Powell student wins Dakota College at Bottineau photo contest

Posted 3/16/21

A Powell High School student dominated the field in the Dakota College at Bottineau photography program’s annual high school photo contest. Triniti Bruski won the recent competition by a wide …

This item is available in full to subscribers.

Please log in to continue

E-mail
Password
Log in

Powell student wins Dakota College at Bottineau photo contest

Posted

A Powell High School student dominated the field in the Dakota College at Bottineau photography program’s annual high school photo contest. Triniti Bruski won the recent competition by a wide margin, earning both a Canon camera and a $500 Dakota College at Bottineau (DCB) scholarship.

Out of the record 214 entries submitted from five different states, Bruski landed four shots within the top 25 — being the only contestant to achieve the feat.

“It was amazing that she won,” said Bruski’s mother, Kam, adding, “We screamed a lot.”

Bruski’s winning photographs included shots of an ocean sunset, Arizona’s famed Antelope Canyon, icy crystals on a plant and a tortoise munching on some vegetation. In revealing the contest results during a live Facebook event earlier this month, DCB photography instructor Clint Saunders gave the shots high marks.

For instance, Saunders called her black-and-white photograph of the frost “just absolutely stunning.” The ocean sunset was also pretty, Saunders said, “but it’s just the balance — we’ve got this just beautiful asymmetrical balance between the rock formations and the seagull flying up here.”

He similarly complimented the lighting, texture, tonal range and the “wonderful, wonderful angle” of Bruski’s Antelope Canyon photo.

All three of those shots have been printed and will remain on display until May 14 in Thatcher Hall on the DCB campus in Bottineau, North Dakota. (The town is about 10 miles south of the Canadian border.)

“Every year I’m blown away by the quality of the images we receive in this contest,” Saunders said. “We have some seriously talented high school students out there, and we love being able to showcase their work in our annual contest.”

Seven judges had the challenge of choosing the top 25 entries for the exhibit and the three prize winners, the college explained in a news release. Each judge chose their favorite images in multiple rounds, with photos receiving a point each time they were picked; the photos with the most points were then ranked and their photographers declared the winners.

“Due to the high quality and diversity of the photos, the final judging was very close,” Saunders said, with ties putting 32 images in the top 25. Bruski, however, was a standout: She outpaced the runner-up by 15 points — the same spread that separated the second through 21st-place finishers, Saunders said.

With DCB’s annual contest growing, Canon joined as a sponsor this year, donating a Canon EOS 70D DSLR camera with EF 16-35 mm f2.8L II lens. Saunders said he and the college’s studio manager joked that “we should have entered the contest just for the lens Canon donated.”

That camera and lens are now going to Bruski, who is a senior at Powell High School.

Comments