by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Ever since Jenny Seil of Sartell received a Canon 60 D camera a couple of years ago, she’s been taking a lot of photos, and one of them recently earned her an honor in the Munsinger Clemens Botanical Society Photo Contest.
Munsinger and Clemens gardens are the flower gardens in East St. Cloud along the Mississippi River. They attract visitors from a wide area because of their size and extraordinary beauty of hundreds of thousands of green plants and flowers.
Seil’s photo, entitled “Sunlit Shadow,” took second-place in the “Adult Hardscape” category of the contest. “Hardscape” is so named because it allows for other features in the photo other than just flowers or plants (the “Landscape” category).
Seil’s picture is a magnificent play of light as the sun rises at Clemens Gardens behind its tall bronze fountain, with the sunlight dazzling in a million glints on the sheets of falling drops cascading down off of the fountain. The photo evokes morning freshness, excitement, the feeling of a refreshing new beginning as day breaks into full glory.
Seil’s award is the first one she’s ever won for her photographs, the first contest she ever entered.
“Must be beginner’s luck,” she said with a laugh. “I was pretty surprised to win, but I will admit I was proud of myself.”
Seil is a stay-at-home mom who works occasionally as a registered nurse at the St. Cloud Hospital. She and her husband, Matt, have two daughters – Madalyn, 7; and Lillianna, 3.
In the photo contest there were 13 winners – three winners in each of four categories and the “Best of Show” winner, Peter Veljkovich of St. Cloud. The winners are residents of St. Cloud, Cold Spring, Waite Park, Princeton, Milaca and – in Seil’s case – Sartell.
The next contest begins in January with a deadline of November 2016.
This year’s winning photos, including Seil’s, will be on a touring exhibit for the next 12 months: now at the St. Cloud Public Library, December at the St. Cloud Convention Center, January at the St. Cloud Hospital, February at CentraCare Plaza, March at Quiet Oaks Hospice in St. Cloud, April and May at the St. Cloud Whitney Center, June at US Bank in St. Cloud, July at the Paramount Theatre, August and September at St. Cloud Medical Group and October at the Waite Park Library.
This is Jenny Seil’s award-winning photo of the fountain at the Virginia Clemens Gardens in East St. Cloud. The title of the photo is “Sunlit Shadow.”
Jenny Seil of Sartell (left) accepts congratulations from Carol Weiler for winning a prize for her photo (at right). Weiler, also of Sartell, was a judge in the contest.
