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MIDAS hosting photography contest

Participants can enter four categories

The Mid-Iowa Development Association Council of Governments has opened the call for submissions for its 2020 photo contest.

Amateur and professional photographers alike are invited to submit their best and most creative photos showcasing their communities as wonderful places to live, work and play.

Residents of the MIDAS Council of Governments region are eligible to participate. This includes Calhoun, Hamilton, Humboldt, Pocahontas, Webster and Wright counties.

This is the first time MIDAS has held a photography contest.

“We don’t have any stock photos of our communities, so we thought this would be a great way to get a cache of pictures that we can use in marketing materials,” said Kathy Pfiffner, MIDAS executive director.

The contest is open from now through 5 p.m. Sept. 28.

MIDAS is asking for photo entries for four categories: our hometown; arts and education; scenic/landscapes; and recreation/tourism/transit.

“We’d like to get anything that highlights the region or our local communities,” Pfiffner said. “We definitely are looking for pictures of downtown areas, particularly interesting perspectives of downtown. Also anything that is of interest to the region, like local businesses.”

Pfiffner said that although MIDAS operates the two transit systems in the region – Dodger Area Rapid Transit and the Region V Transit System – the organization doesn’t have many good photos of its buses.

Each entrant can submit up to two photos per category, for a maximum of eight photos. Photos must have been taken within the past two years.

Photos with any identifiable persons will need to have a signed consent form included with the submission. An example of the consent form can be requested from the MIDAS office, 515-576-7183.

Photos from both digital cameras and high-resolution smart phones will be accepted and photos may not be edited using a filter.

There is no age requirement to submit entries for the contest.

“We’re going to do a press release when we pick the winners and hopefully we’ve got some amateur photographers out there who we’d like to see compete and it would be a fun exercise for them and it would give us some art that we desperately need,” Pfiffner said.

Entries will be judged on creativity, composition, impression and overall artistic merit as it relates to each category. The winner of each category will receive a $25 Casey’s gift card.

Submitted photos will be used for a variety of promotional and marketing materials for the MIDAS region, Pfiffner said.

“The best ones we want to get mounted and posted in our office as decoration so that we are constantly reminded of the reason why we’re here,” she said.

Entries should be emailed to kpfiffner@midascog.netwith “MIDAS Photo Contest Submission – [Your name/Category]” written in the subject line.

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