YONGSAN GARRISON — The U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan community held an Award Ceremony to recognize the winners of the annual 2014 Army Digital Photography Contest, Jan. 28, at Commisky’s Community Activity Center.
The contest, sponsored by the Yongsan Arts & Crafts Center, covered several categories including: animals, design elements, digital darkroom, and many others. According to the Arts & Crafts Center staff, twice as many people participated when compared to the previous year, resulting in an amount of 240 total entries and 24 Garrison winners.
“The inspiration behind my photos this year came from my vacation to Nepal with my husband,” said Samara Stirneman, one of this year’s award winners who has gained recognition through her critically acclaimed photos in several previous contests as well. “Photography really helps me to widen my perspective – the way I look at the world – and I’m really excited to visit new places, as well as the familiar locations to see what I can capture in the future.”
The winners of the contest were presented with certificates and mug cups embellished with the winning stills as mementos by Henry Paul Stuart, deputy garrison commander, U.S. Army Garrison Yongsan,
“To each one of you who took those pictures, I’m awed by what you’ve done,” said Stuart as he faced the crowd. “I am extremely impressed by the time effort and quality of the photography that was entered in this year's contest. It shows that Yongsan photographers have tremendous talent.”
The 24 award-winning photos for this year will be judged in the IMCOM Pacific Army Digital Photography Contest. The ones that receive good scores in that division will have then have the qualifications to enter into the IMCOM G9 Contest, which is on the world-wide scale.
“One of the most interesting things about these events is that you can encounter situations where 8 of the 24 winning photos were produced by two people,” said Kim Un U, the program manager of the USAG Yongsan Arts & Crafts Center. “In other words, talented people are recognized for their gifts and creativity, and it’s very enlightening to see that there are so many not only in the Army, but also in the Yongsan Garrison community.
