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Printer-Friendly ModeVanguard photographer earns national honor
January 15, 2008 —
Graphic design junior and Valley Vanguard photographer Adam Baudoux has won an honorable mention in an international photography competition hosted by National Geographic.
Baudoux's photograph, pictured above, earned an honorable mention in the landscape category of the competition. There were over 143,000 submissions in all categories, with a first-place winner and 20 honorable mentions for each category.
The photo was captured on the beach in the coastal down of Wells Beach, Maine during a mid-October sunrise. Baudoux says the brilliant color in the photo is caused by the water reflecting the sky, which as night fades is turning into a deep blue. The hazy effect of the water on the rocks is more complicated, though.
"I was playing around with a long shutter speed all weekend, so there's some real subtle waves coming in, crashing into the rocks, going over the rocks. It gave it a really hazy effect," he explained.
Baudoux has always been into photography, but he didn't get serious about it until he bought his first Digital Self-Reflex Lens camera, a Nikon D50.
"Finally talked mom into letting me get one," he joked. "I got kind of sick of my point and shoot."
His transition from a mere hobbyist into something more began with his interest in racing.
One of his uncles races off-road trucks professionally, so he started shooting the races.
That's when Baudoux first realized that photography was becoming more than a hobby for him.
"It's something about capturing the action. Being able to capture it and freeze it, and being able to show somebody 'this is what happened,' really paints a picture, and I like to be able to do that," he says.
After joining the Vanguard staff in 2007, Baudoux quickly realized that photography could be profitable, as well as personally fulfilling.
After building his portfolio with the student newspaper, Baudoux found more opportunities to shoot in professional and semi-professional environments, including shooting for the Detroit Lions.
"People started asking me to shoot stuff, and then they started paying me to do it, and it's been kind of cool."