2026 06 Wisconsin State Fair Amateur Photography Contest

 Every year the Wisconsin State Fair holds an Amateur Photography Contest. There are approximately 120 categories available but an individual photographer can only enter 40. This year there were over 3,300 photographs submitted for judging in the 120 categories, meaning an average of 28 photos per category. The judges (of which there are 7) can award 4 places in each category. 

Here are the results from the competition on June 23rd.

2nd Place

Rolling Hills and Farmland

Dairy White

Repetition In Nature

Rust

4th Place

Transportation, Air, Land

Mystery Placement

We are pretty sure this picture placed but we did not hear where so we will need to wait for the fair

Patina

DID NOT PLACE (or as we call it, 5th Place)

Spring Bloom Purple

Stump

Fair

Animals, Dogs

Botanical, Fungi/Mushrooms

Beach

Animals, Reptiles, Amphibians

Botanical, Trees, Bark, Shrubs

Cameras, as Still Life or In Use

Cacti and Succulents

Boulders

Chairs, Benches

Clouds

Circles

Churches, Historic

Collector Cars

Glow

Geometric shapes

Eyes

Insects, Not Butterflies or Moths

Portrait, Head Shot Only

Leaves

Landscapes at National Park

Rest and Relaxation

Windows

Water

Transportation, Ships, Boats, Watercraft

Transportation, Air, Land

Tombstone

Patriotic, Stars & Stripes

Spiral

Signs, Street, etc.

Shadows

Stained Glass

2026 06 Sense of Place: A Photo–Encaustic Workshop with Sarah Rehmer

Sense of Place: A Photo–Encaustic Workshop

June 12-14, 2026

Schedule: 9am-4pm Fri-Sun

Instructor: Sarah Rehmer

Thursday, June 11, 2026

Today I left for a workshop with Sarah Rehmer at Shake Rag Alley in Mineral Point, WI. I took advantage of the day by heading to Readstown, WI, where there are two indoor Crazy Frank's Flea Markets. There is also an additional indoor flea market next the Crazy Frank's on Hwy. 61 that I shopped. It can be said that some things were bought.

This time I am staying at the Mineral Point Hotel with the always entertaining owner John. Unfortunately Commerce Street from the Longbranch Gallery all the way down to the railroad museum is under construction. It made getting to the hotel a challenge but I managed to put on my big boy pants and get in with my luggage. 

Sarah Rehmer

Friday, June 12 to Sunday, June 14, 2026

We began bright and early on the 12th with our class, Sense of Place: A Photo–Encaustic Workshop. Here is the course description: "Capture the unique architecture of Mineral Point, and Shake Rag Alley’s gardens, and explore the dialogue between photography and wax. This workshop gives you time and space to capture the visually interesting—to use the landscape as both subject and material. We will transform images through the luminous depth of encaustic. Photograph aged wood, historic buildings, and natural light, learning to see how surface and shadow tell a story. Back in the studio, those images become the foundation for layered encaustic works where translucency, color, and mark-making merge. Using image transfer, transparent glazes, and mixed-media embedding, build pieces that evoke the clarity of the photograph and the softness of memory—where image, wax, and light reveal the subtle intersections of observation and transformation."

This was a fun workshop for me because my normal experience is to be project based. Having no dog in the fight, this workshop was about re-learning the process of encaustic--not about coming home with a finished work of fine art. 

On Sunday we all gathered together in the afternoon to see what everyone had made. Here are the results:

Sarah's Class Samples

Helen

Brian

Barbara

Mara

Theresa

Karen

Katherine

My Pieces

Experiment with Black and White Photograph with Drawn Background

Transfer on Paper

Photograph Enhanced with Oil Stick

Photograph with Background Using Oil Stick

All the Techniques

I want to thank Sarah Rehmer, Shake Rag Alley and all my workshop friends for a fun weekend making encaustic art.