Photo by Jim Muchlinski Jennifer VanKeulen of rural Marshall took top honors in the Marshall Area Fine Arts Council’s 2021 photo contest. She entered a cropped photo that highlights a horse’s face.

MARSHALL — A roadside photo opportunity 10 years ago became a 2021 prize winning photograph for Jennifer VanKeulen.

She photographed a group of horses standing alongside a fence. One photo of two horses was later cropped into a portrait of a horse’s face, and became a decoration at VanKeulen’s farm home in rural Marshall.

This year she decided to enter the photo in the Marshall Area Fine Arts Council’s yearly photo contest. It was named Best of Show, and also placed first among all photos in the category “Rule of Thirds”.

“I’m honored that it was chosen,” VanKeulen said. “There were really good entries in the contest from talented photographers. It’s great to see MAFAC recognize us.”

VanKeulen has entered photo contests before and earned an honorable mention through a contest in the Twin Cities. She has taken senior pictures for students in the Marshall area. She’s also taken photos for Marshall’s youth hockey program.

She works at Hamilton Funeral Home and the Marshall Area YMCA. She’s taking time off from taking photos for others in order to become a life coach, but enjoys looking for interesting photo subjects,

She enjoyed taking the winning photo, and also the editing process that led to a cropped photo which highlights the horse’s eyes, mane, and a tuft of hair on its face.

“I found the horses by chance,” VanKeulen said. “I had my camera, and decided right away to photograph them. They were beautiful animals.”

MAFAC President Cathy Schlagel said VanKeulen horse photo stood out as a skilled approach to an everyday subject.

“I like its simplicity and the way that it’s well balanced,” Schlagel said. “Sometimes an uncomplicated subject leads to great photos.”

The MAFAC photo contest is in its 20th year. It was judged this year by Chelbi Welvaert, owner of Chelbi Lyn Photography in Marshall.

Charles Freiss received two awards in the contest, placing first in the “Explore” category for an entry titled “Cone Field” and second in Rule of Thirds for a photo of Camden State Park.

Jan Loft won second place for Explore with a photo titled “Don’t Be Concerned It’s Art,” a street scene photo from her travels to eastern Europe.

Denise Weedman won the People’s Choice award for the photo “Custer Park Buffalo”.

The group of contest entries will remain on display through next Friday at the MAFAC Arts Center on North Third Street in downtown Marshall. Schlagel said the contest is a popular annual tradition for MAFAC.

“It’s a way to showcase photographers from the local area,” she said. “We always get a nice variety of contest entries. Visitors enjoy seeing what they create.”