Best of Show Winner: Leah Goetzel Title: “40 Acres of Water”

Leah Goetzel took her first photography class last year as a sophomore at Austin High School. When her dad, Dwayne, a UT Law School Alumnus, sent her the link to the Texas Exes Austin Chapter’s H2Orange photo contest she jumped at the chance to participate. Leah, whose interests include languages (French and Spanish), writing and photography knew she wanted to capture the H2Orange bottle on the South Mall. With some help from her dad (he threw the bottle), Leah captured a compelling image of the bottle flying over the Littlefield fountain which earned our Best of Show prize including a Darrell Royal, Earl Campbell autographed football. “The big challenge was getting the logo in the shot,” says Leah, “and we got some funny looks while my Dad was throwing the bottle.” Congratulations to Leah for taking home our top honor!

Sports Winner: Katherine and Michael Fan Title of "Bowling for the Championships"

Katherine and Michael Fan met while attending school at UT. Katherine was finishing her undergraduate degree as a photojournalism major and Michael was attending law school. The Fans love UT football and were eager to showcase their newly acquired case of H2Orange. Michael, inspired by his desire to see the Longhorns bring another Bowl championship home soon thought of using the H2Orange bottles as bowling pins. The idea for “cantaloupe bowling” was born. “Cantaloupes, although pleasantly orange on the inside (just like us), are not perfectly round (again, just like us)! So in order to get a successful bowling shot, we had to do a couple dozen takes. While the cantaloupe survived multiple rolls, some of the bowling pins suffered a bit from our enthusiasm and started leaking around the clock tower,” explained Katherine Fan. No scores were given on the actual bowling.

Humorous Winner: David Pritchard Title: “I wonder if UT will ever offer an obedience school scholarship?"

David Pritchard has a BFA in studio art, but his day job is working as a business analyst in the financial services industry. David picked up digital photography as a “means of achieving an artistic outlet.” David is quick to give Bosco, his chocolate lab, all the credit for his winning photo. “I’d like to say there was some ethereal artistic process by which the idea for this H2Orange shot came to me. The reality was that we were spending a sweltering 4th of July weekend on our ranch, when Bosco walked over and picked up the water bottle, plopping down to chew it open to get a drink. The only thing I can take credit for is having my camera available,” he said. “I can appreciate the benefits of scholarship money. An everyday purchase, such as bottled water can contribute to the academic success of fellow longhorns should make this an easy decision for all participate.”

Creative Winner: Brigitte Balogh Title: “Change for the Future”

After several years of working in testing and business analysis in the data warehousing and mobile applications industry, Brigitte Balogh returned to The University of Texas at Austin. She just finished her Masters of Arts in Advertising, and this Texas girl is headed north to Michigan State University in pursuit of a Doctor of Philosophy in Media & Information Studies. Fortunately she took time send in her H2Orange photo contest entry. She heard about the H2Orange contest via email and knew her "penny bank" idea fit with the concept. She set out to build the Main building with coins to enhance the picture and not just leave a tower bottle sitting solitary in the middle of a map. Brigitte says “minor challenges in creating the image were the angle and the amount of coins.” Apparently the judges liked it, awarding Brigitte the Creative photo winner.