By Kathy L. Collins
Kathleen Thorpe of Valrico is an accomplished photographer. For the fourth time, she has entered photographs into the Florida State Fair Fine Art Show, and for the fourth time, Thorpe has come away an exceptional winner.
Of the four entries this year, she received a 1st Place and two 3rd Place ribbons. Overall, Thorpe has won 15 ribbons. Thorpe said, “It’s very gratifying when you hold yourself out to be judged, and you see that people like your work and effort and they reward you for it.”
Thorpe’s 1st Place photograph is a macro close-up of a Day Lilly (flower classification). It is stunning in its color and clarity. What you see in the photograph is in reality no larger that the tip of your pinky finger.
Thorpe’s first 3rd Place photograph was of the Casablanca Inn in St. Augustine (place classification) and the other was of two New Orleans musicians (people classification).
All year long Thorpe takes photographs. Thorpe takes thousands of photographs, but will select only 30 to 35 that she thinks are show quality “When I go out on shoot, I will put something I really like in a specific collection. When it is time to submit entries for the show, I go through them and pull out ones I like. I will then have Jim Sykes of Seffner help me narrow the group down to four,” explained Thorpe.
Entering into a show like the Florida State Fair Fine Art Show takes a lot of time and effort. Once the images are chosen, they must be matted. They cannot be smaller than 8″x10″ or larger than 11″x14″.
After submission in mid-December, artists must wait until the first day of the Fair to find out whether they have won. Thorpe said, “It has been a good experience these last four years. I find it very rewarding.”
