Jones Soda to feature photo by Bainbridge High senior

BHS senior Colin Gremse wasn’t able to attend this past weekend’s awards ceremony for the 2008 Washington State High School Photography competition.

So he got a little surprise on Monday morning.

“When I walked into class, the teacher handed me a bottle with my photo on it,” he said.

The vessel in question was a bottle of Jones grape soda, one of 100,000 to be wrapped in Gremse’s winning digital photo entry, “Swingset.”

Gremse, along with other BHS students from Janet Neuhauser’s and Linda Holsman’s photography classes, submitted his competition entries back in May.

Along with Gremse’s high-profile award, a yearly perk from Jones Soda, BHS came away with the “top team” award, with many students also placing in the top five individual categories.

Gremse counts digital photography as one among many favorite subjects, including American Studies, AP Calculus and Digital Design.

This year’s digital photography classes were actually the first he’d ever taken; in a stroke of beginner’s luck, “Swingset” – taken in the playground of Rolling Bay Presbyterian Church – was the product of his first assignment, to capture something in motion.

He purposely steered away from shooting a person, instead opting to locate the unique design elements in an empty swing moving back and forth.

“My eye has always been very good for design concepts in general, and I have a good sense of what works together and the flow of photos,” he said. “So I had that going in, and I guess it worked.”

Gremse will head to Western Washington University next year, where he’s considering a pre-med track. And while he’s fairly sure his recent wins won’t send him down the path of professional photography, he’ll always enjoy the hobby.

Other top BHS winners this year included Shelby Mann in the portrait category; Danielle Cercone and Attiya Holliyer in abstract; Reggie Peltier in architecture; Danielle Yocum, Ricky Selzer and Reggie Peltier in animals; Mary Herman in the documentary/photo essays; Brittany Wisner and Anneliese Gross in landscape; Julia Kowalski in people; and Danielle Yocum and Maddie Ginder in the color category.

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Winners’ circle

For a complete showing of Bainbridge High winners from the 2008 Washington State High School Photography Competition, see www.kcamera.com.

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