Brittney Rankin, a 10-year-old military family member at U.S. Army Garrison-Michigan at Selfridge, won the civilian division's monochrome people category of the 2004 All-Army Photography Contest with "Shadow Friends." Brittney Rankin
Posted on 08/18/2005 4:40:43 PM PDT by SandRat
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Army News Service, Aug. 18, 2005) – The youngest winner in the 60-year history of the All-Army Photography Contest captured her award-winning image with a $10 disposable camera.
Ten-year-old Brittney Rankin won the civilian division’s monochrome people category of the 2004 All-Army Photography Contest with a photo titled “Shadow Friends.”
During a Morale, Welfare and Recreation Summer Youth Photo Class at U.S. Army Garrison-Michigan at Selfridge, instructor Jim Wilkie passed a disposable camera around and each participant took five photographs.
Rankin photographed the feet of classmates and their instructor who were reaching high into the air for the chairs of a swing set. Their shadows added to her imaginative image that won $300 and a claim to fame as the youngest winner of the contest.
Photographing people’s feet is old hat to Rankin, who began dabbling with cameras at age 4.
“She started taking pictures of feet because she didn’t know to hold the camera up,” explained her mother, Debbie Rankin. “She worked her way up every year until she finally had a full photo of the person instead of just the feet or the knees.”
This time Brittney had a meaningful purpose for pointing the camera at people’s feet.
“Mr. Wilkie had given me the idea to shoot that,” she said of Jim Wilkie, the class instructor who has been Rankin’s photography mentor for the past two years. “I thought it was a good idea also to take pictures of shadows. I had taken those kinds of pictures earlier and I thought it would be cool.”
“All of the kids had pretty much the same photos, but it’s the imagination of shadows [that made the difference],” her mother said.
“It’s kind of unique,” added Wilkie, who remembers the day Rankin got hooked on photography. He says he’ll never forget the look on her face when she first saw an image appear on a photographic piece of paper dipped in developer in a darkroom at Selfridge.
“She was beaming,” he said. “She almost fogged the paper she was so bright.”
“I never realized what it looked like,” Brittney said of the process. “I’d seen it in movies and I thought it would be really cool to go in there and see what they did in there. And when I did, it was just wonderful.”
Debbie is delighted that the children of Selfridge have a photography program.
“I think it’s fantastic,” she said. “They’re interested in sports and other activities, so this is just another aspect. I think it’s great for kids to be involved in this contest.”
Brittney Rankin, a 10-year-old military family member at U.S. Army Garrison-Michigan at Selfridge, won the civilian division's monochrome people category of the 2004 All-Army Photography Contest with "Shadow Friends." Brittney Rankin
Children's success story.
One could tie a camera to a dog and have it take pictures at random all day - bet at least one of them would win in a photo contest.
Congradulations, just the same...
Looks like a picture of an Arab swim meet where they have to wear their head dresses.
Not only a good photo but a great caption too. Good job Brittney. You have talent that you should stay with. Good luck in your future.
Yeah right.........WTF?
A thousands chimps banging on a keyboard could have written your post also.
Great shot kid!
'cept the chimps would probably have spelled "congratulations" correctly...
I think that may have been the case considering his spelling.
Ha! Beat ya to it! ;p
Damn ISP.
BTTT!!!!!!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.