© 1998 Palo Alto Online. All Rights Reserved.
Jordy Mont-Reynaud doesn't consider himself much of an outdoorsman.
So he wasn't exactly thrilled when his mom asked him to go hiking a few months ago. "My mom dragged me on a hike, and I don't like hiking."
That hike, however, could be the impetus for a promising pastime. While on it, he snapped off "Deer Impressions," which earned Mont-Reynaud a special youth award in the Weekly's photo contest.
Mont-Reynaud, a 14-year-old student at Gunn High School, took up photography less than two years ago, when a friend loaned him a camera.
Eventually, another friend sold him a camera he could call his own. Since then, he has taken hundreds of pictures and two photography classes at Gunn.
As for his winning photo, Mont-Reynaud speaks modestly, saying it was more an accident than an inspiration. "It was pretty early, around nine or 10," he said. "The light was coming in in weird places. I just grabbed my camera and shot it."
The photo shows vibrant bursts of light shining through the tangled trees, a varied depth to the image and a lone deer in the middle of the show.
He didn't use any special filters or techniques. The photo came together by using a zoom lens and taking the shot from an uphill perspective.
Mont-Reynaud is not a stranger to photo contests. In addition to the Weekly's competition, he entered "Deer Impressions" in a contest at Hidden Villa in Los Altos Hills, where he won a junior award.
--Jennifer Cole
© 1998 Palo Alto Online. All Rights Reserved.