Life is full of little moments and big moments; funny moments and profound moments.
Sometimes those moments just come and go. And other times, we can capture them through pictures.
Seymour resident Judy Yost is passing her love for moments onto her two grandchildren, kindergartner Alli Yost and sophomore Cora Strigotte.
Judy has been submitting pictures to the Champaign Camera Club’s Best of Show contest for 15 years. When Cora was around 3 years old, Judy handed her granddaughter the camera.
She’d take photos of dolls or the floor and submit them in the competition, along with her grandma.
“Cora has come a long way,” Judy said. “One year I gave her my old camera because she would just take mine anyway. Or we’d be on vacation, and she’d take my camera and say, ‘I’ll get it.’ ”
“When I was growing up and taking pictures, she would teach me how to hold the camera still and how to focus the camera,” Cora said. “It was the influence that made me want to take pictures.”
Alli began taking photos around the same age as Cora, and began submitting them into the annual competition three years ago.
When Alli submitted her first photo, she won an honorable mention ribbon.
“It was cool to see her win. The judges were surprised she was 3,” Cora said.
Alli’s photo highlighted a pretzel goldfish in a glass full of water.
“We were sitting there talking about it, and said you might as well take a picture if you’re going to talk about it,” Judy said.
With over 26,000 pictures just from her phone, Judy said those moments are just something you capture.
“You see something and you want to capture that moment,” she said. “I even take pictures of other pictures.”
While not everything gets submitted into the contest, the Yost family takes note of those photos they take throughout the year that may be worthy of consideration by the judges.
This year, Cora took photos of her horse, Archer.
Capturing her friend’s face from below, she titled one “‘Sup, Girl” and the other “What you looking at?”
Alli’s dad, Jay Yost, also entered the 2019 competition with his debut submissions, “Death in the Valley” and photos of jellyfish he took during a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium.
Judy’s 2019 submissions included “Grape Expectations,” a picture of her cat checking out grapes on the dining table, “Holland Haze” and “Ex-Race Horses Make Great Friends.”
The group walked away from this year’s judging without ribbons, but Judy said it’s not about winning.
“Sometimes I win and sometimes I don’t. And when you win something or honorable mention, it makes you (excited), and then it sets you up for the next year of failure,” she said.
After a short critique, the judges — who change year to year — offer the contestants encouragement.
“They are the first ones to tell you that if you entered and didn’t win anything, don’t feel bad because it may not be what the judges are looking for,” Judy said. “If you enter a contest in Springfield tomorrow, you may win top honors. So just keep trying.”
The Yosts’ creative hobby has added so much more than ribbons to their lives.
The family visited the Lake of the Woods Forest Preserve for the Fourth of July in 2018. Choosing a place to sit away from the crowd, the Yosts were not able to see the fireworks.
Ashley, Jay’s wife and Alli’s mom, moved to where she could see the fireworks and took a video with her phone.
As Jay, Alli and Julia watched the video, Judy watched her loved ones, and did what she always does: capturing the moment in a photo.
