‘Abandoned on the Shallotte River’ represents Brunswick County’s maritime fishing industry,” Dale said. “This is one of the many fishing vessels that end up abandoned or forgotten after their service is finished.”

In the teenage division, first place went to Katie Cooke of Shallotte. Judges felt her entries, specifically one called “February Snow,” clearly told the story of how she sees Brunswick County.

“I’ve only seen my home covered with snow three times,” Cooke said of the “February Snow” entry, which featured a winter scene of her snow-covered home.

Second-place winner Colleen Higgins of Maryland took her winning photo of the Sunset Beach pier while on vacation in Brunswick County visiting relatives.

“The Sunset Beach pier encompasses the history of the town yet seems to stretch into the future,” she said. “It’s one of the focal points of the town.”

Julia Eubanks of Shallotte won third place with her entry “Sunset at Holden.”

“I took the photo while visiting family on the beach,” she said. “It uniquely represents Brunswick County because it includes the Holden Beach coast.”

First place in the kids’ division went to Berry Jarvis of Ocean Isle Beach. His photo “Scary Spider” was taken in his yard.

“There are a lot of cool bugs in Brunswick County,” 9-year-old Jarvis said.

Kenzie Canady of Ash won second place for her photo called “Momma’s Shadow.”

“Every year during spring, many new arrivals are always at Indigo Farms,” she said.

Third place went to Maya Safi for her photo “If Only the Tree Could Talk.”

“If the tree by the bridge could talk, [it] would tell us a lot of stories about Brunswick County and Brunswick County people.”

To go along with this year’s theme, selected photos from Brunswick 365 will appear in a 2011 Brunswick Beacon calendar. This is a new, free product, which will be inserted into the Dec. 23 issue of the Beacon. The full-size, 12-month calendar will feature a selected photo from Brunswick 365 as the main art for each month.

Smith, Dale and Jarvis’ photos grace months throughout the calendar, along with submissions by Carmen Daughtry of Calabash, David Keener of Shallotte, Irene Dowdy of Calabash, Chris Burch of Calabash and Sarah Snyder of Sunset Beach.

Schwartz’s first-place photo is on the cover, and first-place winners from each category are also recognized.

Thanks to everyone who participated in Brunswick 365. Once again, we are amazed at the amount of talent found right here in our community and are in awe of how you see Brunswick, 365.