Third Place Andrea Traphagan Lassen County Farm Bureau
First-generation farmers, Traphagan’s family grows certified-organic grains in Ravendale, a tiny Lassen County town. One day, while harvesting alfalfa, part of the crew ran into some machinery problems and Traphagan was called out to help. On the way, she glanced over to the other side of the field, saw this picturesque scene, grabbed her smartphone and snapped the photo. “Every once in a while, I just stop and go, ‘Wow! We live in a really pretty spot.’ … When I see something like this, I love taking an opportunity to capture it and it’s usually spur of the moment—that’s when the best stuff happens.”
Fourth Place Ed Williams
Farm Bureau of Ventura County Williams is an agricultural commissioner and sealer of weights and measures for the California Department of Food and Agriculture. Just after a spring storm, he was out on a Saturday drive with his wife and in-laws enjoying the scenery in the Santa Clara Valley, when he came upon a sight that warranted pulling over for a photo. “Coming back home just west of Fillmore, we saw this beautiful landscape of the Topatopa Mountains and the orange, lemon and avocado orchards along Sespe Creek,” he says. He notes that although he has two good cameras and lenses, for this image, he used what he had on hand: his phone.
Second Place Natalie Webb, age 9, Sonoma County Farm Bureau
For the third year in a row, Natalie has earned second place in the Budding Artists category for a photo shot in the vineyards near her St. Helena home. While her other photos were of grapes in the summer, this year, she captured the spring bud break (when vines begin to wake up from their winter dormancy). “I asked my mom to stop the car on the way home from school so I could take some pictures,” she says. She squatted down and pointed her smartphone upward so she could capture the foggy mountain in the background. She likes how the gray and foggy afternoon made her photo “all cool and swirly.” californiabountiful.com 15
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