A college student from Los Banos majoring in plant and soil sciences has earned First Place in the 42nd annual California Farm Bureau Photo Contest.
Cayden Pricolo, who won $1,000 for an action shot of the hand harvest of watermelons at a farm in her hometown, noted that photography is an invaluable tool for helping urban and suburban residents understand where their food comes from.
“Photography is a good way to advocate and show the rest of the world how the ag industry is done,” she said. “Without these people doing this manual labor, we wouldn’t be able to have successful farming to provide food for the world.”
The 2023 photo contest attracted hundreds of images from amateur photographers who are members of county Farm Bureaus throughout the state. Contestants used digital cameras and smartphones to capture the winning images.
Ismael (Mel) Resendiz of Fallbrook garnered Second Place and $500 for a photo of an employee harvesting protea flowers at his 250-acre farm. Third Place and $250 went to Woodlake resident Mishael McDougal, who submitted a portrait of a Jersey cow that joins her for nutrition education classes at local elementary schools. Timothy Danley of Willows won Fourth Place and $100 for a drone shot of his father working lime into the soil.
Six photographers earned Honorable Mentions and $50 each: Jocelyn Brown of Nevada City, Ashley Carreiro of Riverdale, Mariah Earl of Vacaville, Stan Grosz of Fresno, Mary Ann Renner of Ferndale and Larry Speed of Hughson.
In the Budding Artists category for photographers ages 13 and younger, 12-year-old Ashley Jansen won First Place for a closeup of a bee pollinating an almond blossom on her family’s farm in Arbuckle. Natalie Webb, a 10-year-old from St. Helena, earned contest accolades for the fourth straight year, grabbing Second Place with a shot of green grapes in a vineyard near her home. Both prizes were presented by the California Foundation for Agriculture in the Classroom.
All 12 prize-winning photos were published this week in Ag Alert®, the California Farm Bureau’s weekly newspaper, and California Bountiful®, the organization’s magazine.
Winning images may be viewed and downloaded for publication from Farm Bureau’s “Meet the Winners” profiles here.
The California Farm Bureau works to protect family farms and ranches on behalf of nearly 29,000 members statewide and as part of a nationwide network of 5.3 million Farm Bureau members.