Iowa DOT Transportation Photo Contest - 2025

So, it's been a weird few days with photography stuff!

I heard a few days ago that I had received an award in our city's Water & Pollution Control Department's photography contest. This morning, I received an email asking if I would sell them the framed photo that had hung during the exhibition, to be hung in a new Pollution Control building:

Weird, right?

I don't usually actually get prints made of photos that I enter in contests, other than ones where they just compete and aren't available for purchase, so this is the first time I've sold an actual printed and framed photo of mine. It will officially go into the city's Public Art collection, too; as I was a commissioner on the city's Public Art Commission for the full two terms allowed and chair for part of that, this feels kind of cool! Especially since there are real artists there, and I get to sneak in the back door.

Then - as background, I got a Mini in British racing green this winter, and my college-themed license plates and Union Jack license plate covers just clash terribly. It's a lot. As such, I'd requested to change to blackout plates a few months back. I'd gotten a letter in the interim that the license plate THAT I CURRENTLY HAVE was already taken (I'm aware), so I was surprised when I got a large, manilla envelope in the mail from the state's DOT department. Assuming it was the license plate they'd denied me, I opened it and was surprised when this all fell out... especially since I'd honestly sort of forgotten that I'd entered back in January:

With a great dose of irony, I love that our governor's name is across the top. Since I've actively lit her up on social media for terrible, harmful policies (in particular to the children/schools of our state), I'm going to guess she would not love her name being represented on a letter for the ungrateful likes of me. I mean, if she knew at all who I was.

"AI, please obfuscate/remove my last name. ...Yep, looks perfect."

Here is the original photo:

I have actively tried to curl my tongue like that, and I don't think I can.

It wasn’t a humble brag or anything cheesy to say that I had sort of forgotten; the entry process was so easy that it just fell out of awareness. If you haven’t entered in the past, try it out next year!

The website listed in the letter (LINK) does not appear yet to have the 2025-26 gallery up, nor does their social media have announcements yet, but it's sort of cool that the photos will be posted across the state! That is also the website where you can enter next year.