By Paul T. Choate
Sept. 14, 2012. The High Country’s most well known resource for weather, Ray’s Weather, has recently announced the winners of the annual Ray’s Weather Calendar photo contest. As was the case in 2011, the Blue Ridge Parkway will be the theme for the calendar.
To view all the photos, click to raysweather.com/photo+album/2013+Calendar+Contest+Winners.
According to the Ray’s Weather website, this year the contest received 511 entries. A winter scene photographed by Monty Combs was chosen as the cover photo.
The season-themed photos for the 12 months of the year came from Jeff Burcher, January; Kelly Gibson, February; Matt Bennett, March; Wayne Anders, April; Amy Thorneloe, May; Dale Carlson, June; Victor Ellison, July; John Haldane, August; Brenda Combs, September; Ed Young, October; David Cook, November; and Sharon Canter, December.
There can be only one winning photo per photographer. The photos are chosen based on four criteria, which include the voting results, the image quality, the region and scene diversity and the uniqueness of the scene.
“Every year it seems that quality of the photographs gets better, making selection of winners harder,” reads the Ray’s Weather website.
In addition to the 13 winners, Jeff Silkstone, Danny Redd, Michelle Maloney and Nicole Roinson had photos chosen as the “Best of the Rest,” the contest’s honorable mentions.
Congratulations to all these skilled photographers on capturing the Blue Ridge Parkway so well.