Picture This!
By Scott Daniels
Prize-Winning Photographs From The 'Wonderful World of Scouting'
 Grand Prize: Mark D. Doiron, Troop 275 Assistant Scoutmaster, Midwest, Okla., Last Frontier Council. The Rose State College Aquatic Center in Midwest City, Okla., provides Mark Doiron an unusual setting for this group shot of Last Frontier Council Scouts working toward their BSA snorkeling certification. |
Tired of taking that same, predictable group shot of your boys at a Scouting event? Mark Doiron was. The assistant Scoutmaster of Troop 275 in Midwest City, Okla., threw cold water on the traditional lineup when he photographed this group of Last Frontier Council Scouts. The boys struck a submerged pose
during their BSA snorkeling certification class in preparation to visit the BSA’s Florida National High Adventure Sea
Base.
The judges unanimously chose this whimsical underwater shot for the Grand Prize in Scouting magazine’s “Wonderful World of Scouting” photo contest.
Doiron characterizes himself as an “extremely avid amateur photographer,” who chronicles many
of Troop 275’s activities as well as those of his Venturing crew. For his winning photograph, he used a Canon A95 digital camera inside an underwater housing.
And Doiron isn’t the only prize-winning shutterbug in the family. Two years ago, his son Curtis won an Honorable Mention in the magazine’s biennial photo contest.
Registered adult leaders submitted nearly 900 photographs for this year’s competition. Judges from the magazine’s staff included John R. Fulton Jr., photo director; Edna Lemons, photo editor; Scott Daniels, managing editor; Kathy Vilim DaGroomes, associate editor; Elizabeth Hardaway Morgan, senior art director; and Sherry Cole, assistant to the managing editor.
Prize winners received BSA Supply Group gift certificates as follows: Grand Prize—$400; First Prize—$300; Second Prize—$200; Third Prize— $100; Honorable Mention—$25.
Check Scouting’s May-June issue for details about our next reader competition, “Great Tastes in Camp Cooking,” a recipe contest open to all registered adult Scouters.
The winning photographs from this year’s contest, plus the top entries from the magazine’s annual reader competitions back to 1998 (on subjects that include photography, camping recipes, cartoon captions, and personal essays) are available on the magazine’s Web site: www.scoutingmagazine.org.
 1st Place: Dennis Kuba, Troop 602, Committee Member, Newhall, Calif., Western Los Angeles County Council. In their first whitewater experience, Troop 602 Scouts from Newhall, Calif., raft the Kern River near Kernville, Calif. |
 2nd Place: Jim Thomas, Pack 3538, Assistant Den Leader, Leawood, Kan., Heart of America Council. Alex Moffet reacts with joy at receiving his Tiger Cub badge during a Pack 3538 Cub Scout meeting in Overland Park, Kan. Alex's dad, Rick, participates with his son in this first step on the Scouting program trail. |
 3rd Place: Gregory Roush, M.D., Troop 60 Committee Member, Boardman, Ohio, Greater Western Reserve Council. Troop 60 Scout Christopher Leymarie of Boardman, Ohio, views a crescent-phase planet Venus in conjunction with a crescent moon through a telescope while studying for the Astronomy merit badge at Seven Ranges Scout Reservation. |
 Honorable Mention: Richard Kroll, District Commissioner, Greendale, Wis., Milwaukee County Council. With towering cumulus clouds above, two Scouts paddle across Hardwood Lake at the Milwaukee County Council’s LeFeber Northwoods Camps in Lanona, Wis. |
 Honorable Mention: Paul Shrawder, Troop 349 Committee Chairman, Fort Wayne, Ind., Anthony Wayne Area Council. Quentin Beahrs, Brad Sir Louis, Austin Valade, and Brian Shrawder brace beneath a frigid spring-fed waterfall during a break from canoeing on Matinenda Lake north of Blind River, Ontario, Canada. |
 Honorable Mention: Charles W. Johnson, Troop 118 Committee Member, Charlotte, N.C., Mecklenburg County Council. Troop 118 Scout Zach Onstot takes a sunrise view across Lake Calhoun at Camp Grimes. The Mecklenburg County Council Scout camp is near Marion, N.C. |
 Honorable Mention: Carol Kennedy, Troop 417 Assistant Scoutmaster, Thornton, Colo., Denver Area Council. Scouters of Troop 164, Quinter, Kan., sleep in tepees under a full moon at the Dane G. Hansen Scout Reservation in the Coronado Area Council. |
 Honorable Mention: Darcie Helbig, Troop 524 Committee Chairman, Zebulon, N.C., Occoneechee Council. An Order of the Arrow calling-out ceremony takes place during the Neuse River District spring camporee in Louisburg, N.C. |
 Honorable Mention: Nick Helmore, Troop 840 Assistant Scoutmaster, Richmond, Va., Heart of Virginia Council. Troop 840 slogs through the Virgin River water trail on a three-mile hike in the Zion Narrows of Zion National Park in Utah. |
 Honorable Mention: Jim Minner, Troop 787 Assistant Scoutmaster, Summerville, S.C., Coastal Carolina Council. Life Scout Parker Moore of Troop 787 goes “rump-bumping” down Webster Brook near Grand Lake Matagamon at the BSA’s Maine High Adventure Area. |
 Honorable Mention: Debi Brooks, Pack 226 Committee Member and Cubmaster, Simi Valley, Calif., Western Los Angeles County Council. Tiger Cub Tyler Brooks of Pack 226, Simi Valley, Calif., attends the opening ceremony of the Memorial Day Flag Placement project. Hundreds of Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts annually place U.S. flags on graves of the veterans buried at the Los Angeles National Cemetery. |
 Honorable Mention: Eric W. Valentine, Troop 514 Assistant Scoutmaster, La Grande, Ore., Blue Mountain Council. Rays of sunshine filter through the fog and illuminate Tyler Tucker and Tomas Ely of Troop 514, La Grande, Ore., as they work on their Canoeing merit badge at Camp Meriwether in the Cascade Pacific Council. |
 Honorable Mention: Blake Ball, Pack 24 Assistant Cubmaster, Clayton, N.C., Tuscarora Council. Cub Scout Chad Sprouse of Pack 24 lines up his pinewood derby racer at the top of the track for the Neusiok District championship. |
 Honorable Mention: Denise Thomas, Pack 125 Committee Chair, Fairview, Okla., Cimarron Council. Six-year-old Tiger Cub Andrew Thomas proudly shows off his first catch of the day during a fishing derby. |
 Honorable Mention: Patrick Cryan, Venturing Crew 9 Associate Advisor, Pawcatuck, Conn., Narragansett Council. Fifteen hundred feet short of reaching Mount Washington’s summit in New Hampshire, Venturing Crew 9 abandons its goal due to extreme cold and high wind. The mountain is site of some of the nation’s harshest winter weather. |
 Honorable Mention: Steve Powers, Troop 393 Committee Member, Merriam, Kan., Heart of America Council. Pack 3493 Webelos Scout Michael Neal leans in for a close-up view of a spider spinning its intricate web. |
 Honorable Mention: David Andersen, Troop 66 Committee Member, Smithfield, Utah, Trapper Trails Council. Scouts working on the Pioneering merit badge cross a monkey bridge they built on the Monte Cristo Plateau of the Cache National Forest in Utah. |
 Honorable Mention: Scott Bray, Pack 326 Committee Member, Grass Lake, Mich., Great Sauk Trail Council. Webelos leader Paul Good commemorates Cub Scout Pack 326’s attendance at Camp Munhacke’s resident camp in Gregory, Mich., using a flashlight and the camera’s long time exposure. |