Photo wins contest for local woman

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Lazy summer nap: Angie Carter of Rock Island won the grand prize for the Tennessee Farm Bureau News’ photo contest with this picture of her twin boys. A friend of the family submitted her photo of Hayden, left and Holden, this summer.

Angie Carter was just mowing the lawn one day last summer, but when she saw her twin, 3-year-old boys sleeping together on a swing, she couldn’t resist.

Something about the way Hayden and Holden were sleeping touched Carter, who would have normally continued mowing. She ran inside to get her camera and snapped a quick photograph, never thinking anything about a photo contest.

But a family friend spotted the photograph later and thought it worthy enough to send to the Tennessee Farm Bureau News’ photo contest. Joan Milstead submitted the photograph, where it joined more than 700 others from across the state for judging.

Milstead was recently informed the picture won when she received a letter in the mail. She learned not only was it a winner, but it was chosen as the grand prize winner. Milstead was credited with taking the photograph, but it was actually Carter who captured the moment that hot, summer day.

Milstead received a check for $100 and said she plans to give it to the Carter family. Carter, who is not a professional photographer, said winning the contest was just a fluke.

“I was mowing the yard and I thought, ‘How sweet.’ I ran inside and grabbed the camera and took the picture,” she said. “I told my mom, ‘If this turns out, that’s going to be a cute picture,'” she added.

Carter said she learned the photograph had won at church.

“I didn’t know it had won until somebody at church said they saw my children’s picture in the Farm Bureau paper,” she added.

The photograph was featured among other winners in the paper’s magazine, Tennessee Home and Farm Illustrated, which came out in December. Angie is married to Greg Carter and the family lives in Rock Island.