Scenic Portrait winners announced

The 2018 Scenic Portrait contest winners were announced at Casa on Sunday afternoon. There were about 30 different entrants this year, with top three standing out from the pack.

The winning team this year was photographer Crystal Kimberley, model Darien Vixton, hairstylist Kimberley Deschamps and makeup artist Erin Romero. They won for their image entitled “Untapped Freedom,” which had Vixton elegantly atop a horse with a beautiful mountain vista in the background.

Kimberley said the photo was the result of a lot of hard work, but also a happy accident.

“We were getting ready to put the horses back into the trailer when Darien said let’s go over by the retaining wall and take some pictures over there,” she said. “The results were well worth it in the end.”

Vixton said the experience for her and her team members was a great one for all of them.

“I feel everybody involved with this competition wins in a way because everybody got to do the whole process and got to go to different places and do their own style of shoot,” she said. “I know our team did a lot of hard work, and put a lot of hard work into this. It was a big process; so it was a good feeling to win.”

The second place winners this year for their portrait “Restless” were Steven Layton, Natasha Yorganson and Kristen Mrazek. Third place winners for their portrait “Take Me To Heaven For I Have Sinned” were Kimberley Ann McQuaid, Hope Alice Hardy and Janay Delany Payent.

The top three winners will be on display at an exhibition at Casa in February 2019.