A 'Wildlands' Winner
By Joe Keller.
At the start of the summer, I decided I wanted to explore and see more of what Oregon has to offer. After a daring (and unsuccessful) attempt at Broken Top Mountain, I realized I should start with something a little more gentle. I thought, how about a lake trip? Trillium Lake is fairly close to Portland and has beautiful free campsites, so I packed up my gear and headed out. I wasn’t expecting to meet many people on a Tuesday, but I picked up a hitchhiker, made a few friends, shot a few photos, and accidentally slept all night on the shore during my time-lapse (see the time-lapse video below)!
Fast forward a few months later when I got home after work to find a message from my friend. It read: “Hey Joe, you should enter this contest, I think you would do really well in it!” Ok, sweet!
I checked the contest page on Oregon Wild's website and found out the submission deadline was in just over ten minutes! I scrambled through my files to find five suitable images to submit, filled out the form, and got everything together. “Ok,” I thought. “I’m gonna make it!”
Just as I went to submit, however, I realized I still had to pay the $5.00 submission fee...this was a problem. I didn’t even know if I had five bucks in my bank out. I logged into my bank to find out I could - I had $6.00 left! So with one dollar left in my account and four minutes until the contest ended, I made the submission deadline!
In my honest opinion, I didn’t think I’d even be selected for the finals, let alone win the competition, but lo and behold: I won on a whim.