About Nicky Hughes

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Nicky Hughes didn't have any grand aspirations when he pulled out his camera during a trip to Colorado last summer. He was visiting his brother at music camp, and found himself outside the Aspen Lodge. He thought he would "just take some pictures of the hummingbirds," and wasn't even aware of the neon bar sign in the background. It was his father who later pointed out the amusing juxtaposition between the "on tap" sign and the birds suckling at the tap of the feeder.

"I thought it was pretty cool," Hughes said, "and maybe kind of lucky."
Hughes, a 16-year-old sophomore at Mid-Peninsula High School, prefers to shoot with a digital camera because he likes to play around with the images. Easier storage is another advantage. Hughes estimates he has 20,000 photographs saved on his computer. If "On Tap" involved an element of luck, it was the well-earned result of persistence.

--Cross Missakian