Student photos tell the story of winter

What’s the photo you would take to tell the story of this winter? Mine might be my 10-month-old grandson bundled and blinking on the lawn during his first snowstorm. If I’m feeling grumpier, it might be of the huge cones of shoveled snow piled on either side of our sidewalk. Or of the potholes arranged like an obstacle course along city streets.

Happily for ThreeSixty’s readers, the 60 high school students who submitted photos for our first photo contest are more creative and upbeat in their imagery for this snowy winter. First-prize winner Xee Vue of Highland Senior High School has a wonderful shot of a boy — a little brother, perhaps? — firing off a snowball at the back of a friend or sibling.

Mary Maruggi, who took second place, captured the long, blue shadows cast by a cluster of birch or poplar trees in late afternoon. Gemma Garcia sent a photo of a mittened girl and flocked tree that packs enough narrative mystery to be a book cover.

I’m proud to have these visual storytellers on our page and grateful to Patricia Canelake, artist and teacher at Highland Park High School in St. Paul, for assigning winter photos to her photo students and encouraging them to enter the ThreeSixty contest. Thanks also to Kate Borman, ThreeSixty’s marketing manager and an artist, for suggesting the contest. And thanks to Kate, ThreeSixty Editor Annie Nelson and photographer Mike Ekern for judging the entries with great care and perception.