{"id":792307,"date":"2026-07-30T00:13:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T00:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/792307\/"},"modified":"2026-07-30T00:13:09","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T00:13:09","slug":"illinois-students-win-cream-of-the-crop-photography-contest-local-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/792307\/","title":{"rendered":"Illinois students win Cream of the Crop photography contest | Local News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"CreamCrop_2026_CornRows-1024x771.jpeg\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full blur\" width=\"1024\" height=\"771\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>             <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/6a6a806103d3b.image.jpg\" alt=\"\" aria-hidden=\"true\" loading=\"lazy\" height=\"151\" width=\"200\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Abram W., &#8220;Corn Rows&#8221; \u2014 Jacksonville<\/p>\n<p>SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS\/WRSP) \u2014 Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs has announced the winners of the 2026 Cream of the Crop Photography Contest, highlighting young photographers who captured the state\u2019s agricultural landscape.<\/p>\n<p>The contest featured students ages 8 to 18 from across Illinois, with the top nine photographers earning Bright Start 529 college savings scholarships.<\/p>\n<p>First-place winners in each age category will receive a $1,000 scholarship, while second-place winners will receive $500 and third-place winners will receive $250.<\/p>\n<p>The winning photos will be displayed Aug. 13 through Aug. 23 at the Treasurer\u2019s Tent during the Illinois State Fair. Winning entries will also be featured in the 2026-2027 Ag Invest calendar, and first-place photos will be displayed at the Illinois State Treasurer\u2019s Office in downtown Springfield.<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s contest received 152 entries focused on Illinois agriculture.<\/p>\n<p>Winners include:<\/p>\n<p>Ages 8-10:<\/p>\n<p>First Place: Hadley G., &#8220;Hello Brown Eyes&#8221; \u2014 Arenzville<\/p>\n<p>Second Place: Eleanor W., &#8220;Pasture&#8221; \u2014 Jacksonville<\/p>\n<p>Third Place: Skye P., &#8220;Progress&#8221; \u2014 Danville<\/p>\n<p>Ages 11-14:<\/p>\n<p>First Place: Carter S., &#8220;Cutting Wheat&#8221; \u2014 Windsor<\/p>\n<p>Second Place: Graham C., &#8220;Beginning to Sprout&#8221; \u2014 Camargo<\/p>\n<p>Third Place: Jesse S., &#8220;Grain Elevator&#8221; \u2014 Petersburg<\/p>\n<p>Ages 15-18:<\/p>\n<p>First Place: Abram W., &#8220;Corn Rows&#8221; \u2014 Jacksonville<\/p>\n<p>Second Place: Hope N., &#8220;History&#8221; \u2014 Smithton<\/p>\n<p>Third Place: Olivia C., &#8220;We\u2019re Ready&#8221; \u2014 Bunker Hill<\/p>\n<p>Frerichs invited the first-place winners to an Aug. 14 reception during Agriculture Day at the Illinois State Fair.<\/p>\n<p>Click <a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/illinoistreasurer.gov\/home\/financial-institutions\/invest-in-illinois\/ag-invest\/cream-of-the-crop-photo-contest\/photo-winners-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">here<\/a> to view all the winning photos.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abram W., &#8220;Corn Rows&#8221; \u2014 Jacksonville SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WICS\/WRSP) \u2014 Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs has announced the winners&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":792308,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[2342,228,226,227,336710,336711,336707,229,88,5629,336708,336712,171084,46344,336709],"class_list":["post-792307","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-agriculture","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-bright-start-529","tag-college-savings","tag-cream-of-the-crop","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-illinois","tag-illinois-state-fair","tag-michael-frerichs","tag-photography-contest","tag-scholarships","tag-student-winners"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792307","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=792307"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/792307\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/792308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=792307"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=792307"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=792307"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}