Calling All Photographers: Ray’s Weather 2023 Blue Ridge Calendar Photo Contest Has Begun

By Harley Nefe

Over the past 20 years, Ray’s Weather Center has sponsored a photo contest and calendar featuring photos from their forecast region, and this year, they are striving to make their best calendar yet.

The photo contest has already kicked off, as it opened on February 15, which is much earlier than usual. 

“We’re just trying to expand,” said Ray Russell of Ray’s Weather Center. “We have a great product, and we’re just trying to give ourselves the opportunity to expand the market for it.”

Russell talked about one of the biggest limitations they have faced in regards to retail outlets and the reasoning behind the earlier schedule.

“Retailers have already made their decision for most of the products for next winter, so even getting a calendar out by June 1st is late in the game for most of those folks, but it will help us get it to more retail outlets and just broaden the ability for us to get this thing out,” Russell said. “It’s a first class product. It deserves a bigger market out there, so we’re going to do it now and start the process and try to have this thing out by June.”

In addition to starting the process sooner, Ray’s Weather is also adding more months to the product and changing it to be a 16-month calendar.

“So, if somebody wants to buy it, they can hang it up by September 1, 2022 and use it as a calendar until December 2023,” Russell explained.

The production of the calendar is once again in partnership with the Blue Ridge Conservancy. 

“They got a dollar for every calendar that we sold, and we plan to do that again,” Russell said. “We just plan to sell a lot more calendars.”

Last year, Ray’s Weather Center donated $2,500 to the Blue Ridge Conservancy.

“It’s fun,” Russell said. “We got it started, and hopefully, we’ll have as big of a success as we did last year. We sold them out the last two years in a row, and so we’re going to be more ambitious this time, and hopefully, we’ll have the same result as far as selling them out.”

As far as the photo contest that is currently taking place, the 2023 Blue Ridge Calendar will feature photographs of the different seasons taking place anywhere in the Southern Appalachians (SW Virginia to SW North Carolina) and Foothills. 

“We think there is real value in being a crowd-sourced calendar,” Russell said. “We are able to capture events just as they occur and a wider variety of things.”

Last year, there were around 650 photo submissions.

“They were all so good,” Russell described. “We literally, and I’m not exaggerating when I say this, we could have made five calendars out of those photos just as good as the one we put out.”

The deadline for this year’s photo contest is March 1st, so now is the time to “hit them with your best shot” as Ray’s Weather Center advertises.

“Every year we have professional photographers submit,” Russell said. “But we also have semi-professionals and hobbyists who get in, and then we have people who are not photographers, but they had their cell phone at the right place at the right time that snapped the shot, and it got in the calendar.”

He further said that they enjoy receiving photos from a variety of people. 

“Every year there are teenagers who win all the way up to retirees who win,” Russell said. “We had a great reception last year for all of the photographers, and people talked about their photos.” 

Russell continued to describe that there have been tears shed at previous receptions. 

“Some of the photos were so meaningful to all of these folks,” Russell said. “When you really dive into this thing, they really become an extension of who they are. For example, one of our photographers had lost a son and had been out taking photography, and he had a pretty bad day, and he was driving back home, and all of a sudden in his rearview mirror he saw the sun just beaming down through the trees. I call them glory shots when you get the sun rays beaming through something like that, and he saw it in the rearview mirror. He stopped his truck, he got out and got the photo that just came out of nowhere for him, and it wound up being in the calendar, and the glory shot made him feel like his son was with him that day, and that’s just one story.”

According to Ray’s Weather Center, here’s how the contest and production works: 

• The contest is open for submissions through March 1, 2022. A photographer may submit up to three photos in each season.
• Between March 2 and March 5, the judges will meet for the difficult process of selecting 20 finalists in each season. The criteria includes: highest quality photography, include as many photographers as possible, include flora, fauna, activities, diverse geography, diverse subjects, and uniqueness of scenes. 
• From March 6 to March 16, the finalists from each season will be available for the public to tell Ray’s Weather Center which are the favorites. People can vote every day if they wish.
• Beginning March 17, the judges have their toughest job–selecting the winners. This year, there will be 16 “month winners” and one Grand Prize Cover Photo Winner. During the following couple weeks, 30-40 “Best of the Rest” winners will be selected as well for inclusion in the calendar in cameo roles.
• From late-March to mid-April, Ray’s Weather Center will be researching other calendar content, and their graphic designer will be pulling it all together. Then in mid-late April, they ship the massive file off to the printer. Their goal is to have printed calendars in their office by June 1.
• As in previous years, Ray’s Weather Center will have a pre-publication sale. That period of discounted pricing will be in late-May or early June this year. They plan to hold the line on calendar pricing this year (no price increase).

There will be different levels of prizes given out to the photo contest winners. According to Ray’s Weather Center, the Grand Prize Winner (selected for the calendar cover) will receive a $200 RaysMarketplace.Com gift certificate and a $200 cash prize; the 16 “Month Winners” will receive a $100 RaysMarketplace.Com gift certificate, and the “Best of the Rest Winners” will receive two free calendars.

For more information and to enter photos into the contest, please visit https://booneweather.com/Photo+Contest 

Below were the selected winners of the 2022 Blue Ridge Calendar Photo Contest. Photos courtesy of Ray’s Weather Center.