By Stephanie Yrungaray | [email protected]

What started as a search for historical photos turned into a contest awarding Bluffdale residents for their excellent local pictures. 

When Kristan Jansen, assistant manager for The Bluffs Apartment, was looking for historical artwork for the newly remodeled leasing office she contacted Bluffdale city offices. 

“I told her I could get some,” said Natalie Hall, emergency program manager for Bluffdale. “Then we started discussing the idea of getting photos from local areas around Bluffdale and came up with the idea of doing a photo contest.”

Bluffdale city officials contributed to the contest by spreading word on their social media, and by the May 24 deadline there were more than 150 entries. 

“Each picture was so different,” said Jansen. “We had photographs of flowers, wildlife landscapes and families. There were so many, and they definitely exceeded our expectation.” 

Jansen, Hall and another employee of The Bluffs decided four winners from the entries. Each winner received a cash award. 

Fifteen-year-old Konrad Clements has been interested in photography for years but got more serious about it when he received a camera last year as a gift. His mom, Ericka, heard about the photography contest and convinced him to enter a picture he had taken of a long-horn steer that lives down the street from them in Bluffdale. 

“We used to drive past them all the time, and I always wanted photograph them,” said Clements. 

Clements said he couldn’t believe it when he found out his photo was chosen as one of the four winners. 

“I didn’t think it was going to win,” said Clements, “It was pretty exciting to find out they chose it. Now that I know that some of my photos are pretty good and I have a chance, I think it would be fun to enter more contests.” 

The winning photographs are printed and hung in the The Bluffs Apartment leasing office. Jansen said they hope to add more local photography in the future. 

“We absolutely plan to make [the contest] a yearly thing,” Jansen said.