Photo Contest: Capture the Vibrance of Claremore

Put Your Best Claremore Photo Forward to Win Cash Prizes!

We want to put your best Claremore, Oklahoma photo in the spotlight. 

During your visit to this vibrant town take a great photo and upload it to our Valuenews.com website  ‘SUBMIT A PHOTO’ gallery and you will be entered to win up to $500 Cash! 

What will your photo experience be?  There is a lot to see and do in Claremore, located on historic Route 66. It’s a treasure-trove of photo opportunities filled with eclectic shops and unique boutiques, antiques, craft emporiums, museums, restaurants, and galleries.  Outdoor adventure enthusiasts will enjoy Claremore Lake, parks, and many miles of multi-use trails. Here’s how to get started:

Submit your photos to the contest by going to www.valuenews.com/submit-photo_id176 Questions? Call Value News, at (918)828-9600.

What Can You Win?

In August our photo judges will select a handful of our favorite photos in each of the following categories. These photos will then be voted on by our staff and the Visit Claremore panel.  The categories are as follows:

Places/Culture

People

Landscapes

Nature & Wildlife

Adventure/Action

*Best Overall

Category Prizes

The winning images from the five themed categories will receive a Value News $100 Cash Prize.

*Best Overall Winner

The best overall winner will receive a $500 Cash Prize from Value News Magazine.

Monthly Prizes

In addition, a ‘photo of the month’ will be selected from all the photos entered each month to be featured on our Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram, and other social media pages. Photo of the Month winner will win a $50.00 Cash Prize; and be featured in Value News Magazine’s Destination Claremore’s article section.

How Does it Work?

Travelers from all over the world are invited to enter their best Claremore Day Trip travel photos into our photo contest. You don’t have to be a pro. You just have to have a good eye and love your time spent in Claremore. The one stipulation is that the photo must be taken April 1 thru June 30, 2022. 

We will collect entries until 11:59 p.m. CST, July 10, 2022. Entries received after this date are entered into the following year’s competition. All winners and finalists are announced on our social media outlets and are notified directly by email. We will also award a prize for our favorite photo submitted each month. Prize conditions are below.

See below for entry and prize terms and conditions. PLEASE NOTE – Only high-resolution photos (300 dpi jpg, or 1.5 MB or more) will be accepted. Photos pulled from Facebook and social media pages are not high enough quality.  We hate deleting beautiful photos because they aren’t high enough quality!  Please don’t make us do that!

Entry and Prize Conditions

By entering your images into the Claremore, OK Value News Photography Competition, you agree to the following conditions:

Please send the highest resolution version of your
image as possible. 1.5 MB or more, and 300 dpi jpg files are recommended.

Images from Facebook or photos under 1.5 MB are too low quality.

Do not resubmit the same image. Once you have sent it we have it.

No images supplied in hard copy will be accepted; only high-resolution digital files will be accepted.

All entries must be correctly labeled with your name, contact details, date, and the location each image was taken.

By submitting the photographs, your name and likeness (i) you are agreeing to license all rights in them to Value News Magazine and Values, Inc (and its providers and affiliates) for use in company brochures, promotions and advertising, and (ii) warrant that you can grant those rights.

So, what are some tips that can help a beginner take photos like a pro? 

Here’s a checklist:

Use the rule of thirds. Beginning photographers innately want to put the subject of the photo in the center of the frame. Anything in art such as painting, sketches or photography looks much more stimulating to the brain if the subject is placed on the third line. What third line?  Many cameras or phone cameras have a grid that can be selected so the third lines are in place when looking through the frame to take the shot. Place the subject at the intersection of the third line. No grid?  No problem. Just mentally divide the viewfinder into thirds and place the subject as shown below.

Look around at the elements captured in the frame. Novices focus their attention on their subject but miss the element in the shot that will cause them regret after that special moment passes never to be captured again. Look for overlooked distracting elements. In the example photo, the girl is framed correctly on the thirds line. A secondary element is also included, the pots of flowers, and even placed on the opposite third line, but because the photographer was mentally focusing on
these rules, he/she didn’t notice the telephone pole that appears to be growing from the subject’s head.
Objects look more attractive if taken on an angle rather than
standing square in front of them. Take real estate, for instance. Most photographers know that if a photo is taken directly in front of a house or building, it will look flat. The building will look much more attractive, however, if the photographer simply walks around the corner of the building to catch two sides. The building has dimension while appearing larger and more attractive.

Take photos of people using the same principles as with buildings. Capturing an angle provides a more flattering look. When a subject looks directly into a camera, their face flattens out. That’s why people hate their driver’s license photo or work I.D. pictures –
the worst pose is captured – but a portrait photographer knows the tip of providing depth to their face. Have the subject turn their head slightly. Perfect. Now shoot.

Look around to find a natural element to frame the subject within that visual enclosure. For example, use branches to frame the subject. Perhaps tall grass is the perfect element; lay down and shoot through the blades.

Viewers look at pictures sequentially. That means they take in elements one at a time while their eyes move around the image. Photographers can take photos that purposely plan where the viewers’ eyes move. One way to do that is to use a technique called leading lines. Use an element that provides a line – a railroad track, a path, a road or a fence line – to guide the viewers’ eyes to the focal point. Don’t leave them with leading lines only that line is like the bridge that leads to nowhere. Instead place the subject, the focal point, at the end of the leading lines.

The most engaging photo technique of all is stop action. Sports photos are often stop-action photos. Remember opening a newspaper to the sports section and seeing a basketball player jumping to shoot a hoop and the player was captured in midair?  How about a baseball player taking a swing and the photographer caught an image of the ball leaving the bat?  Care must be taken so that these photos are not ruined by the blur of the action. If a camera is not fast enough to stop this action, better leave this one alone.

Lastly, most photos are taken from standing height. Not good. If an interesting angle is desired, simply changed the physical stance. Try lying on the ground and shooting upward. How about shooting from a step ladder and shooting downward?

Now, it’s time to say, “CHEESE!”